Quirky automatic piano has only four keys that move every time you play a note

20 April 2025, 14:02

Man shows off automatic piano

This piano has four keys that move apparently randomly every time you play a note.

As strange instruments go, this one might take the biscuit.

It’s an automatic piano with just four keys, and, as soon as you press a key to play a note, the whole set of four move quickly away, seemingly at random.

The keys seem to sometimes move as a group of four, at other times they scatter away in different directions.

The result, if you manage to actually catch a key and play it, is a change in pitch, meaning that with repeated notes you can play a melody of sorts.

Read more: 10 most weird and wonderful musical instruments created... ever

If you’re trying to find the whys and wherefores, don’t.

This piano is the invention of computer graphics guru, CGMatter AKA Default Cube, who seems to just find it funny to make possibly the most mind-boggling digital instrument out there – engineered, according to its maker, for maximum frustration.

So there you have the whys and wherefores: Default Cube wants to challenge us not to lose our minds trying to play some kind of melody on this tricky piano that’s jumpier than a Spring lamb.

But wait: there’s a twist. Default Cube is a computer graphics and Blender expert, and this piano is just one more of his ingenious CGI creations.

“I was super impressed until I remembered what you do, and that this wasn't real. And then I was super impressed all over again,” one commenter on YouTube writes, while another says, “Had to watch two times before noticing it was CGI. Brilliant work!”

Default Cube, you really had us there for a minute…

We echo the commenter who says: “If this was real, it would be really impressive. But since it’s not real, it’s really impressive.”

Bravo! Please call us if this automatic four-key piano makes it to physical prototype stage.