looking for a toddler piano

[gardenmom5]

has anyone seen one like this?  If so, where?  is there a name?  (I found a baby einstein one that is the same shape - but it's 100% painted wood.)

Edited November 11, 2021 by gardenmom5

[Dmmetler]

It looks like either Melissa and Doug or the very similar Target line. 

[Ailaena]

Found it; target was right!

https://www.target.com/p/b-toys-wooden-toy-piano-mini-maestro/-/A-79499974
 

a mini piano is a thing, you can find them used for $50-80 (or $200)and they sound pretty good!

[gardenmom5]

3 hours ago, Ailaena said:

Found it; target was right!

https://www.target.com/p/b-toys-wooden-toy-piano-mini-maestro/-/A-79499974
 

a mini piano is a thing, you can find them used for $50-80 (or $200)and they sound pretty good!

It's out of stock online (everywhere, not just at target) - but "limited stock" in Mansfield Tx. dd works in Mansfield so I'm sure she'll check. 

I'm looking at Schoenhut Mini Grand Piano (they like her piano, so they've turned it off at the plug.) for the babies  - so if anyone has any experience with them, I'd be interested.

Kawai makes a mini too.  

Edited November 11, 2021 by gardenmom5

[Clarita]

Here's a video about the Shoenhut Mini Grand Piano. You can hear how it sounds in this video because the piano itself works using a hammer that hits a metal bar rather than a hammer hitting a string in a real piano. 

If you can I would hear the instruments you are considering. It'll be better for all if everyone actually enjoys the sound of the instrument. Personal preference for me is that the instrument is actually tuned. We gave away a toy xylophone because we couldn't stand how out of tune it was. 

 

[gstharr]

The 11th grader  got a Shoenhut for his second Christmas.  Very nice looking mini piano.  The tin sound really didn't matter.  He played with it for a week,  The thing collected dust in our living room for a couple of years before we handed it down.  It has been circulating in my extended family ever since.

 

[Dmmetler]

Here's a video on the Kawai one. The sound is pretty great, but might get irritating if played by a toddler instead of an adult 🙂 

 

 

 

 

[gardenmom5]

10 hours ago, Clarita said:

Here's a video about the Shoenhut Mini Grand Piano. You can hear how it sounds in this video because the piano itself works using a hammer that hits a metal bar rather than a hammer hitting a string in a real piano. 

If you can I would hear the instruments you are considering. It'll be better for all if everyone actually enjoys the sound of the instrument. Personal preference for me is that the instrument is actually tuned. We gave away a toy xylophone because we couldn't stand how out of tune it was. 

 

A Melissa & Doug Xylophone went right back because it sounded awful.    Their "pianos" are just xylophones and sound awful.

The Schoenhut makes several versions with different numbers of keys.  The 15 key isn't even on the list.

Kawai makes one . . . . 

Edited November 12, 2021 by gardenmom5

[Dmmetler]

These are both essentially celestas-just smaller and a LOT more affordable. I wouldn't mind getting a Kawai one for my studio just as an example and to experiment with, 

 

[gardenmom5]

@clarita - the reason I was looking for the one in the first picture is my dd's neighbor had one and she wanted to get one. Btw: - the neighbor is a grad student in piano.

[gardenmom5]

I found this video of the restoration of a very old toy piano.

 

[Clarita]

55 minutes ago, gardenmom5 said:

@clarita - the reason I was looking for the one in the first picture is my dd's neighbor had one and she wanted to get one. Btw: - the neighbor is a grad student in piano.

I think the Kawai one sounds better, but I don't know if that could be recording differences in the two videos. Oh the mini pianos are super cute and xylophones can sound great. There is just a lot of kid instruments out there that are terrible, and you can't judge by the price either. Both the Kawai and the Schoenhut sound fine. 

