Customer Reviews

First Act Discovery FA107 Junior Accordion

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

We bought this for our 6 year old son,who loves all music. When we got it home, he and his 2 year old brother couldn't wait to get it open. When we first bought it, I wasn't sure if they would really be able to play it. Boy, did I make a mistake!They both could play it with no experience required! Even the 2 year old could play it and made it sound great! It was very easy for them to learn, Just pick it up, pull it apart and push it back together. Its that Simple! Our 2 boys love it, And love to play cajun music with it! My husband even likes to play with it! I'm so glad we made this purchase!

Buying a kids accordion is probably something your average parent wouldn't even consider; most folks don't like accordion music, and the idea of a kid squeezing and squeezing on one of these things is about as appealing as a hole in the head.

However, most people have misconstrued ideas about what this instrument would sound like. First of all, this is a diatonic accordion, meaning it's tuned to only one key. The buttons make different sounds depending on whether you're pushing or pulling on the bellows. Diatonic accordions are popular in Cajun and Zydeco, Irish Music, Tex-Mex and Conjunto, Gypsy Music, and various other forms of world music. They are not the accordions typically used in polka.

Because of the diatonic setup, your kid can't play a sour note! It's like giving them an 8-note wide section of a piano, with no black keys. Sure, if they try, they'll still be able to drive you nuts with this thing, but most likely, they'll enjoy trying to pick out songs. Unlike a string instrument or a flute instrument, if they really give it a try, they'll likely have success pretty quickly, because of the one-key structure.

Pick up a good CD to help inspire your kids on this instrument; I recommend Buckwheat Zydeco's "Choo Choo Boogaloo", it's kids' zydeco.... very fun!

My daughter recieved Christmas money and chose to purchase this toy accordion. What a wonderful surprise it has been! I would recommend this instrument to anyone who wants an accordion or a good beginner's instrument.
It has a pleasant sound and is simple to operate. Don't let its simplicity fool you, though. There is room for growth with this accordion. It has a range of two octaves and is capable of good musical expression.
I've given it four stars for durability. It's out-of-box quality is excellent. Time will tell if it garners a fifth star.
A word of warning. My wife and I have had much discussion about how to help our daughter "play" the accordion. Who would've guessed it would teach us something about ourselves?

I play a 120 bass Piano Accordion and I saw this toy accordion and it just stole my heart. It's a sturdy little diatonic accordion and it's beautifully tuned in chords so you can't play a wrong note. It's a load of fun, and when my friends say they can't play music--- I hand them this little axe and they have a blast! It's compact, beautiful, and a load of fun for anyone of any age!

We have now had it for over 2 years and between 4 kids and their many friends and cousins, it still lives! Whenever it is found it is played with. Yeah sure the keys get stuck occasionally, but if that happens you just wiggle the end a little bit and presto everything goes back. Worth the money!

I bought this for my 9 year old son, who is very interested in learning different instruments. (And secretly, after a recent trip to visit my friend in Sweden and hearing her mother play the accordion, I was interested in giving it a try as well).

We are very happy with this! Here it is, 4 months past Christmas and this toy is still as popular as ever. And everyone in the family loves to play around with it, from our 18 year old daughter all the way to our 4 year old daughter. The sound is very good, even with it being a toy and it's complicated enough for the adults in the family to stay interested in learning. However, it's also easy enough for children to master a few tunes themselves without much effort, which keeps them working to get better and better.

Definitely a great buy for us!

I was sceptical when I saw there was an accordion out at a very affordable price that promised to sound great and was easy to learn. I had previously some rather bad experience with a kid's piano that I returned as it sounded like ...*you name it. However, this product really holds up. It looks good, is made for the little people, and the accompanying instructions are clearly understandable and very valuable even for grown-ups who might have forgotten about their knowledge of sheet music and scales.It is easy to learn if you put your energy to it, and it also tells you how not to destroy the instrument which happened to us before with a different type of instrument that was on the same price level, but only half as good.
Three thumbs up!

I think i have a chance at learning some music.
The music is in tablature(or in this numbering system), and there are like 7 keys on the little "first act" accordion. The paper page brochure has a couple of songs, and the first key is number one
and so forth until number seven. Don't worry on the songs, it has a few. The idea is not to bombard you with many of them. It has a couple, but they are short, but everything has been made in order for you or anyone to reach the goal of learning. Treat this like typing, and you will be fine. If you push inward this will be the symbol for it "V" (A letter V) and if you push out the V will be upside down. I think the non musician has a chance at learning tablature music or Number music at it states in the paper brochure. Once you get the toy, it comes inside a colorful box telling you of the benefits of playing music: aiding the mind, helping you think in the abstract, helping you be more of a social person.
I am an adult, and i don't know anything on music but i will give this a try. This is like my last chance at learning. The traditional way is to hard, and i play Chess, but i still can't get an instrument. Adults who are interested it in playing should buy this as well. Everyone when starting out starts out from nothing, and music is the same but this instrument has made been made to be approachable to anyone battling with the music puzzle juggernaut. I think you will like the size, it is not to big nor even that small. It is of cute size. This is like "last chance, last dance" to learn an instrument. I highly recommend it. Anno Domini 2005 June. Date.

I'd just like to say, I'd never had more fun with a toy in my entire life, well maybe I have, but this one is really cool! Even if you don't like the accordion, you'll like this one. I had lots of fun playing it at the store, untill one of the button's sunk in, I was truly sadened by this, but I moved on. I think it isn't as durable as it should be, because there was another one at the store with 3 sunkin in buttons. This toy is soo much fun. A lady stopped by while i was playing with it and asked where she could get one because she liked the sound quality so much. One last thing, this is one of the best toys ever.

To be fair, this is really marketed as a toy, and as such, is probably worth the price, but I don't think it merits the effusive superlatives in many of the reviews. It's hard to get anything out of it except noise. The left hand reeds are so far off of the advertised C and G tuning, and so mismatched to the right hand reeds as to be irritating. Most frustrating is the inconsistent difficulty getting any sound out of some of the reeds unless you push or pull so hard that you use up all the air on one short note.

This might be fun for a 3 year old who just wants to make some noise on a colorful box, but if you are hoping to introduce a youngster to the joy of playing a simple tune, you and your budding musician will be disappointed.