Yamaha says that the Tenori-On is a hit – and it will turn you into a composer in 20 minutes!

It has already sold a few hundred of the new instrument at 121,000 yen (1,170 dollars) each, compared to planned sales of 1,000 in Japan for the entire first year, according to the company.

The square device, measuring 20 centimetres (eight inches) by 20 centimetres, has 256 buttons in rows on one side that can be played in various modes. To make a basic sequence, the player pushes buttons which are assigned specific notes

“You will be able to compose music in 20 minutes,” said Yu Nishibori, one of the developers of the TENORI-ON.

Even better, all those buttons look wickedly cool.

More on the Tenori-On.