Duolingo partners with Loog on a portable keyboard

By Tom NewmanSeptember 26, 20248 mins read

Duolingo and beginner instrument brand Loog, have released a compact piano to go along with their music lessons.

Educational app, Duolingo, best known for gamifying language learning, expanded to math and music lessons last year. Music and math lessons will be familiar to anyone that has used Duolingo for language learning, adding game-like elements, making it an easy entry point for all. At this year’s Duocon 2024 annual conference, Duolingo announced new AI features to enhance learning, plus updates to Duolingo Music, including a physical piano.

Alongside the piano, Duolingo has partnered with Sony to introduce modern pop songs to music lessons, with tracks from the likes of Pharrell Williams, Meghan Trainor, P!nk and more. Users will also find new theory lessons. Duolingo Music is now available on iOS and Android, in English, Spanish, French, German, Portugese and Vietnamese, with more languages coming soon. Towards the end of Duocon 2024, Duolingo CEO and co-founder Luis von Ahn sat down with Grammy-winning artist Jon Batiste for a conversation on the importance of music in education.

Duolingo has partnered with portable musical instruments brand Loog. Loog’s instruments are largely targeted towards beginners and kids, with several guitar options, and launching next month, a portable piano. This partnership essentially brings Duolingo branding and a few additions to the Loog Piano. Rather than playing the mini on-screen keyboard or recording an external piano, the Loog x Duolingo Piano gives you a real tactile experience, with the simplicity of USB-C connectivity.

Designed for beginners, the digital piano is three-octaves, weighs 2.64 pounds (1.65 kg) and measure in at 18.92 inches (480.8 mm) x 7.5 inches (190.5 mm) x 2.71 inches (68.9 mm), with slightly thinner keys than a standard piano, at 0.73 inches (18.5 mm) width, rather than 0.93 inches (23.5 mm). The keys are velocity-sensitive, which means you can play soft or loud depending on how hard you press the keys. There’s a Duolingo-green fabric top that covers the built-in speakers, a physical volume knob and solid wood side panels.

The piano charges and connects to devices via a USB-C port around the back. There’s a USB-C to USB-C cable in the box, so if you want to connect it to any non-USB-C device, you’ll need an adapter. The battery lasts around 8 hours on a full charge. The ports on the back also includes a 3.5 mm jack for headphones or connection to a mixer, DAW or amp, as well as a sustain pedal port and octave shifter port.

The piano is built to integrate with Duolingo. There’s an included wooden phone stand, so you can view scrolling sheet music and be graded by the app, with real-time feedback based on your playing. For a screen-free learning experience, there are included flashcards helping you learn chords and scales.