eMedia MyPiano Electronic Keyboard and Learning Software Kit

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Brand: eMedia Music
Category: Musical Instruments

List Price: ~~$129.95~~
Buy New: $99.95
as of 9/6/2010 22:37 EDT details
You Save: $30.00 (23%)

Seller: Hammacher Schlemmer
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars

4 reviews
Sales Rank: 4268

Media: Electronics
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 10
Dimensions (in): 35 x 4 x 10

MPN: EK05094
Model: EK05094
UPC: 746290050942
EAN: 0746290050942
ASIN: B002K6EEI6

Release Date: August 2, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

Features:

•	49-key, touch-sensitive USB MIDI keyboard (4 octaves)
•	It includes an USB cable
•	eMedia Piano & Keyboard Method CD-ROM (300 piano lessons!)

Get Started with the eMedia My Piano Kit

Introducing the eMedia My Piano Kit. This kit has everything your child needs to begin playing the piano: an electronic keyboard sized for small fingers, a power supply, and the USB MIDI interface for connecting the keyboard to your computer. What's more, it comes with a great teacher, the new interactive eMedia My Piano CD-ROM (for Windows & Mac computers) for children ages 5 and up.

	Kids Learn with Award-Winning eMedia My Piano Software The award-winning eMedia My Piano educational software is what sets this keyboard kit apart from all others. In eMedia My Piano an animated character named Pam the Piano leads kids through over 100 lessons, authored and demonstrated by Irma Irene Justicia, M.A., who has taught at the renowned Juilliard School of Music. eMedia My Piano covers basics such as proper hand and finger position, learning notes, counting rhythm, playing harmonies, and reading music. All this and more is taught with popular songs and melodies. The interactive games interspersed throughout the method make learning fun and easy.
eMedia's Videos and Live Recorded Songs Help Kids Learn eMedia My Piano teaches with the help of videos and live recorded songs. The Animated Keyboard shows kids where to put their fingers as the music plays. The speed of the music can be adjusted with MIDI tracks, so kids can learn at their own pace. When My Piano is used with the MIDI keyboard included in this kit, students get feedback on notes and rhythms they played incorrectly and are shown what they should have played instead. Separate audio tracks (left/right hand, piano only/voice only) and colorful MIDI accompaniments provide engaging practice options.
	Additional valuable tools such as a metronome and digital recorder are also included. The eMedia My Piano Kit is the perfect way to introduce children of all ages to playing piano!
The eMedia My Piano Kit electronic keyboard features: 49 midsize keys--size made for kids Built-in speakers LCD Display--shows music notes as played 50 Instrument sounds (includes drum kit) 5 drum pads 30 auto-accompaniment styles 50 demo songs Record and playback feature Metronome Sustain feature One touch accompaniment 8-note polyphony Headphone jack
	Features: Made for kids 49-key "plug-n-play" keyboard with speakers & USB-MIDI interface Full-motion videos guide kids through songs and playing techniques Specific interactive feedback on incorrectly played notes and rhythms Includes interactive games that make learning fun Songs can be sped up or slowed down, so kids can learn at their own pace Software includes an animated keyboard, digital recorder, metronome and over 100 lessons

System Requirements:

Windows:
Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7
64 MB of free RAM, CD-ROM

Macintosh:
Mac OS X 10.3 or later (Intel OK)
64 MB of free RAM, CD-ROM

What's in the Box

Keyboard, Power Supply, USB MIDI Interface, eMedia My Piano CD-ROM

Customer Reviews:
5 out of 5 stars

Fun way to learn keyboard November 30, 2009
Tammy Rogers
57 out of 59 found this review helpful

I got this keyboard for my 7 year old to learn piano. It is a nice keyboard with a lot of instrument sounds, built-in drums and songs. It also comes with a great software program to use with the computer.

She really has latched onto the program and we have worked on it a little every night since we got it. There are some cute elements to it like a talking piano. However, the lessons are serious and have videos of the teacher showing piano skills. We hook it up to our Mac with a cable it comes with. When you play along with the songs, the program points out where you mis-played. It then shows you on the keyboard the mistake and what you should have played.

The keyboard itself seems well made. It has smaller keys than on my piano but that works well for a 7 year old. Their are plenty of instrument sounds for kids to play around with and the drum are fun to play oven. The songs that are built into the keyboard are not as good as the songs that are on the software program, so we have not done too much with that feature. You can see the songs played on the LCD screen on the keyboard but it is so much easier to learn from the software program that shows the music notation on a big screen with a animated piano that plays along with you.

This is great to either a self motivated kid who wants to learn to play or if you you to do it together.

5 out of 5 stars

Electronic Keyboard Fun February 14, 2010
N. Nance (CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA, US)
1 out of 3 found this review helpful

My grandson who is 7 years old has really enjoyed this product and is looking forward to learning to play from the music book.

