A player piano is a piano that plays music by itself. It uses air-powered or electricity-powered systems to move the piano’s keys, guided by paper or metal rolls with holes. Modern player pianos use a system called MIDI. These pianos became popular in the late 1800s and early 1900s as more homes had pianos made in large numbers. Sales were highest in 1924 but then decreased because better electrical music recordings became available in the mid-1920s. The invention of radios that could play louder music also made player pianos less popular. The economic crisis of 1929 nearly stopped the production of player pianos entirely.
History
The first practical pneumatic piano player, called the "Pianola" and made by the Aeolian Company, was invented in 1896 by Edwin S. Votey. It became widely used in the 20th century. The name "pianola" became a common term for player pianos because of this invention. The Pianola used a fully pneumatic system: foot-operated bellows created a vacuum to power a motor that controlled the take-up spool. Small air holes in the paper roll were amplified in two stages to create enough force to strike piano keys.
Votey promoted the Pianola heavily with full-page color advertisements. It was first sold for $250, and later cheaper versions were introduced. A standard 65-note format developed, with rolls 11 and 1/4 inches wide (290 mm) and holes spaced six per inch. However, some manufacturers used different roll designs that were not compatible with others.
By 1903, the Aeolian Company had over 9,000 roll titles in its catalog, adding 200 new titles each month. Many companies offered thousands of rolls, mostly featuring light, religious, or classical music, with ragtime also included.
Melville Clark added two important features to player pianos: full-scale rolls that could play every note on the piano keyboard and an internal player as a standard.
By the end of the decade, the 65-note format and player piano devices became outdated. This caused problems for small manufacturers who had invested in 65-note systems, leading to industry consolidation.
In 1908, an industry conference in Buffalo, New York, agreed on a new full-scale roll format that played all 88 piano notes. This kept the 11 and 1/4-inch roll size but used smaller holes spaced nine per inch. This change allowed any player piano to use rolls from any manufacturer, avoiding a costly format war that affected other entertainment formats.
Meanwhile, in Germany, Edwin Welte invented the Welte-Mignon, a reproducing piano that could automatically play a performance exactly as the original pianist had played it. This invention, launched in 1904, allowed manufacturers to record performances by famous musicians, letting players experience professional music at home.
Aeolian introduced the Metrostyle in 1901 and the Themodist in 1904, which highlighted melodies clearly. Sales grew quickly, and more varied rolls became available. Two major advances were the introduction of hand-played rolls, which included musical phrasing, and word rolls, which had printed lyrics in the margins for singing.
Other advances included the arrival of competitors to the Welte-Mignon, such as the Ampico (1911) and the Duo-Art (1914). In Europe, companies like Hupfeld and Philipps developed successful reproducing systems. By 1919, Hupfeld created an 88-note reproducing system called the Triphonola, and about 5% of player pianos sold were reproducing models.
In America, the "jazz age" and the popularity of the fox-trot made the player piano the main instrument for popular music, while classical music was increasingly played on reproducing pianos. Most American roll companies stopped offering large classical catalogs before 1920.
In England, the Aeolian Company continued selling classical music, and customers followed printed instructions on rolls to play manually. Word rolls were not popular there because they cost 20% more than non-word rolls. After World War I, American and British roll collections differed greatly.
In the early 1950s, player pianos from the 1920s and earlier became collectible. Frank Holland, an enthusiast, formed "The Player Piano Group" in 1959 and later founded the British Piano Museum. In America, Harvey Roehl published a book about player pianos in 1961, followed by guides on restoring them. Organizations like the Musical Box Society International and the Automatic Musical Instruments Collector's Association formed to study mechanical music.
The 1960s revival led to renewed production. Aeolian reintroduced the Pianola as a small spinet piano, and other companies followed. Early restorers often needed only minor repairs, but complete rebuilding of old instruments became popular.
Types
A player piano is a type of piano that has a special mechanism inside. This mechanism uses air to operate and is controlled by a person. The person uses levers to make the piano play music. Many tools and helpers were created to make using the piano easier.
Music rolls
Piano rolls are long sheets of paper rolled onto a spool. These rolls are used in player pianos, which are also called pneumatic player pianos. The spool fits into a special box on the piano. The free end of the paper is attached to another spool that helps unwind the roll evenly across the tracker bar, a part of the piano that reads the music. The music written on the paper is programmed using holes punched into it. Different player piano systems use different hole sizes, layouts, and spool designs, but most follow one or two common formats that became industry standards.
Music is programmed using several methods:
1. A master stencil is created by marking the paper based on a metronome, using printed sheet music. Player-pianists then perform the music themselves.
2. A stencil is made by using a machine connected to a piano keyboard that punches holes in the paper.
3. A live performance is recorded on a special piano linked to a machine that marks the paper. The resulting stencil may be used as is or adjusted for tempo consistency.
4. Modern computer software and MIDI programs are used to design piano rolls for today’s perforating machines and create new titles.
Player pianos were widely sold around the world during their peak. Piano rolls were made in many countries, including the United States, most European nations, South America, Australia, and New Zealand. Many piano roll titles from different manufacturers still exist today, and large quantities of rolls are often found.
It was reported that QRS Music, the last major producer of piano rolls, stopped making them on December 31, 2008. However, QRS Music still lists itself as the only remaining manufacturer and claims to have 45,000 titles available, with new titles added regularly.
The Musical Museum in Brentford, London, England, has a large collection of piano rolls, including over 20,000 rolls. The museum also displays and demonstrates a wide variety of musical instruments.
Modern implementations
Later, reproducing pianos used magnetic tape and floppy disks instead of piano rolls to record and play music. One model made by Bösendorfer used computers to help play music.
In 1982, Yamaha Corporation created the "Piano Player," the first widely sold reproducing piano that could digitally record and play piano performances using floppy disks. This model was replaced in 1987 by the Yamaha Disklavier. Starting in 1998, the Disklavier PRO models could record and play piano performances with very high detail, using Yamaha's special XP (Extended Precision) MIDI system.
Most modern player pianos use MIDI to connect with computers. These pianos often include devices that record and play MIDI files on floppy disks or CD-ROMs, and a MIDI interface that lets computers control the piano for advanced tasks. MIDI files can activate solenoids, which are small mechanical parts inside the piano that move the keys. Music recorded as MIDI files can be played back accurately on these instruments. MIDI files based on old piano rolls can also be bought online.
By 2006, several kits were available (like PianoDisc and PNOmation) that let people convert regular pianos into computer-controlled instruments. This process usually requires opening the piano’s bottom to install parts under the keyboard. One group, Logos Foundation, made a portable kit that does not require modifying the piano. In 2007–2008, Wayne Stahnke, the inventor of the Bösendorfer SE system, introduced a new kit called the "LX."
As of 2023, Steinway makes a player piano based on Wayne Stahnke’s Live Performance LX system. Steinway bought this system in 2014 and renamed it Spirio. Originally, Spirio could not record music, but in 2019, Steinway released the Spirio | r models, which can now record performances.
Edelweiss is a British company that makes custom-designed player pianos. These pianos are sold at Harrods, a luxury department store, since 2017. According to the Financial Times YouTube channel "How to Spend It," Edelweiss is considered the most luxurious self-playing piano brand today.
Comparison to electric pianos
A player piano is not an electric, electronic, or digital piano. The difference between these instruments is how they make sound. A player piano is an acoustic piano that creates sound when a hammer hits the piano strings. In newer versions with electric parts, these components only help move the keys or hammers to copy the way a person plays; the sound is still made by the piano itself and is not created or made louder electronically.