[gardenmom5]

18 minutes ago, Clarita said:

I think the Kawai one sounds better, but I don't know if that could be recording differences in the two videos. Oh the mini pianos are super cute and xylophones can sound great. There is just a lot of kid instruments out there that are terrible, and you can't judge by the price either. Both the Kawai and the Schoenhut sound fine. 

There isn't a recording of the one dd is looking for, that she has actually heard and said sounded nice.  Her piano grad student neighbor is happy enough with it not to ban it from their house - so it's probably OK.   @Ailaena found it.  It's basically a super cheap Target toy piano and is sold out everywhere (even non-target locations that had it).  The website implies there might be one near where dd works (But will not allow an online purchase to pick up in store) - and she will check the next time she goes to work.  (She works one day a week.)

I started looking for another possibility for the boys.  She has a digital piano - but dsil put it on a remote switch so dgs can't just go play it whenever he wants.   Part of that is dsil works from home a lot of the time, so he can't have a loud piano in the background.  A toy piano can be put in the playroom.

[Ailaena]

I know we are all picky about sound, but there’s a respected music school near us that uses the 25-key Schoenhut for their intro to piano for 3-4 year olds.  We took that class just before ds turned 3 and it was a fun intro to piano with a tiny child and a tiny piano.

I know there are fully functioning mini pianos with 64 or 66 keys because I saw one on Craigslist recently for $80 and wanted to buy it for no reason, at all 😛

I say buy the schoenhut!

 

[gardenmom5]

6 minutes ago, Ailaena said:

I know we are all picky about sound, but there’s a respected music school near us that uses the 25-key Schoenhut for their intro to piano for 3-4 year olds.  We took that class just before ds turned 3 and it was a fun intro to piano with a tiny child and a tiny piano.

I know there are fully functioning mini pianos with 64 or 66 keys because I saw one on Craigslist recently for $80 and wanted to buy it for no reason, at all 😛

I say buy the schoenhut!

 

I'm waiting to hear from dd if she wants it or not.     Those kids have so much  - stuff  (though I did get them a Pooh, and piglet to go with their Whinny the pooh books.). . . .   I don't want to buy "stuff".    But, to me, a child sized piano is different.  She's hoping to get back into piano lessons for herself.  (she did viola growing up, and has a decent one.)

 

[Clarita]

37 minutes ago, gardenmom5 said:

I'm waiting to hear from dd if she wants it or not.     Those kids have so much  - stuff  (though I did get them a Pooh, and piglet to go with their Whinny the pooh books.). . . .   I don't want to buy "stuff".    But, to me, a child sized piano is different.  She's hoping to get back into piano lessons for herself.  (she did viola growing up, and has a decent one.)

It's good that you are asking. Especially if dd wants to go back to piano lessons. With rules in place the kids can also just play with the adult piano. (It's what my kids did because we already had a piano.) Our family buys into the building musicality starting young as opposed to being able to play an instrument young. I'm more the Orff approach more than the Suzuki method of doing music with my kids. So I'm pretty satisfied with them being able to pound notes out on the piano and experiment with sound even though there is no way they could properly play it.  

[gardenmom5]

5 minutes ago, Clarita said:

It's good that you are asking. Especially if dd wants to go back to piano lessons. With rules in place the kids can also just play with the adult piano. (It's what my kids did because we already had a piano.) Our family buys into the building musicality starting young as opposed to being able to play an instrument young. I'm more the Orff approach more than the Suzuki method of doing music with my kids. So I'm pretty satisfied with them being able to pound notes out on the piano and experiment with sound even though there is no way they could properly play it.  

she has a digital.  It is set-up so they can't play it - the power is on a remote switch that must be turned on for the Piano to work.  1dgs will hit the 'auto-play' button and listen to music on it.  and accompany it . . .   dsil works from home most of the time and the piano isn't far from his office - he generally would leave the doors open for air circulation.  A toy piano has advantages in that it can be moved to a different room.

I'm very pro- music lessons for kids - but the oldest just turned three.