Multiplayer Piano

What it is

Multiplayer Piano is an 88-key piano that everyone on the page plays at once. Open it and you land in a room with a handful of strangers, each with a colored name tag, and the keys light up in their colors as they play. Sometimes it is a real pianist running through something beautiful. Sometimes it is three people mashing the low notes. Either way, you can join in from your keyboard or a MIDI instrument, and there is a chat running underneath.

How to play

Turn your sound on. The rows of your computer keyboard are mapped to the notes, so you can play immediately, or plug in a MIDI keyboard for the full instrument. Press play, pick a name and a color, and start. New room makes a room of your own, play alone gives you the piano to yourself, and sound select swaps the piano for other instrument sounds. There is a synth panel, a record-to-audio button, and a crown that marks who owns the room.

What makes it different

It is a shared instrument, not a shared recording. Everything you hear is happening now, from people you cannot see, and the keyboard lighting up in someone else's color while you play is a small, strange kind of company. The lobby had eight or nine people in it, which is the whole point.

Why it is on Bored

A piano that strangers play at the same time as you. Everything you hear is being played right now by people you cannot see, and the keys lighting up in someone else's color while you play is a small, strange kind of company. It works as a toy for a minute and as a hangout for an hour. One caution: the public chat is unmoderated, so it is not the room to leave a child in.

Tips

• Start in play alone to learn the key mapping, then join the lobby
• Make your own room if you want to play with someone you know
• Lower the volume before you enter, the lobby can be loud
• Try the other sounds under sound select

FAQ