Customer Reviews

Fisher-Price I Can Play Piano System

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(19)

 

 

My daughter asked for this for her 8th birthday. We'd been trying to get her to take piano lessons but she was intimidated by having a stranger teach her. We own a piano and I play, but she didn't want to take instruction from me either as I'm "mommy" and she felt she knew everything already (she likes to work tunes out by ear on the piano). When she expressed an interest in this and it claimed to be able to provide instruction as well as being a toy, we thought it would be a good investment and serve both as entertainment and a teaching vehicle. Unfortunately, it is lacking a bit in the teaching area. There is no instruction regarding hand position on the keyboard (a basic concept in piano). The idea is that the kids hunt and peck for the right colored key to be able to earn points in the software game. If they get the right colored key, they end up playing the tune. According to the theory behind the software, they are eventually going to be able to transfer that hunting and pecking to reading real piano notes and being able to play the piano. However, without understanding hand position and playing keys with the correct fingers, their piano playing will be like typing with the hunt and peck method on a typewriter/computer; it gets the job done but not in the quickest fashion and not with the best accuracy. It certainly isn't going to give them any foundation for playing music that requires anything more than playing single notes (hard to do chords with two index fingers).

They could improve it simply by coming out with a cartridge that contains some instruction on hand position and some simple games to reinforce it. Otherwise, it isn't much better than just tooling around on your own on a piano without any help. Of course, if you don't have a piano, then it at least does give you that opportunity to play around a little. My daughter likes to play with it since it is like a computer game, but as far as really learning much more than she already knows, it really wasn't worth the money.

I bought this for a 5-year-old and decided to try it out before giving it as a gift. Good thing I did.

First of all, I thought it was hard to keep up with the tv - and I used to play piano. I had to slow down the tempo just to try to keep up.

Second of all, I don't see how anyone would ever LEARN to play piano from this. It doesn't teach you proper hand positions, nor does it teach you the notes on the keyboard or paper. It has four levels of difficulty and the final level puts the note names on the screen. By the time kids would get to that level, they'd have the song memorized and I doubt they'd pay any attention to the note names.

Third, the games are lame. Fisher Price should have made games that help kids learn hand positioning and notes. The games are boring and don't really teach anything except colors and finding the corresponding colors on the keyboard. I only tried out the cartridge that came with it. The others might be better, but I won't be finding out.
This keyboard MIGHT be ok as a game/toy, but it's not going to teach anyone how to play piano. Plus, you have to be glued to the tv to even attempt to learn. Otherwise, it's just a keyboard.As a keyboard, it's fine, but you can get a regular keyboard much cheaper. I'm definitely returning this and the two cartridges I bought to go with it.

I am a piano teacher and I think this is a good (but not perfect) way for kids to quickly learn to play a few songs on the piano. It's not a substitute for formal piano lessons, but to get a child interested, this is a fun choice. Consider it a "quick start".

It starts out with the video game feel, but it really is teaching them note placement and gets them used to playing. It does progress in 4 levels and ends up with note reading on a staff. I especially like the use of colors on the keys to match up with the notes on the screen.

It took me a minute to get used to this method, but it's not hard.
I had to show my son how to use his fingers instead of hunt and peck method. Once he got the hang of it, he loved it. He is very proud of himself for being able to play a few songs already and he's only had it 24 hours. We're planning on getting another cartridge for more songs.

The only thing I was a bit concerned about was that it never says anywhere that you should use all 5 fingers, nor does not talk about hand position or finger numbers. Other than that, I feel like it is a good learning tool overall, and a fun stepping stone to the next step, which is formal piano lessons.

Price too high for toy like piano with chime keys, ,presents much nicer in photograph, ,prefer Schoenfeldt pianos for children, price similar and sturdier piano.

It's a great concept IF it would last longer than a month. We acutally purchased one at Target and it didn't work 'right out of the box'. There were none to be found to replace it at the local dept stores, thus used Amazon. We were very pleased it was available, and it shipped very, very quickly. This was good as the grandkids were anxious to play it. However, I was told this past weekend that this one from Amazon had now 'quit', so disappointed grandkids again. So, I'd be interested if there's a poor performance history on this item nationally??

Do not buy this toy. I purchased the toy for my daughter for Xmas and I had to return it twice due to a faulty power button. I had to repeatedly press the power button for the toy to turn on. The button's light would flicker but not turn on. Finally the toy turned on. My daughter played the piano for ten minutes and I tried to turn it off and it would not turn off. Even worse the toy was HOT to my touch. Finally, the toy turned off. I exchanged the toy for the same model. And the new "I Can Play Piano" had the same power and overheating problems. Fisher Price has had numerous problems with infant swings that overheated and motors burned out (I had one for my newborn son 2 years ago). Even causing batteries to explode. They have forsaken CHILDREN and INFANT SAFETY for lower production costs. Fisher Price admitted that they have outsourced engineering, quality control and manufacturing to China. They are passing on huge risks to children's safety.

We purchased this for my 6 year old who is very music oriented. She loves her toy keyboard, and plays lots of video games (lik vsmile) so we thought this would be a good fit.

We were very disappointed in the quality of the software, and my daughter was finished with it in about 15 mintues. She didn't even like the freeplay feature, because it had annoying background music.

This toy is definitely not worth the price, it's very poor quality. Also, the notes hardly matched up with the song, so you didn't even feel like you were learning the melody.

My 5 year old received this toy as a gift, because she had shown some interest in playing piano. I thought that this toy would at least have some very basic instructional value, but it doesn't. It does not teach proper hand postion and it does not teach notes or how to read music. You plug it in to the TV and watch the colors go across the screen and hit the corresponding color key on the piano. That's it. A few different versions of this game, but it's basically all the same game. I was very disappointed that it didn't even come with a book or sheet music showing how to play the songs with the color coded keys. This means you have to plug it into the TV to get anything out of it, unless you are interested in trying to figure songs out by ear. If you already have some basic piano instruction, or if you are much older than the recommended 4-8 years, you might find this toy to be educational. But if you are looking for something to teach basic piano or music skills, look elsewhere. If you are looking for a video game, well, you could do a lot better than this for the price. As for fun, my child does enjoy playing with it occasionally, but again, this product was purchased with the idea that it would teach a child how to play the piano, and it absolutely does not.

I have tried all the suggestions from other reviewers--I've held the power button down for up to a minute, and it never comes on. I've made sure the ON/OFF switch on the back is in the ON position. The cartridge is in securely. The power cord is in. I have worked in IT for over 6 years, repairing computers and I cannot get this thing to work. We purchased the first one from Walmart, it worked about a week and died. I returned it and couldn't find another one anywhere locally so I ordered from Amazon. It arrived quickly, everything was OK and now, 3 months later it has died again. Unfortunately I am past the 30 day period for returns on Amazon and I am getting nowhere with Fisher Price, so for now I have a dead piano and I'm out $60. The concept is super cool, my daughter loved it, but it definitely has some sort of power problem.

I got this piano for my 4 year old daughter for Christmas. My first one did what happened to many other people. It stopped turning on after just two uses. My daughter really wanted a new one and so far this one is working. I think it's a great idea, but the music has been difficult for her to keep up with. I'm hoping she'll grow into it. She likes the games though. And she plays with it more just as a keyboard. It irritates me a little that you can't hear the keys play when the game cartridge is being used. You only hear the TV and I have to turn the TV way up to hear anything at all. Part of the way to learn is to hear what the key should sound like. I hate to give it such a low rate because I think it could be such a great thing, but it's probably better for older kids, like seven or eight years old and and older. And the quality isn't so hot for the price. I guess that is to be expected on the first run of anything.