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Casio’s 61-key CTK-496 has everything a beginner needs on board: 100 tones, 100 rhythms, 100 songs. The familiar CD player control buttons (stop, play/pause, rewind, fast forward) make child’s play of song bank operation. The on/off buttons for the right and left hand–as well as the button for activating the chord book function–are located just beside the song-bank controller. The instrument offers 12-note polyphony, which means up to 12 keys or voices may be sounded simultaneously. The song book included in the package yields insight into notes and lyrics. Once you’ve rehearsed the tunes, the next job is waiting: Sing Along via the top-panel microphone input and dedicated volume control. Other features include MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) in/out, auto-accompaniment, assignable pedals, a headphone jack, and 2 speakers powered by 2 watts each. Power the unit using an optional AC/DC adapter (model AD-5) or with 6 AA batteries (not included) (more…)

Whether you’re a professional musician or a mere novice, Apple’s GarageBand software has everything you need to produce commercial-quality recordings entirely on your own. Just imagine how many thousands of singers and instrumentalists remain undiscovered because they lack the capability to produce viable demos. Well, no more. Now there’s no need to assemble a backup band or book time at a professional studio–GarageBand has it covered. And “GarageBand 2: The Missing Manual” gives you the know-how you need to make it all happen. It’s an authoritative, witty guide to constructing digital recordings with GarageBand. Written by the master of the Missing Manual series, and a musician himself, David Pogue, this top-selling book shows you how to maximize the program’s entire set of tools. Pre-recorded loops, sampled sounds, live recordings–they’re all explained in easy-to-understand language. It also shows you how to apply professional-sounding effects like reverb or chor (more…)

A very important factor in helping to motivate a child to learn piano is for them to have their own piano or keyboard so they can practice their music and have a sense of ownership and pride about their musical instrument. Hopefully this will work to inspire the child to practice and continue to improve their piano playing skills. Of course, it is wise to determine how much enthusiasm the child has about learning to play piano prior to your decision to purchase one just for them. When a child is first learning to play on a piano, they won’t need a full size 88-key piano keyboard, but as their skills grow and they become more advanced piano players, they will certainly want to have a full piano with a regular sized set of keys.

A digital piano or keyboard is a wonderful idea for an introduction into a child’s piano playing study. A digital piano usually has the ability to record music and even download music files from the internet, which can be great learning tools to aid in the child’s piano playing development. Another added benefit of these features on digital pianos is the capability to save the music you play, and can e-mail it to anybody you want. Children can send songs they have played and recorded on their digital piano through email to grandparents or other relatives, and won’t they be proud! There are many more great features on most high quality digital pianos and keyboards as well. A majority of them have several pre-recorded songs that can be utilized as learning tools as your child plays along with the recording. On most digital keyboard pianos, the child can mute certain parts of the recorded songs and play the muted part themselves on the keyboard. This is a fun and excellent way for a child to learn piano, when it comes to learning to play piano, there is nothing better than hands-on experience.