There are four common types of USB connector in use today: Musicians also use it to connect instruments and other peripherals like audio interfaces and USB microphones to their computers. Standing for Universal System Bus, USB has been around for donkey’s years as the main connection method between computers and external devices such as printers, external hard drives and cameras. When linking your piano to a computer via a cable, this is most likely to be done with a common USB cable, usually USB-B to USB-A.

There are two main methods that can be used for this - cabled, and non-cabled, or wireless connection. So let’s take a look at how to actually connect a digital piano to your computer. This can include access to previously unheard presets, easy control of effects settings and much more, transforming your tablet into a large colour touchscreen display for your instrument and making it far easier to use in the process.

A good example is Roland’s Piano Partner 2 app, which connects via Bluetooth to the company’s FP range of beginner digital pianos to provide access to some of the internal settings hidden within the piano, inaccessible from the front panel.

Some manufacturers offer compatible apps that enhance the feature set of your piano or keyboard. In the case of instruments like the Roland Go:Piano, Bluetooth is used to stream music from an external device such as a mobile phone through the piano’s onboard speakers for you to play along to, which is a fantastic way to encourage teenagers and young children to learn the instrument - the modern equivalent of learning to play by playing along to songs on the radio.

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