Namco Bandai's Easy Piano application for the Nintendo DS aims to teach you how to play the piano and have fun while you do it. It comes with a full octave keyboard peripheral, which is almost definitely a harbinger of piano peripherals to come, if the music game genre continues to move units. Easy Piano is scheduled for release in November 2009 in Europe and PAL regions.
The various game modes will "guide players’ first steps in the piano world and offer the chance for more practiced players to play all-time classics." So, yeah, basically a game/tutorial that teaches basic piano, along with a mode that allows the recording of some and some basic sequencing.
I can play a little keyboard myself, so I'm really hoping this game comes out in the United States. I want to see whether it's actually a useful way to learn piano or just a cheap gimmick. Judging from the picture above, it looks like the latter: That keyboard is tiny, perhaps too tiny to be useful at all. But, I guess for total keyboard-newbs, you could learn some basic musical concepts with this setup.
What do you think? Is it possible to learn music using music games?
Comments
Displaying 1–14 of 14
redmario7
Piano Peripheral looks sweet.
I'm betting that Rock Band should add a Keyboard Peripheral as well.
wildfire405
Wait, doesn't that leave out all your DSi customers who don't have the GBA port?
MahaPanta
Since the DSi is a downgraded version of the DS, with less features (and less battery life), I'd bet my laptop, three bottles of scotch, and a month's pay that this will not work on the inferior DSi.
Why would anyone ever buy a DSi anyway?
Staria
Wow thank you Nintendo for leaving out the DSi owners. So far I Nintendo hasn't given me a reason to feel like buying the DSi was a good idea.
tokz_21
Meh. why would i want to play a mini piano keyboard when i can just go out and buy a bigger one.
For DSi owners who feel shunned. I'm sure Nintendo will come up with wireless piano peripheral but they are going to see if this catches on before they announce it. It makes sense though DS owners outnumber DSi owners, so that is why this is coming out for DS first.
Xero_Wing
well at least the placement seems better than the guitar hero peripheral that thing starts to HURT to use after about 3 songs an that's on easy
ZyloWolfBane
Ya know, it astounds me that people see things like this while nintendo wonders why their sales numbers are dropping..
Gee, I wonder why.....
WildGunMan001
Wow this looks really cool. If it can show me how to play piano I will get this in a instant. Oh wait i forgot i sold my ds lite for a dsi ,nintendo if you make a peripheral make it work with your latests system.
Duskulblaka
I'm skeptical. A keyboard with only one octave cannot efficiently train you to play piano. it can only teahc one hand at a time. This may seem fine with the DS, but should you ever choose to move on to an actual piano or keyboard (which I hope you would), sure, you'll know where the notes are, but your hands simply do not have the experience playing 2 parts at the same time. Until then, you've just played one part with one hand at one time. I mean, I can tell you where any note is on the piano, but I can't play it well using both hands. This will only make you think you can play the piano.
I also would be concerned about a fundamental part of music, which would be scales and modes. Scales and modes that can't be learned with just a single octave. Just playing this, you'll never be able to become a great piano player, if that is what you aspire to be. My advice would be to just go and get an actual piano or keyboard (probably a keyboard, they're light and cheaper).
Perhaps I'm just missing something, or am just being too critical. Bear in mind this is coming from a musician.
Warheart1188
Okay, this is getting very ridiculous. First it was Guitar Hero, then Rock Band, and now this. So far, kids can sing, play guitar, drums, and now piano with video games. This is no substitute for learning the real thing and as long as these games encourage gamers to actually learn the real thing, I'll be fine. But no where on these games do I see such a label. All I see are kids who think they're hot stuff because they can play Dragonforce on expert. For (probably) the price of this game and peripheral, you can buy a cheap 32-key keyboard and get a beginners book and learn it yourself in a much more fun way. One octave ain't going to get you anywhere. Piano also uses TWO hands!
plasticgiantcatbear
"A keyboard with only one octave cannot efficiently train you to play piano."
This. You could probably get a toy keyboard with 4 octaves, a metronome, crap tunes, crap rhythms, recordability and light-up keys for maybe $30, why would you get a one-octave DS peripheral that's likely just going to compromise your battery life while doing absolutely nothing?
It's possible to learn music through games, but this is garbage.
collinE
I'm probably late to the party by commenting so late, but I learned how to play the piano on the NES with the Miracle Piano game. Came with a full size keyboard and walked you through different levels of difficulty.
I stopped playing it and haven't played since, but I knew how to at one point.
BBROBO2010
One thing I think everyone is over looking is how difficult it is to read music for beginning musicians. Even if it is only one octave this could help out any beginner read music and that will transfer into the real world; unlike WoW. So I think it has some potential to grab an audience.
yellowninja
sense Nintendo did not let the DS die down before they released the DSi they will keep making things for DS first/only. until the DS dies down they will not do really cool things for the DSi that will make you want to buy it. And at this rate it will never happen.
"Since the DSi is a downgraded version of the DS, with less features" also the DSi is actually quite an improvement from the DS. it can do much more/ the same things as the DS. Yes is has shorter battery life but that has its reasons ( brighter/slightly improved screens, etc.) and it charges faster so that somewhat makes up for it. They took out the GBA slot to make it sleeker and more portable. That was only a disappointment for die hard GBA fans or anybody who liked to play the Gutarhero DS games, which was not me. But I still have my original GBA though.
Displaying 1–14 of 14
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