Customer Reviews

Piano Wizard for PC With 49E Keystation

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

 

 

Be aware, before buying this product, that the Piano Wizard software is not compatible with at least two widely available models of Yamaha keyboards. The company does not specify this on their website but admitted it in an email when my system did not work. I had to buy a different keyboard. Check with the Piano Wizard company before investing in a keyboard.

The kids are having fun with it, however, there is no real lesson plan of any kind and it doesn't teach you proper technique. There is zero structur in that you just pull up a song and try to hit the notes.

Had to respond to the last review:

"...It does not do chords much in the early lessons"

That is correct, and it is intended as such. The lessons are "progressive", each new lesson introducing more notes and more complicated fingering. "Chords" are nothing more than multiple notes, which are eventually introduced in the learning process.

"...and there does not seem to be any way to integrate a child' music lession into the game."

Don't know what that means, but you can "integrate" any lesson into the game by using simple MIDI files (Premier version)

"...I'm sorry that I bought the premier version in addition to the easy version. The premier does not have a lot of the features of the easy version and you have to download their versions of songs, limited availablity."

The Premier has ALL the features of Easy Mode and MUCH more. In fact, Premier comes with BOTH Easy Mode and Premier MODE, so you can decided which to use. You do NOT have to download their versions of songs - it uses any MIDI file. But you can also download more music at - www.WizardTunes.com - perhaps the library was limited at the time of the initial review, but they are now over a thousand songs and growing.

I purchased this software hoping to get some basic instruction and have a little fun. Its very lacking in both areas. The graphics are circa 1990, and the basic premise is find the key and hit it -- find the key and hit it -- find the key and hit it. Its more like that game where you bash the gophers as they come out of the hole than a learning experience.

The interface is setup with "lessons", but these are just a selection of the song you want, and the colors of the notes, orientation of the keyboard, etc. There are no real "lessons", its point and shoot from beginning to end.

Having spent the money I am now in a position of having to research some software that teaches. At least the keyboard that cam with it is OK.

If you looking for something fun and educational, this is not it.

The first day, my 16 year old daughter began using Piano Wizard, it took me over 45 minutes to get her to sit down at the computer and agree to even try it. Our agreement was that she would go through the first steps of the program for 15 minutes and then give me some feedback and she could then be free for other activities of her own choosing. An hour later, I heard her calling me to the computer room and she sounded excited! My daughter never gets excited. I ran to see why she was calling me and she was still sitting at the computer desk. "Listen, she said. I can play the piano." And then she began to play for me several of the songs on the first program, using BOTH hands. I asked her if she had been playing since I had left her in the room and she said she had. I was amazed! She had been playing, on her own initiative for over an hour!

She uses Piano Wizard for fun, to work out stress from school and just to relax and try her hand where there are no requirements except those she puts on herself. for her, it's fun. And who has enough fun in their lives!

Never had opportunity to try the product. E-mails (9) requesting help to m-audio and support@allegrorainbow were either never answered or took over four days and resulted in no help. Calls to m-audio resulted in being put on hold immediately, then put on hold for tech support with no results . The calls were never picked-up. I left my name and phone number on three separate occasions and never received a return phone call. This has been going on since 1/12/08. The company does not care and does not back it's product. They delayed so that the opportunity for return has passed. Piano Wizard for PC With 49E Keystation

I bought this (for Christmas for my daughters) under the assumption that it was the Premiere version of the Piano Wizard software, and that I was saving $20 over the retail price. But, I got the EASY version and spent $30 more! So, if I want to upgrade, it will cost me another $70! If you are buying this, skip Amazon and go direct to the Piano Wizard website.

The one star review is for the failure to label this product the EASY version. The software itself seems pretty good so far, but there are many ways they could have improved it.

Length:: 0:38 Mins

(9/11/2008) My 7 year old is severely retarded, with an IQ of about a 2 year old. Three weeks ago, my mother suggested I teach him to play the piano because she watched on TV some retarded kid who can't do much else but was gifted at the piano. My son has language disabilities so that he cannot understand verbal instructions, but he is fascinated with the computer and the clicking of buttons. So I looked for piano software and found Piano Wizard, hoping that it will work for him.

The Wizard has just a bunch of songs, from easy to hard, that you can choose to learn. My son likes the song Twinkle and can somewhat sing it, so I started him with that. The normal tempo for the song is 86. I cranked it all the way down to 10 so that the notes were coming at a snail's pace, and then I pushed his finger down to strike each note and told him to hit the right color note like the one on the screen. He is able to distinguish colors. After a few minutes, he got it! He was playing only with the right hand, but he got it! That was so exciting for me.

