Fisher-Price I Can Play Guitar System (blue)

by Fisher-Price

Product Features

• The Fisher-Price I Can Play Guitar System is kids #1 instrument of choice
• I Can Play Guitar makes learning to play the guitar as easy and fun as playing a game
• It uses the same proven color coding method as the popular "I Can Play Piano!"
• Just pop in the song & game cartridge, plug the guitar into the TV and you¿re ready to rock
• Includes a guitar, strap, pick, one song and game cartridge and cool sticker packs for customizing your guitar
• Plug & play chords also included
• Requires 4 "C" batteries, not included

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 3.3 x 12.5 x 30.1 inches ; 5.1 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 5.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• Shipping Advisory: This item must be shipped separately from other items in your order. Additional shipping charges will not apply.
• ASIN: B000NVVYZQ
• Item model number: K7357
• Our recommended age: 6 - 10 years
• Manufacturer recommended age: 6 years and up
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #89,198 in Toys & Games (See Top 100 in Toys & Games)
  • #93 in Toys & Games > Musical Instruments > Guitars & Strings
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Your child can learn how to play the guitar -- and have fun doing it -- with the Fisher Price I Can Play Guitar System. Designed for children ages six and older, the guitar plugs directly into your TV and teaches your child to play with fun and exciting video game tutorials.

Makes Music Lessons Fun!
Fisher Price's special Music Wizard method uses color codes to teach such skills as strumming, chords, and finding notes on the fret board, as well as basic rhythm and timing skills, all while learning to play fun songs.

Guitar plugs directly into your TV and comes with its own game cartridges.

The guitar is perfectly sized for little hands, and comes with a set of stickers.

In the video game tutorials, your child moves through each entertaining lesson, earns points for completing them, and is rewarded with neat accessories for his or her game character. Once your child masters a level, he or she moves onto more challenging games, learning and improving -- and having fun at the same time. You will never hear complaints about practicing! And what's best, the skills your child will learn transfer easily to learning how to play a "real" guitar.

Perfect for Little Hands
The guitar is perfectly sized for little hands, and your child will enjoy customizing the guitar with the included set of cool stickers. No computer is necessary; the guitar plugs directly into your TV and comes with its own game cartridges. Simply insert the cartridge, plug in the guitar, and your child is ready to play... and learn! The guitar comes with a game cartridge that features eight familiar family songs; additional game cartridges, featuring your child's favorite characters such as SpongeBob and Barbie, can be purchased separately. Four C batteries are required.

What's in the Box
Guitar, strap, pick, 1 song and game cartridge, sticker packs, and plug and play cords.

Product Description

I Can Play guitar is the new learning system that makes learning to play the guitar as easy and fun as playing a game. A hardware software system that plugs into your home TV, the I Can Play Guitar software is designed to have the look and feel of a real video game. Kids learn about fun methods of guitar-playing that eventually translate into them being able to play a real guitar. There are four levels of play for each song. Players advance through these levels based on their performance, earning collectibles along the way. Measures 2.75" x 9.15" x 27.5". Requires 3 "LR44" batteries, not included; and 4 "C" batteries, included.

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

94 of 96 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect for the little (or big) rockstar!, October 23, 2007

By 

J. Hypothesis (Northern Jersey) - See all my reviews

= Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Fisher-Price I Can Play Guitar System (blue) (Toy)

This is a great product that stands apart from the other kids guitars in the marketplace right now in that it's a real learning product...and it's also FUN! For parents, it's very easy to get to work with a television, and has volume control.

Features on the included cartridge include a song play mode, which teachers you to play along to well known songs, and the finger positions learned will translate to a real guitar. The song mode is broken down into three separate levels, and allows younger children to just strum along to the music too.

After the song mode, the cartridge features a game and tutorial that will help you get a feel for the system and is fun. Another feature on the cartridge is the 'jam session' mode, where you can play anything you like on the guitar to a background track. Also, you can unplug the guitar from the TV and let your rockstar play on their own.

In a market currently saturated with musical toys, this stands head and shoulders above them all. Not only is it a whole lot of fun and easy to set up, but it provides real learning that can later be translated to a real guitar. Highly recommended!!

76 of 77 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not bad, but not perfect either..., December 15, 2007

By 

K. Rule (Beaverton, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

= Durability:4.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:3.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Fisher-Price I Can Play Guitar System (blue) (Toy)

My 7 year old son got this for his birthday. It is definitely a hit. He's been playing with it constantly. However, it's a little beyond his ability, especially the fret based games. My 11-year daughter likes it to and has done much better with it.

Initially my son had problems getting it to work that required parental intervention. It turns out the strings are a bit anal about where they are strummed. You have to strum it on the right side of the strings. Any other location will only intermittently register during the game. The other issue is that the video cable is placed in a very bad location. It is located right below the strings and is knocked out regularly when playing the game. Neither of these issues is a killer problem, but was very frustrating initially.

I also bought this locally at a large chain and paid about twice what the Amazon price is. Makes me wish I'd checked with Amazon first.

[Update] My son received several cartridges for Christmas. He's tried several and it's clear that the real educational value is in the additional cartridges. The Hot Wheels cartridge focuses on scales; the Nashville cartridge focuses on cords. I'm sure other cartridges focus on other skills. So be sure to pick up a couple of additional cartridges.

[Update 2] We recently got a copy of Guitar Hero for our Wii. Guitar Hero is a rhythm game -it makes no attempt to teach music skills (other than keeping the beat). It's mostly about synchronizing the (fret) button presses and strum rhythms with the music on the screen. That definitely is more fun and gives you more of an immediate feeling of accomplishment. However, it doesn't give you skills that are useful to playing a guitar. That's the biggest difference between Guitar Hero and "I can play guitar system". The Fisher-Price toy tries to teach skills to play a real guitar. So, yes it's more complicated and not necessarily as fun. But that's not the point.

41 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Needs some tweaks to be a good product, December 26, 2007

By 

Dave P - See all my reviews

= Durability:3.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:1.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Fisher-Price I Can Play Guitar System (blue) (Toy)

I have been playing electric bass for 20+years. I learned the basics on guitar with quite a bit of formal training (bass, guitar, piano). I bought this product for my 6 year old son. He really enjoyed decorating his "Axe" with the stickers that came with it. I think they did a good job with the ergonomics of a 6 year old guitar. The issues:
1) The cable that connects between the guitar and the TV requires a lot of strength to seat properly.
2) The sensors that sense the strum are not very sensitive and must be strummed very hard. So a big -1 on teaching bad strumming habits that will need to be unlearned later on down the road.
3) The sensors are not able to pick up anything faster than a quarter note. Don't expect the kids to get the "funk" feel of a pickup note.
4) The fretting exercises are difficult. They need to focus on 1 string at a time and build up. Apparently they do not understand guitar instruction. After playing Bach Preludes, I struggle to get 75% of the notes with practice. And then factor in the bad sensors and it is frustrating and nearly impossible. My son will not do the fretting stuff. He hands me the guitar and says its too hard.
5) The music notation is backwards from what trained musician's would expect (lowest pitched notes are highest on the screen). So experienced musicians will have a tough time reading the notes. And if the young player gets to a high level of site reading proficiency with this toy, he will need to relearn.
So at the end of the day, it is a TOY. Its educational value is not so great. With the some modifications to the hardware design (sensors) and some improvment on the games (fret hand 1 string at a time build up to all six strings), this could be a good product. I get the impression this was not well thought out by someone with a musical background.