Customer Reviews

Kitty Keyboard Musical Piano Recorder Toy Parents Magazine

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I highly recommend this kitty piano! We bought it for my daughter for her 2nd birthday and 5 months later she LOVES it! I really have nothing bad to say about this piano.. at all. I would just like to list all the pros about it!
- There is a volume control! YES! You (mom, dad, grandma, whoever) can actually turn down the volume to a reasonable level! Now granted.. she has figured out how to turn it back up.. but, point is.. there is a volume control!
- Microphone - and it works! It is retractable.. up to about a foot? Maybe less.. and it works, my daughter loves to sing in it. And, all you do is press the little button and it goes back into the keyboard!
- It records! My daughter hasnt figured out this feature yet.. but, it records your music and what you sing! That's pretty neat..
- She loves the music and songs. Has several really cute songs. Has songs with lyrics.. and just instrumental songs.
- Durable.. oh my.. is it ever! I have playdates regularly at my house.. and the kids have dropped it.. stood on it.. ran over it with the shopping cart / stroller.. and it has withheld it all! 5 stars regarding durability!
- You can tune the keys to play different sounds.. regular piano.. and some other instruments.. but also to a kitty! So.. when you press the keys it meows at you.. how cute?!
- After it sits out a while.. you'll hear the piano purr.. and meow once.. as to try to get the toddlers attention one last time. If toddler doesnt come back to it, it just shuts off. So.. if they start playing a song or whatever.. it does stop, its on a timer.. so you dont have to keep turning that off switch.

Love this toy.. highly recommended for any toddler. I dont have a negative thing to say about this toy.. all positive.. 5 stars!

First of all, for the people who are opening up their cat keyboards and cutting wires to avoid the little songs...please people, get over yourselves. It's a kids toy. It's called "go play that in your room" if the sound gets too annoying. If you are not in to "meow meows" or cat songs, and just want a piano for your kids to learn on...then by all means don't buy a giant smile cat keyboard.

Overall this keyboard is fun for kids as they can play with 5 sounds, 5 rhythms, tempo speed control, keyboard record and playback, quite a few songs (no lyrics) they can sing to with their mic, and a few silly songs with lyrics that are all about cats.

There is however one big flaw which is why I knocked off 2 stars. The "piano" and "organ" sound are a 1/2 step off. The "bells" "banjo" and "meow" keyboard sounds are correct on key. So, if you are hoping to raise up a future musician...chances are when they go to learn "C" in a music lesson - their brains may be a little off whack as they will have been hearing a B flat all those years (especially if they are gifted with perfect pitch). Probably not a big deal to most, probably many who own this didn't even notice. But go check. I own two of these and they both do it. The worst part is the piano has the name of the note right above each piano key. Someone in China must have really been out to lunch when they approved this thing to start going down the assembly line. I mean, it's a piano...the only thing you really need to make sure it does is play the right notes right? lol.

My almost two year old loves this little piano. And for all the different things it does, I think its a great value. He likes to listen to the songs, play his own tunes and talk into the microphone. The songs are cute (although the words are kind of surprising!) and set to familiar tunes.

The toy is quite durable and we haven't had any problems with chipping paint or microphone feedback as previous reviewers have mentioned.

LOVE the kitty keyboard! Every day we discover new buttons. Who knew that you could make a song out of meows instead of notes? So cool! My hubby and I probably appreciate it much more than our 8 month old, but that's OK, right? If you want to be entertained along with your kid, this is a good one!!

I bought this Kitty Keyboard for my boyfriend as a christmas present because he is a musician and we love cats with an unholy passion! We love it, I'm not very musically talented but I can bust out some serious jams on this. My favorite thing to do is set the beat on techno and the keyboard on meow and make a few meows. He's already recorded some intense songs with it, if you know any wierdos who love kittys and play keyboard buy this for them!

There are YEARS of play in this toy! Not just a keyboard or drum tempos -- so many songs and clever+funny variations on old stand-bye tunes. But then there's the fantastic capacity to play any tune in musical "meows" ? We are totally impressed and have now given it as a gift to a 3 year old, and a 5 year old who both loved it. Our own son has had nothing peel off and we have no "feedback" problems others noted. I just wish the microphone recorded child's singing. We love how the cat left behind "purrs" itself automatically off to conserve batteries. This is a really really really good toy. And good value.

Bought this toy as a gift for a relative and they totally love it. I dont know who likes it more, the Mother or the 1 year old child. Gift was a big hit!

My daughter LOVES this toy. It offers variety and the sound is good. Unlike the other reviewer, we haven't had any problem with feedback.

Here's a tip before I start my review: this keyboard appears to be the same as the B. Meowsic Keyboard, the only differences appear to be the color, the Parents logo, and the price (right now the Parents brand keyboard is a lot more expensive!). UPDATE: The B. Meowsic Keyboard is now twice the price it was when I originally wrote this review!

Reviewer CET has it right, the various sounds on this keyboard aren't all in the same key! So if you play a C using some sounds, it's a C# using other sounds. So much for hoping this keyboard helps your child have perfect pitch.

But a bigger downside is the actual wrong notes the keyboard generates when you play keys rapidly. Keyboards should not introduce random wrong notes! I've never seen a keyboard that suffers from this problem (UPDATE: I DISCOVERED THE WRONG NOTES OCCUR WHEN THE BATTERIES GET LOW). Another downside is that you can only play a 2 notes at a time, so you can't play chords. Most keyboards I've tried let you play at least 4-8 notes at a time, so that makes this keyboard much less musical than most. Even the cute shape of the keyboard mouth ends up being a hindrance, because it's difficult to play the tiny keys at either end of the mouth. A straight keyboard is much easier to use, if you want to use the full range of keys. So this is a really neat toy, but just less like a "real" keyboard than most other options, and I don't think it's worth the current [...] price (we got it as a gift, and I assumed it was a cheapo $20 toy).

The built-in mic works, though the sound is very distorted. But I wouldn't expect much more than that, so I'm satisfied with that part of this keyboard. There's a record and play button, which records the notes you play on the keyboard (doesn't record the microphone). This works okay if you play very basic stuff, but the more complex you get, the less accurate the recording sounds. Technically, it's recording and playing back the events of pressing the keys, not recording the audio.

I'm not thrilled with all 5 sounds, but the Meow sound is fun to play with (anyone remember old Meow-Mix commercials?).

This toy also has two sets of programmed music recorded, one is just music (w/o words), and the other is recorded popular children's songs, but with totally made-up lyrics about cats (because it's a Kitty Keyboard). I find some of them just sound obnoxious, but my year-old son loves to just press these buttons as if he's turning on a radio and listening to music.

The best thing about this keyboard is you don't have to worry about turning it off, it's really good at conserving power, and turning itself off after you haven't used it in awhile. So it goes a long time on a single set of batteries. Note that the keyboard makes strange noised when you haven't used it for awhile, maybe to remind you to turn it off? Not sure, but that is sometimes weird. Oh, and lots of pounding and dropping hasn't seemed to do any damage.

A great, sturdy keyboard for toddlers. Also has the two greatest parental features ever: a volume button and a "Stop" button.