The Alicia Keys Pianos At NAMM

Alicia Keys is jazzed. “This might be one of my favorite pianos ever!” she enthuses.

The piano she is referring to was created by Yamaha for her 2023 Keys To The Summer tour. In fact, two pianos were built for that tour — a custom Yamaha grand, which Keys used on the main stage, and a custom Yamaha upright, used on the B-stage at the halfway point in the concert, where she would perform several intimate piano solo pieces. Both pianos allowed her to make herself heard, whether commanding the spotlight with power and grace or connecting with the audience in moments of quiet vulnerability.

Alicia had long wanted an acrylic piano. She had played on many around the world, but she wanted one that she could call her own, and she wanted it to be unique. Accordingly, she and her team reached out to Chris Gero, Vice President and Chief Artist Relations Executive of the Yamaha Entertainment Group, who brought in the Florida-based custom design firm J. Elliott & Co., with whom they had collaborated on many high-profile projects over the years, including the famed Yamaha Prince purple piano.

THE PROCESS

Remarkably, the total process from inception to final delivery took less than six months, during which time Keys decided to have Yamaha create a second piano, this one an upright.

Justin Elliott, who serves as chief designer at J. Elliott & Co. along with his wife Jina, describes how the project moved forward. “I met with Alicia at one of her rehearsals, where we talked over the many different things she wanted in the piano,” he says. “Alicia knows exactly what she wants. It’s great to work with someone who has that mindset instead of having to show them a thousand renderings before they finally pick one.

“We had to consider a lot of different elements,” he continues, “including logistics for shows. For example, the pianos have to travel safely, so we have to think through all the process of how are they being handled off and on stages to make sure they stay in pristine condition and so that the artist can perform on them every single night without a problem.”

KEEPING THE YAMAHA SOUND AND TONE

Other than the exterior Lucite^™casing, the interiors of both Alicia Keys pianos are Yamaha wood and steel construction. The core of the grand is a stock Yamaha C6X with an integrated SILENT^™ system; the core of the upright is a Yamaha b1 with an SC3 SILENT system. “Alicia wanted to keep the Yamaha sound and tone,” says Justin, “because that’s what she loves. She has a great ear, with her own preferences about voicing, touch weight and action regulation. Every instrument has its own characteristics, and we dial into how the artist likes it.”

As Elton John was when it came to designing his million-dollar piano (another Yamaha innovation), Keys was also focused on how her pianos would look onstage — and since the tour was going to be in the round, it was critical that she have good line of sight. “But then sonically you also have to make that work because Lucite doesn’t carry that much resonance,” Justin explains. “So you have to make sure it is still a pure acoustic instrument and you have to make it sing. There was the balancing of those two aspects.”

Tonally, both pianos match well with the original wood versions. “Every piano has its own unique characteristics, so they all sound slightly different,” Justin says, “but these pianos we made for Alicia, they sing, they’re lively. When I build pianos, tonality is the thing that comes first and foremost. Design comes second. That’s my approach with every instrument I build because if the design element ruins the sound, I’m not going to do it. But you can make anything beautiful if you spend enough time on it.”

The SILENT mechanisms, as with the Prince piano, also played a role since her audio engineers were going to feed the P.A. system a blend of the acoustic sound of the piano and the silent voices being triggered — a major reason why many touring artists are drawn to Yamaha SILENT instruments. Elliott reports that the Alicia Keys pianos were not miked any differently than their wooden equivalents. “That’s why she selected a C6X,” he says, “because normally she uses a C6 or C7 on tour, so her audio people know exactly what they’re getting. Obviously they spend time to figure out the sweet spots to put the microphones and whatnot, but Alicia had her trusted audio team, led by longtime engineer Ann Mincieli, on tour with her, and they know the drill with those pianos well, so they were able to dial in the sound she wanted very quickly. Ann was a big part of this entire project,  from concept to reality. She always knocks it out of the park!”

UNIQUE DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS AND CHALLENGES

Acrylic instruments weigh significantly more than all-wood ones, and that was another aspect Justin had to factor in. “Lucite is much denser than wood,” he explains, “and it’s a solid-state resin so you do not have fibers imparting a grain and space.” A normal C6X weighs approximately 900 pounds, but Elliott estimates that he probably added a good 300 more pounds to it, making for a whopping 1,200 lbs. “Because the grand piano was in the center of things and was on a rotating platform, Alicia’s production team had to lift it up every single night by hand,” says Justin.

There were other technical challenges as well. For one thing, internal fasteners are required to attach the acrylic casings to the wooden body of the pianos. “As a designer, you have to think about things differently,” Justin explains. “The way it bonds, the hardware you’re using, it’s all going to show because it’s completely transparent. Even the glues you use to attach the casings are totally different than those you would use with a wooden instrument.”

EASTER EGGS

In addition to all the other design specifications, Alicia Keys wanted “Easter eggs” on the pianos — special elements to inspire both her and the audience as she rehearsed and performed. One of these was having see-through acrylic sharps and flats on the keyboard so she could feel like she was elevated and soaring as she played in the center of a 360-degree soundstage. This had the added benefit of making it look like her fingers were dancing on top of the keys. To achieve this goal, the design team made those keys out of full transparent acrylic with just a thin 2mm layer of ebony on top. “That way,” Justin explains, “if you have a camera angle that’s looking down the keys, which they always have for a concert, it looks like her fingers are floating because you see right through those keys.”

“This piano — you and me — we’re going crazy,” Keys tells all her fans as she wraps up the video below. “Big love to Yamaha!”

Coming to NAMM? Be sure to visit the Alicia Keys pianos (both the grand and the upright) at the Yamaha exhibit on the third floor of the Anaheim Convention Center.

Learn more about Alicia Keys here.