Learning to play an instrument is a long process and it’s a lot easier when you have someone to play along with. What could be better than accompaniment from the keyboard itself?

Korg have unveiled their EK-50, an entertainment keyboard made for any level of player. It sets itself apart by “growing with you” with an entire backing band that accompanies whatever you play with increasingly advanced functions as your skill grows.

The EK-50 uses a function which they call ‘Styles’ to follow and play along to what you’re playing. Play a chord or just a note with your left hand and the keyboard will produce a rich accompaniment allowing you to improvise and play a melody with your right hand. The styles cover over 280 genres from all over the world, each of which has four variations ranging from simple to complex so that you can get creative in any style you like.

You can switch up the rhymths and even add intros and endings to the accompaniments. An STS (Single Touch Select) function that automatically selects recommended styles when you switch it up. Korg say: “It’s a perfect pairing of sound and Style, all set up and ready to go, so that you can focus on learning, creating or performing.”

Beyond it’s Style feature the EK-50 comes packed with 702 realistic sounds to play, including pianos, violins, sax, and drums. It comes with a split function that allows you to split the keyboard between two different instruments and vary your sounds between your left and right hands. Play guitar with your right hand and drums with your left and your on your way to being a one-man White Stripes tribute act.

Beyond that it comes with all that you’d want in a good but affordable keyboard with a centre display which features a grand piano button, making it simple to return to the basic piano sound with one push of a button regardless of your current instrument setting. You can also record what you play, save it and play it back.

There are built-in speakers so that you don’t have to plug it in to anything else to hear what you’re playing and a USB flash drive for playing music through it. You can also add new styles through the flash drive which will be added to Korg’s website in due time.

Currently the EK-50 keyboard is scheduled for release sometime in October, next month and will cost $400/£390. Find out more here.