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49-KEY PLUG & PLAY KEYBOARD WITH SPEAKERS & USB-MIDI INTERFACE LCD DISPLAY SHOWS MUSIC NOTES 50 INSTRUMENT SOUNDS (INCLUDES DRUM KIT) 5 DRUM PADS 30 AUTO-ACCOMPANIMENT STYLES 50 DEMO SONGS RECORD & PLAYBACK FEATURE METRONOME SUSTAIN FEATURE 1-TOUCH ACCOMPANIMENT 8-NOTE POLYPHONY DIGITAL RECORDER HEADPHONE JACK FULL-MOTION VIDEOS GUIDE KIDS THROUGH SONGS & PLAYING TECHNIQUES SPECIFIC INTERACTIVE FEEDBACK ON INCORRECTLY PLAYED NOTES & RHYTHMS SONGS CAN BE SPED UP OR SLOWED DOWN INCLUDES ELECTRONIC KEYBOARD SIZED FOR SMALL FINGERS, POWER SUPPLY, USB MIDI INTERFACE, MY PIANO CD-ROM SOFTWARE WITH OVER 100 LESSONS
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Technical Details
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By A. Dent (Minas Anor, GD)
This kit will help a child become somewhat familiar with a keyboard instrument, rhythm, notes, rests and the music staff. Some moderate and usually fun practice with the interactive MyPiano software will have the child progress from 'Mary Had a Little Lamb' (lesson 15) to 'Jingle Bells' (lesson 106). The keyboard interacts with the MyPiano software through the provided MIDI to USB cable.
By the way, the keyboard can be used on its own and similarly, the MyPiano software should be usable with any MIDI-enabled electronic keyboard - I wrote 'should' because I was unable to use it with our VERY OLD (10 years old) MIDI-capable electric piano but I am blaming the piano at this time.
THE KEYBOARD
The 49-key keyboard comes with all the bells and whistles expected from the upper end of the 'inexpensive' class. All the detailed specs are available at the Amazon page so I won't repeat them here. It is powered by either a DC adapter or batteries. An soft but audible hiss can be heard when turning on the device.
One somewhat uncommon enhancement is the LCD display showing which keys are played both on a staff and, for some reason, on a small representation of the keyboard. The notes played appear on the LCD display as small dots, not always easy to see.
The 2 outputs are a PHONES OUTPUT and the MIDI OUT. There is no MIDI IN which was a disappointment but not totally unexpected.
The keys are significantly smaller than those of a true piano. This is presented as a feature meant to accommodate children's small hands but I personally have some doubts that it's a good idea to have children practice with small keyboards if the goal is to make proficient keyboard players. The keys travel a long way and some force is required to press them all the way but the sound is produced when the key reaches 1/3 to half-way down. Hitting the keys harder will not produce a louder sound.
MY PIANO SOFTWARE
The goal of MyPiano is not to produce a concert pianist in 108 easy lessons but, hopefully, to help parents determine if their child is talented and sufficiently motivated to take professional lessons and study the instrument beyond "Jingle Bells" or "Pop! Goes the Weasel". To the extent that the scope of the software is well understood and accepted, both parents and children should have a mostly enjoyable experience.
As I mentioned on the first paragraph, this is an introduction to piano playing and not a lot of time is spent, for example, on the proper sitting and hand position. Yes, there is a lesson on each but a professional instructor will spend months if not years, constantly correcting the student. Lessons are dedicated to identifying the notes on the keyboard, presenting the treble and bass clefs, the music staff and so on. There is only very little practice at playing both hands simultaneously or playing chords.
Technically speaking, the interactivity of the software consists on its ability to monitor whatever is played on the keyboard via the MIDI connection. After the song is played, the software will display a score in the form of a percentage, the assumption being that the higher the percentage, the better was the song played. In practice, this works most of the time but I found that simply pressing the first note of the song and then doing nothing would return me a perfect 100% score.
Other features include a pop-up metronome that duplicates the 'Metro' key on the eMedia keyboard. Most lessons pages come with buttons that would display little videos, play the featured song while a keyboard pop-up display shows which keys are to be pressed by which fingers and, as mentioned before would analyze the student's play and provide a score. While learning a song, the tempo can be slowed down or accelerated to achieve the suggested optimum.
THE LEARNING PROCESS
Studying piano this way can be fun for the child and the child will make a lot of progress, quickly, gaining the ability to play simple songs. However, the ceiling is pretty low - without a true instructor and an understanding of music theory going beyond the basics (no chords or scales are taught here) the student will not go very far. He/she may be able to learn more simple songs or fragments of songs but 'simple' is they key word and, in my view, 'more' is not a synonym for 'better'.
MY EVALUATION
For a basic keyboard teaming up with a not so ambitious piano learning kit, this is an okay package. Our kids learned a couple of songs already but, overall, a 3-star rating should be fair - Amazon's translation of 3-stars is "it's Okay".
By Tammy Rogers
I got this keyboard for my 7 year old to learn piano. It is a nice keyboard with a lot of instrument sounds, built-in drums and songs. It also comes with a great software program to use with the computer.
She really has latched onto the program and we have worked on it a little every night since we got it. There are some cute elements to it like a talking piano. However, the lessons are serious and have videos of the teacher showing piano skills. We hook it up to our Mac with a cable it comes with. When you play along with the songs, the program points out where you mis-played. It then shows you on the keyboard the mistake and what you should have played.
The keyboard itself seems well made. It has smaller keys than on my piano but that works well for a 7 year old. Their are plenty of instrument sounds for kids to play around with and the drum are fun to play oven. The songs that are built into the keyboard are not as good as the songs that are on the software program, so we have not done too much with that feature. You can see the songs played on the LCD screen on the keyboard but it is so much easier to learn from the software program that shows the music notation on a big screen with a animated piano that plays along with you.
This is great to either a self motivated kid who wants to learn to play or if you you to do it together.
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