Special Exhibition: "Synergy of Sound-Sustainability and Crafting"
(Dates: August 23, 2023 – January 13, 2024) [This event has ended.]
2023.09.08
Yamaha Innovation Road announces that a special exhibition titled "Synergy of Sound—Sustainability and Crafting" is held from August 23, 2023 until January 13, 2024, which celebrated the fifth anniversary of its opening this year.
Since its founding, Yamaha has continued to craft products by building on the "Synergy of Sound," creating unprecedented value by combining new things with things related to sound and music. In today’s world, actively working toward sustainability and the realization of a sustainable society is no longer optional. As such, Yamaha recognizes the growing significance of optimizing limited resources and uncovering untapped value for the pleasure of music and sound enthusiasts while crafting products that come to life through the Synergy of Sound.
This exhibition allows visitors to experience the unique craftsmanship of our time, resulting from the blending of technology and sensibilities that Yamaha has fostered for 135 years and more.
Since its founding, Yamaha has continued to craft products by building on the "Synergy of Sound," creating unprecedented value by combining new things with things related to sound and music. In today’s world, actively working toward sustainability and the realization of a sustainable society is no longer optional. As such, Yamaha recognizes the growing significance of optimizing limited resources and uncovering untapped value for the pleasure of music and sound enthusiasts while crafting products that come to life through the Synergy of Sound.
This exhibition allows visitors to experience the unique craftsmanship of our time, resulting from the blending of technology and sensibilities that Yamaha has fostered for 135 years and more.
Dates: August 23, 2023 – January 13, 2024
*It is subject to change without notice.
Place: Innovation Laboratory Area at Innovation Road
*If you wish to visit Innovation Road including this exhibition, please make a reservation in advance.
https://www.yamaha.com/en/about/experience/innovation-road/access/
*It is subject to change without notice.
Place: Innovation Laboratory Area at Innovation Road
*If you wish to visit Innovation Road including this exhibition, please make a reservation in advance.
https://www.yamaha.com/en/about/experience/innovation-road/access/
Antique-Style Sustainable Keyboard (Electronic Keyboard x Unused Material)
This keyboard was made from unused material*1 generated in the process of making various other musical instruments. The white keys are made of a composite of pulverized wood flour of grenadilla, which is used to make clarinets, and plastic, which gives them their characteristically dark color. This material not only utilizes unused grenadilla timber for crafting musical instruments, but it also cuts down the amount of plastic used in keyboards by around 1.1 kg per keyboard. It is anticipated that the material will be employed in various musical and acoustic instruments in the future.
In addition to being able to play this keyboard freely at the exhibition, visitors will also be able to view the Yamaha Culture Chair and Bookcase that inspired the design of the keyboard.
This keyboard was made from unused material*1 generated in the process of making various other musical instruments. The white keys are made of a composite of pulverized wood flour of grenadilla, which is used to make clarinets, and plastic, which gives them their characteristically dark color. This material not only utilizes unused grenadilla timber for crafting musical instruments, but it also cuts down the amount of plastic used in keyboards by around 1.1 kg per keyboard. It is anticipated that the material will be employed in various musical and acoustic instruments in the future.
In addition to being able to play this keyboard freely at the exhibition, visitors will also be able to view the Yamaha Culture Chair and Bookcase that inspired the design of the keyboard.
(from left) Antique-Style Sustainable Keyboard, Bookcase, Culture Chair
Upcycling Guitar - 1st Prototype (Electric Guitar × Unused Material)
The idea behind this electric guitar was to create new value by upcycling*2 unused materials generated from producing various musical instruments. Yamaha instruments are crafted using various kinds of wood, and this Upcycling Guitar includes many that have not often been used for guitars in the past.We're searching for ways to produce new value for guitars by crafting them using a variety of unused materials, focusing on the potential of such materials.
Combining various kinds of wood to craft guitars like this requires a great deal of technical expertise, and this is where Yamaha's woodworking techniques and know-how—cultivated over many years of making musical instruments—come into play.
*Guitar expected to be on exhibit starting mid-September.
The idea behind this electric guitar was to create new value by upcycling*2 unused materials generated from producing various musical instruments. Yamaha instruments are crafted using various kinds of wood, and this Upcycling Guitar includes many that have not often been used for guitars in the past.We're searching for ways to produce new value for guitars by crafting them using a variety of unused materials, focusing on the potential of such materials.
Combining various kinds of wood to craft guitars like this requires a great deal of technical expertise, and this is where Yamaha's woodworking techniques and know-how—cultivated over many years of making musical instruments—come into play.
*Guitar expected to be on exhibit starting mid-September.
Upcycling Guitar
Soprano Recorder for One-Handed Play (Recorder x Woodwind Key System)
Yamaha is designing and manufacturing recorders that can be played with one hand so that people with hand-related disabilities can enjoy playing the recorder. A typical recorder has eight tone holes, and both hands together can produce all notes with eight fingers. This one-handed recorder enables people with limited hand movement to play a full two octaves, as long as they can use a total of five fingers between both hands. This is because the key system used in flutes and other woodwind instruments has been adopted. The pitch of a woodwind instrument is changed by covering the tone holes, and the key system makes this easy by equipping instruments with padded, spring-loaded metal caps that can be opened and closed by operating the keys. By adapting the woodwind key system to the recorder, Yamaha has developed a recorder that anyone can enjoy playing.
Exhibition visitors can hold a Recorder for One-Handed Play and press the keys, using a fingering chart as a guide.
*Visitors cannot blow into the recorders.
Soprano Recorder for One-Handed Play
L: YRS-900L (for left hand) R: YRS-900R (for right hand)
L: YRS-900L (for left hand) R: YRS-900R (for right hand)
Unused Material Kit (Musical Instrument x Unused Material,Speaker x Unused Material, Building Blocks x Unused Material)
Yamaha designed these Unused Material Kits to help people experience the joy of music and crafting with unused materials. The prototypes at the exhibition were assembled using familiar machine tools.
Pluck a piano wire to play a Thumb Piano crafted from thinned timber*3 for pianos and unused guitar materials, try out Non-Electric Smartphone Speakers that use unused clarinet bells and marimba materials to amplify sound, and play with building blocks made of unused woodwind material, lending the blocks a rich sound when struck together, characteristic of wood used in musical instruments.
Yamaha designed these Unused Material Kits to help people experience the joy of music and crafting with unused materials. The prototypes at the exhibition were assembled using familiar machine tools.
Pluck a piano wire to play a Thumb Piano crafted from thinned timber*3 for pianos and unused guitar materials, try out Non-Electric Smartphone Speakers that use unused clarinet bells and marimba materials to amplify sound, and play with building blocks made of unused woodwind material, lending the blocks a rich sound when struck together, characteristic of wood used in musical instruments.
Unused Material Kit
- *1 Unused material: Surplus materials and scraps generated when selecting and processing wood to make musical instruments.
- *2 Upcycle: Giving new value to things that were once considered unnecessary by rebirthing them into objects of higher value.
- *3 Thinned timber: Timber thinned from forest plantations to keep them healthy.