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Musical Joey

Dave Cook discovers a fun way to teach kids how to read and play music.

All kids love music. But let’s face it; given a choice, most children would rather play games than face a gruelling music lesson. Take Joey, for example. Joey is just your average kid on the block. He’d love to play the piano, but frankly his daily lessons have become a right old pain.

Joey’s life changes irreversibly on the day his mother gives him a tongue-wagging for being lazy. In a fit of pique, Joey accidentally breaks a piano key and it bounces to the floor. What happens next suggests that Joey is into something a little heavier than 30 minutes of music lessons per day. From the piano, a bright, mysterious light appears and, as it drifts towards Joey, someone calls out his name. 

Being a curious lad, Joey steps towards the piano to investigate - only to stumble and fall head-over-heals into the gap caused by the broken piano key (okay, okay, remember this is for kids, so you have to use your imagination!). 

Anyway, once inside the piano, Joey is quickly whisked away to the remarkable world of Zauber. Now Zauber is a land of fun. Here, young students can employ a variety of tools and instruments to compose, arrange and listen to their very own musical masterpieces. All that’s required is a 200MHz Pentium compatible computer (or faster), running Windows 95 or later, with 32MB RAM, a USB or PS2 port, and a CD-ROM drive.

Compiano

 Musical Joey is aimed at children from the ages of five years and up. The product consists of a computerised piano, called a compiano, and some highly entertaining, interactive software. In fact, the compiano is actually a 3-octave keyboard. The compiano plugs into the rear of computer either through the USB port or by means of a divider cable, which links the device to the computer via a PS2 keyboard.

 The compiano is available in three colour options: purple, green, and yellow. It measures approximately 22.5x6x1.5 inches. It’s also surprisingly sturdy, with the piano keys having a nice, realistic “feel”. In addition, the compiano provides several other features including a joystick touchpad, plus Help, Pause, Echo, Vibration, Jump, and Action shortcut keys.

Up And Running

The software installs easily and, once up and running, Musical Joey’s main menu presents you with three special interfaces: Lesson mode, Game mode, and Play mode. In Lesson mode, the zany Professor Compi guides you through the 10 rooms of the magic castle, with each room teaching you the basic concepts of piano music. 

Just about everything is covered: from advice on hand positioning to more advanced lessons covering time signatures, and sharps and flats. Lessons are generally easy to understand. However, more advanced beginners might like to skip some of the most basic stuff.

The Games area provides four main games. From Hunting Bugs to Gopher’s Go Go, each game manages to instil lots of fun whilst providing the student with the music fundamentals. That said, moving around this area is not always intuitive and young students in particular might require a guiding hand at first.   

Finally, the Piano Room is the place to compose music, or to simply choose a song and learn how to play it. Play mode contains around 60 songs, while the Staff screen allows the student to play freely using a variety of instruments.

Verdict

Musical Joey is ideal for kids, who, weary of more traditional methods, would rather learn music the fun way. Whisper it quietly, but it would make an ideal Christmas present! 

Dave Cook