A few days later I added the left hand successfully, then I slowly cranked up the tempo. I didn't think he would ever make it playing at normal speed, but anything he can do is good, he can do so little! His reflexes are not great, and I can soon see that he isn't one of those retarded persons who is gifted at the piano. But, after two weeks of working with Twinkle, he can now play it at the normal tempo and 100 percent correct! He is merely playing one note at a time, but the Wizards offers an accompaniment option that plays really cool background matching music that makes it a lot more fun. So, my son is sounding pretty good now. You can watch him on this video I uploaded here.

Then I started him on a second song called Big Ben about 4 days ago, and in it, he has to strike two keys with two fingers simultaneously, twelve times, to simulate the clock chime. Well, he learned the notes, but he just couldn't get the two fingers to work together. It got to the point that when he gets to the part, I would push his two fingers down together to show him, then he can do the other eleven times by himself. But then, when the song starts again, I have to show him again. Yet, after three days of this, he suddenly got it yesterday!

I have my son practice an hour a day. He seems thrilled at the sense of accomplishment. He could not have learned it the normal way, given his language problems, so the Piano Wizard definitely enabled him to do something he couldn't otherwise. It is EXTREMELY INTUITIVE in its teaching method. You have the color coded keyboard, the fingering number options, and the note name option to help you learn to read music. It turns piano practicing into a video game, teaching you strike the right key at the right time. (Striking the wrong key or at the wrong time makes no sound.)

I particularly like the fact that the keyboard requires no power. It draws its power from the usb port where it plugs into the computer. So, one less plugin to bother with.

Minor complaints:

1. The easy mode program doesn't remember the tempo you choose. So each time my son starts a song, I have to slow down the tempo for him. An option to keep the previous tempo would be nice. The premier mode does allow the temp to stay, but the eggs in there are not as big, so I did not use it at first. It is rather handy, though, once I get used to it and my son gets used to the smaller eggs.
2. The program works in a small window and captures the mouse within. It provides no ready key to maximize the window even though their promotional video shows the program running full screen and therefore easier to see. I maximize it by pushing Alt and Spacebar together, then use up and down arrows to pick Maximize Window. But I think they should have made it easier.
(I later realize that the program is supposed to maximize but didn't in XP. It maximized automatically in Vista.)

3. This Piano Wizard comes with software, keyboard, cord and color stickers to put on the keyboard. I got them working easily on my desktop computer (XP), exactly as their instructions says, but the Wizard will simply not recognize the keyboard when I tried it on my laptop (also XP.) I called their tech support, who was very helpful, spoke American English and spent an hour with me. It still wouldn't work. The gentleman then told me that he has a lot of trouble with laptops, and he doesn't know why. I thanked him anyway. Being a bit of a computer wiz, I afterwards messed around in the device manager in my laptop based on what I learned from the tech guy, and got it to work! YES!!!

I highly recommend this software to anybody wanting to learn the piano, especially kids.

Note: At the time I checked, the Piano Wizard comes in 3 versions on amazon: software only, easy version with keyboard, premier version with keyboard. That's why there are three different prices; I was puzzled at first because Amazon didn't mark the easy version as such. The easy version is cheaper but has only 100 songs. The premier version has the easy version plus 100 more songs.

My kids as well as my husband love this piano. It is a good way to tell if your child will be interested in learning piano and getting the basics down. It won't replace lessons but it is a good place to start. Even if they aren't bound for piano greatness, it is fun. The 49 key station is definately the way to go. The other would be too small.

This software may have been great back in its day, but it is falling quite out of date by now. It didn't work at all for me with Windows 7 64-bit. It just doesn't receive any signals from my keyboard, even after carefully re-installing the latest drivers from M-audio, etc. The same keyboard works just fine in several other programs that I have installed, so there is no excuse for this.

I would strongly recommend waiting for the release of Piano Wizard 2.0 before purchasing. And I wouldn't fall for the "buy 1.0 now, get free 2.0 upgrade later" offer either... I couldn't find any promises on the piano wizard website about when version 2.0 will be released. Elsewhere I found rumors of its impending release from over two years ago! Sounds like it will be out of date again by the time it's released?

I had previously complained that I could not get sound. We had spent hours reinstalling, downloading a driver, pushing buttons... I finally got off work early enough to call customer service (still a problem with their hours). The kind and patient young man I spoke with had the music playing in ten minutes. CALL CUSTOMER SERVICE and save yourself a lot of frustration! It seems to be a fun program that will take many hours to explore. (Note: The midi keyboard needs a program to run through, so don't expect sound unless you are in "free play" or a game.)