THE ROLAND STORY
Electronic instruments, MIDI, piano modeling, and more than five decades of music-technology innovation.
Roland Piano Shop brings together two very different histories: Hollywood Piano’s nearly century-long work with pianists, studios, television, film, recording, schools, and live production—and Roland’s five decades of electronic-instrument innovation.
HOLLYWOOD IS IN OUR NAME
Since 1928, Hollywood Piano has supplied instruments for homes and teachers, but also for movie sets, television productions, recording sessions, concert stages, award shows, studios, and working artists throughout Southern California.
That history is one of the biggest differences between Roland Piano Shop and an anonymous online seller. We understand what an instrument has to do when it is being practiced on every day, recorded under a microphone, moved onto a set, or relied on during a live performance.
MOVIES & TELEVISION
Hollywood Piano has provided pianos for generations of screen production, including classic television such as I Love Lucy and later productions such as Glee, along with many other film and television projects.
RECORDING & AWARD SHOWS
Our work has included recording sessions and major award-show performances. We provided pianos used by Billie Eilish and FINNEAS for Grammy and Oscar performances.
ROLAND ON TELEVISION
Roland instruments have appeared on major music-competition television, including American Idol, America’s Got Talent, and The Voice—environments where reliability, fast control, and musical versatility matter.
WHY IT MATTERS
Most online stores can ship a box. Our advantage is knowing pianos as instruments and understanding how professionals actually use them. That experience shapes the advice we give families, students, teachers, performers, churches, studios, and working musicians.
HAMAMATSU, JAPAN
Roland was founded in Osaka in 1972, but its relationship with Hamamatsu began almost immediately. Roland opened its first Hamamatsu factory in 1973, later expanded manufacturing there, opened its Miyakoda digital-piano factory in 1997, and moved its global headquarters to Hamamatsu in 2005.
Today the Roland Inspiration Hub continues that story in a city internationally associated with musical-instrument building. Hamamatsu is also home to major Japanese instrument makers and a deep culture of piano and musical-instrument manufacturing.
1973
Roland introduced the EP-10, described by Roland as Japan’s first all-electronic, oscillation-based combo piano. It arrived at the beginning of a period in which electronic keyboards were rapidly becoming serious musical instruments rather than novelties.
1974
The EP-30 was the world’s first electronic piano with a touch-sensitive keyboard. That idea—an electronic instrument responding to how the player touches the keys—is fundamental to every serious digital piano today.
1983 · MIDI
MIDI was not created by one company alone. It emerged through cooperation among manufacturers, with Roland founder Ikutaro Kakehashi and Sequential’s Dave Smith among the central leaders who pushed for a shared standard.
That decision changed music technology permanently. Keyboards, synthesizers, drum machines, computers, sequencers, education systems, and recording software could finally communicate using a common language.
1986
The RD-1000 used Roland’s Structured Adaptive synthesis and helped establish the RD identity: a professional piano designed specifically for performance, control, consistency, and life on stage.
2009
V-Piano pushed Roland decisively into piano modeling—generating piano behavior mathematically rather than relying only on conventional sampled playback. That philosophy continues through Roland’s modern premium piano technologies.
TODAY
Modern Roland instruments combine sound generation, keyboard sensing, pedal response, amplification, cabinet acoustics, modeling, MIDI, Bluetooth, apps, and software into one connected musical system.
Better technology only matters when it disappears into the playing experience: more natural response, more useful practice tools, more flexible connectivity, more consistent performance, and an instrument that makes you want to keep playing.
WHY ROLAND PIANO SHOP
Roland brings decades of electronic-instrument engineering. Hollywood Piano brings nearly a century of piano experience in homes, schools, studios, stages, film, television, and live production. Roland Piano Shop is where those two histories meet.
