Cheap USB Teach Me Piano Kit (Software) (Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP) Price

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Customer Reviews of USB Teach Me Piano Kit

Great USB-to-MIDI cable, OK software
I was looking for a USB-to-MIDI cable to hook up my Yamaha keyboard to my computer, and came across this. As this kit of the USB cable and piano-teaching software only cost a few dollars more than just buying the USB-to-MIDI cable, I bought this instead. FYI, I'm an adult who's just learning how to play piano for the first time. <
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>The USB-to-MIDI cable works great. It's a Turtle-Beach brand cable that's about 10ft. long. I was able to install the driver software and start using the cable right away. It's great to be able to play the MIDI files I've downloaded and have them sound fantastic through the Yamaha keyboard. I've even managed to download a freeware sequencer software and record my first "song" (a one-handed rendition of Oh! Susanna). <
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>The teaching software is good, but as others have noted, is dated and it shows. It runs without any problems (so far) on my Windows XP laptop. The program runs fullscreen at 800x600 resolution--so if you have a 20+ inch flat panel running at 1600x1200 desktop resolution, your eyes will suffer and your sense of aesthetics will be highly offended! As far as I can tell, there's no option to run the program in a window. <
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>Once I got past the initial "yikes" factor (of the screen resolution and display), I am finding that I am learning far more with this software's combination of onscreen tutorials, video clips (of someone actually playing the piano) and audio instructions, and keyboard-to-computer interface and its immediate feedback, than I have been with a couple of teach-yourself-piano type books. This software isn't too big on theory or preparation (finger exercises, etc.), but is good for getting you actually start learning with the keyboard. <
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>There's another program included called "Songbook," which comes with 75 songs that you can learn to play; you can watch the program play it with proper timing, and then try to play it yourself, either by reading the music properly or by cheating and reading the numbers above the treble staff (for example, "1" is the middle C chord, "2" is D, etc.). There's also a rudimentary grading built into the lessons and the Songbook. <
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>You're supposed to be able to download MIDIs from the internet and import them into the Songbook and learn to play them, but so far I have not been able to do so (unexpected program error blah blah blah). I've only tried a couple, and will try others and update the review later on this aspect of the software. <
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>I'd give the USB-to-MIDI cable 5 stars in a heartbeat, and the sofware probably 4 stars. I'll round up and give the whole package 5 stars. For an extra few dollars beyond buying just the USB-to-MIDI cable, this is a good value and choice for those just starting out on learning to play piano.

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Better than emedia
My friend has both emedia and teach me piano. The former is more like a traditional classroom teaching. The latter involves practice from the very beginning. Before you finishing first chaptor, you are able to play a real song. Very rewarding. I am going to buy my own teach me piano.

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An old, out-of-date product., cira Win95
I was quite disappointed with this software. The MIDI USB adaptor was fine, but the piano tutoral was very primitive with low res. graphics and it doesn't even support long filenames!! It looks like it was designed for Windows 95 and hasn't been updated since. <
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>I'm suprised they still market this. If I didn't need the MIDI adaptor for other things, I would have returned the whole package.