3 out of 5 stars

It's Okay for basic learning January 8, 2010
A. Dent (Minas Anor, GD)
12 out of 14 found this review helpful

This kit will help a child become somewhat familiar with a keyboard instrument, rhythm, notes, rests and the music staff. Some moderate and usually fun practice with the interactive MyPiano software will have the child progress from 'Mary Had a Little Lamb' (lesson 15) to 'Jingle Bells' (lesson 106). The keyboard interacts with the MyPiano software through the provided MIDI to USB cable.

By the way, the keyboard can be used on its own and similarly, the MyPiano software should be usable with any MIDI-enabled electronic keyboard - I wrote 'should' because I was unable to use it with our VERY OLD (10 years old) MIDI-capable electric piano but I am blaming the piano at this time.

THE KEYBOARD

The 49-key keyboard comes with all the bells and whistles expected from the upper end of the 'inexpensive' class. All the detailed specs are available at the Amazon page so I won't repeat them here. It is powered by either a DC adapter or batteries. An soft but audible hiss can be heard when turning on the device.

One somewhat uncommon enhancement is the LCD display showing which keys are played both on a staff and, for some reason, on a small representation of the keyboard. The notes played appear on the LCD display as small dots, not always easy to see.

The 2 outputs are a PHONES OUTPUT and the MIDI OUT. There is no MIDI IN which was a disappointment but not totally unexpected.

The keys are significantly smaller than those of a true piano. This is presented as a feature meant to accommodate children's small hands but I personally have some doubts that it's a good idea to have children practice with small keyboards if the goal is to make proficient keyboard players. The keys travel a long way and some force is required to press them all the way but the sound is produced when the key reaches 1/3 to half-way down. Hitting the keys harder will not produce a louder sound.

MY PIANO SOFTWARE

The goal of MyPiano is not to produce a concert pianist in 108 easy lessons but, hopefully, to help parents determine if their child is talented and sufficiently motivated to take professional lessons and study the instrument beyond "Jingle Bells" or "Pop! Goes the Weasel". To the extent that the scope of the software is well understood and accepted, both parents and children should have a mostly enjoyable experience.

As I mentioned on the first paragraph, this is an introduction to piano playing and not a lot of time is spent, for example, on the proper sitting and hand position. Yes, there is a lesson on each but a professional instructor will spend months if not years, constantly correcting the student. Lessons are dedicated to identifying the notes on the keyboard, presenting the treble and bass clefs, the music staff and so on. There is only very little practice at playing both hands simultaneously or playing chords.

Technically speaking, the interactivity of the software consists on its ability to monitor whatever is played on the keyboard via the MIDI connection. After the song is played, the software will display a score in the form of a percentage, the assumption being that the higher the percentage, the better was the song played. In practice, this works most of the time but I found that simply pressing the first note of the song and then doing nothing would return me a perfect 100% score.

Other features include a pop-up metronome that duplicates the 'Metro' key on the eMedia keyboard. Most lessons pages come with buttons that would display little videos, play the featured song while a keyboard pop-up display shows which keys are to be pressed by which fingers and, as mentioned before would analyze the student's play and provide a score. While learning a song, the tempo can be slowed down or accelerated to achieve the suggested optimum.

THE LEARNING PROCESS

Studying piano this way can be fun for the child and the child will make a lot of progress, quickly, gaining the ability to play simple songs. However, the ceiling is pretty low - without a true instructor and an understanding of music theory going beyond the basics (no chords or scales are taught here) the student will not go very far. He/she may be able to learn more simple songs or fragments of songs but 'simple' is they key word and, in my view, 'more' is not a synonym for 'better'.

MY EVALUATION

For a basic keyboard teaming up with a not so ambitious piano learning kit, this is an okay package. Our kids learned a couple of songs already but, overall, a 3-star rating should be fair - Amazon's translation of 3-stars is "it's Okay".

3 out of 5 stars

Just starting out is a little hard with this product. February 16, 2010
Scott A. Lucas (Lee's Summit, MO USA)
0 out of 2 found this review helpful

I bought this for my daughter. My step son age 12 is musical talented. I am hope so is my daughter. My daughter age 7 has played with the MyPiano but she says the lessons are to hard and not encouraging for young children.
The piano has a learning feature in the small screen telling which note to push.
It would be better to have the keys light up for learning.
The MyPiano is ok talking to our eMac. I will give a latter review on how long it takes for my children to figure this keyboard out. Note: the MyPiano works really well with Garage Band from apple on the eMac.

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eMedia MyPiano Electronic Keyboard and Learning Software Kit

Get Started with the eMedia My Piano Kit

Kids Learn with Award-Winning eMedia My Piano Software

Features:

System Requirements:

What's in the Box