As a piano enthusiast, I really love the feeling of playing my favorite music, but at the same time I also understand the difficulties throughout the process of practicing the piano.
To master a piece of music, depending on the difficulty, it can take you several weeks or even months. And learning the piano seems impossible if you don't take extra lessons at the center or have a tutor. However, these forms of learning have some limitations:
(1) The cost is not small: The price of a piano course in Vietnam ranges from 3 million - 10 million VND for a 3-month course (ie $40 - $140/month), depending on the level of study and the form of learning (one-on-one or in groups). This price is also as expensive as markets such as the US, Canada, Korea,...
(2) Fixed study time: Not everyone who is busy with work can arrange a fixed weekly study schedule. Especially in the US and Canada, long distances make traveling to the center quite inconvenient for students.
Even if they study at the center, after finishing the course, despite the need to practice the piano at home, students still encounter many obstacles, due to the lack of instructors and lack of mechanisms to encourage self-study.
And Smulie was born to solve these limitations.
Introducing Smulie
Smulie, with products Simpia, is an application that combines AI technology to help users learn piano effectively with a real piano at home.
Using Simpia, you can (1) search for your favorite piano pieces, (2) choose the appropriate level, (3) view piano practice instructions on rhythm, music notes, finger placement, hand movements,... and (4) practice on your own with a real piano using AI technology that recognizes keys, counts beats and reports errors if you type incorrectly.
Overall, Simpia is like a teacher at home: guiding you to play music and testing using AI technology.
In particular, this "teacher" solves the limitations of traditional piano learning by:
(1) Cheap cost (with subscription packages only $1/week or $60/year), only 1/10 of the cost of studying at a center.
(2) Users can practice the piano flexibly 24/7, just need an internet connection and are not limited by location or time.
In addition, if you have a piano but don't have the conditions to learn formal music theory at the center, you can still learn the piano with Simpia easily. You will be able to play a simple song yourself after just a few days of practice.
Talented team
The team behind Simpia, Mr. Thuan (co-founder & CEO) and Mr. Binh (co-founder & advisor), are the team that made Amanotes a success, a game company that is so famous in the market with Magic Tiles 3 (more than 1 billion downloads globally).
And this achievement is no coincidence. Through the work process, I was really impressed by the product building process and the way Smulie continuously learns about users to improve the product. The team's product roadmap has many feature checklists, drawn from the user interview process, to help users learn the piano more conveniently, more happily, and more persistently at home.
Big vision and a big market
Passionate about piano, understanding piano players, and experienced in building a global product, Smulie's co-founders from day one set a vision for a product that would help tens of millions of users practice piano more effectively.
School market online music reaching $180.05M in 2022, expected to grow at 18.4% CAGR and reach $829.15M in 2031.
Simpia will not only focus on the Vietnamese market, where the demand for piano lessons is not too great, but will target large markets such as the US, Canada, Korea, or Japan. These are markets where the proportion of households owning pianos is high, the demand for learning piano is high, but the cost of learning piano is expensive and the distance to the center is quite far.
AI core technology is a competitive advantage
On the same playing field as major competitors in the global market, in addition to good product experience, Simpia also possesses core AI technology to help identify keyboard keys accurately.
This technology allows Simpia to test, and in the future evaluate and advise, the playing process, becoming a true "home teacher", instead of just having the piano practice guide feature like other current products.
Summary
As a product with pioneering technology, Smulie has a lot of potential to develop and help global users learn piano more effectively. ThinkZone Ventures and TNB Aura will actively accompany Smulie on this journey.
If you also love piano and have one at home, download it Simpia Come back and experience it!