Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Recommended Resources Any feedback regarding the piano wizard?

Has anyone purchased the piano wizard for their child(ren)? If so, what do you think of it? Is it worth the money? What package did you buy?

I'm thinking about buying it for my DS6 who is very interested in learning the piano. We tried piano lessons for a couple of months about a year and a half ago, but that turned him off to piano for about a year. So I was looking for other options besides lessons at this point...

Thanks for any feedback you can give me!

I bought the piano wizard premiere for my DD as a Christmas present. Keep in mind she is only 2 so I don't expect she will have a full ability at this age. I choose the premiere b/c you are not limited to the songs they provide. You can download anything and the program converts it so they can play.

I have mixed opinions on it. The video game strategy is brilliant and even with a two year old she is able to 'get' the concept of when to push the key and what color key to push. My problem is I don't like the additional background music that is played for the song. I would rather it be completely them playing to produce the music. But this is level one and perhaps by level 4 the background music goes away. I will look at it and let you know. Overall, I am happy with the purchase and she loves it. She doesn't play it everyday but when she is in the mood it is there for her and she will play for a good hour which is amazing at this age.

If your son is into video games or even the wii rockstar or guitar hero games then the piano wizard will be right up his alley. It will be something he won't feel pressure doing and it will be fun. That alone might encourage him to give the piano another try.

Thanks for the feedback, Katelyn's Mom. My DS6 is VERY into video games (although we greatly limit his time on them), so this might be right up his alley!

Do you think that the skills learned on Piano Wizard will be easily transferable to a real piano?

That is the concept behind it. There is four levels and by the fourth level they are reading sheet music and playing the piano. I read a lot on it before purchasing it and there was a lot of positive reviews about how easy it was for their child to get through the levels and is now reading the notes and playing the piano.

I've never heard of the Piano Wizard, so I can't give any comments, but my DD6 is taking piano lessons, for about the last year now. We actually also did try piano lessons for her when she was about 4 or so, but it didn't work out well - AT ALL.

Since then we have moved and are taking lessons at a different place. The piano teacher makes all the difference. We found a teacher who is passionate about teaching KIDS music, not just making money off of lessons. She's really great with kids. Perhaps a change in teacher is all that is needed?

Also, my DD loves playing the piano because she's good at it. The key to good music lessons is finding something they love to do. My DH tells the story about how he wanted to learn the Keyboard (like Ross in Friends ) when he was younger. But his mom forced him to take Piano lessons instead of the keyboard --- he hated that and never took music lessons again. Maybe a different instrument may pique his interest?

Good Luck!

This is sort of a dumb question, but I'm new here....... what does dd, dh, and ds stand for? I'm assuming it means son, daughter, and husband, and then you follow it with the age if you want, but what's with the "d" before it?

d is for dear