| | |  | Pretend Play & Dress-up | Home » » » I Can Play Guitar Blue | | | | | | WARNING:| CHOKING HAZARD -- Small parts. Not for children under 3 yrs. |
| | | Description: | | I Can Play guitar is the new learning system that makes learning to play the guitar as easy and fun as playing a game. A hardware software system that plugs into your home TV, the I Can Play Guitar software is designed to have the look and feel of a real video game. Kids learn about fun methods of guitar-playing that eventually translate into them being able to play a real guitar. There are four levels of play for each song. Players advance through these levels based on their performance, earning collectibles along the way. Measures 2.75" x 9.15" x 27.5". Requires 3 "LR44" batteries, not included; and 4 "C" batteries, included. | | | Features: | |
• The Fisher-Price I Can Play Guitar System is kids #1 instrument of choice
• I Can Play Guitar makes learning to play the guitar as easy and fun as playing a game
• It uses the same proven color coding method as the popular "I Can Play Piano!"
• Just pop in the song & game cartridge, plug the guitar into the TV and you¿re ready to rock
• Includes a guitar, strap, pick, one song and game cartridge and cool sticker packs for customizing your guitar
• Plug & play chords also included
• Requires 4 "C" batteries, not included
| | | Product Details: | | | Product Length:
| 3.3 inches | | Product Width:
| 12.5 inches | | Product Height:
| 30.1 inches | | Product Weight:
| 5.1 pounds | | Package Length:
| 30.0 inches | | Package Width:
| 16.2 inches | | Package Height:
| 3.0 inches | | Package Weight:
| 5.1 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 35 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 35 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
94 of 96 found the following review helpful:
 Perfect for the little (or big) rockstar!Oct 23, 2007
By J. Hypothesis
This is a great product that stands apart from the other kids guitars in the marketplace right now in that it's a real learning product...and it's also FUN! For parents, it's very easy to get to work with a television, and has volume control.
Features on the included cartridge include a song play mode, which teachers you to play along to well known songs, and the finger positions learned will translate to a real guitar. The song mode is broken down into three separate levels, and allows younger children to just strum along to the music too.
After the song mode, the cartridge features a game and tutorial that will help you get a feel for the system and is fun. Another feature on the cartridge is the 'jam session' mode, where you can play anything you like on the guitar to a background track. Also, you can unplug the guitar from the TV and let your rockstar play on their own.
In a market currently saturated with musical toys, this stands head and shoulders above them all. Not only is it a whole lot of fun and easy to set up, but it provides real learning that can later be translated to a real guitar. Highly recommended!!
77 of 78 found the following review helpful:
 Not bad, but not perfect either...Dec 15, 2007
By K. Rule
My 7 year old son got this for his birthday. It is definitely a hit. He's been playing with it constantly. However, it's a little beyond his ability, especially the fret based games. My 11-year daughter likes it to and has done much better with it.
Initially my son had problems getting it to work that required parental intervention. It turns out the strings are a bit anal about where they are strummed. You have to strum it on the right side of the strings. Any other location will only intermittently register during the game. The other issue is that the video cable is placed in a very bad location. It is located right below the strings and is knocked out regularly when playing the game. Neither of these issues is a killer problem, but was very frustrating initially.
I also bought this locally at a large chain and paid about twice what the Amazon price is. Makes me wish I'd checked with Amazon first.
[Update] My son received several cartridges for Christmas. He's tried several and it's clear that the real educational value is in the additional cartridges. The Hot Wheels cartridge focuses on scales; the Nashville cartridge focuses on cords. I'm sure other cartridges focus on other skills. So be sure to pick up a couple of additional cartridges.
[Update 2] We recently got a copy of Guitar Hero for our Wii. Guitar Hero is a rhythm game -it makes no attempt to teach music skills (other than keeping the beat). It's mostly about synchronizing the (fret) button presses and strum rhythms with the music on the screen. That definitely is more fun and gives you more of an immediate feeling of accomplishment. However, it doesn't give you skills that are useful to playing a guitar. That's the biggest difference between Guitar Hero and "I can play guitar system". The Fisher-Price toy tries to teach skills to play a real guitar. So, yes it's more complicated and not necessarily as fun. But that's not the point.
41 of 43 found the following review helpful:
 Needs some tweaks to be a good productDec 26, 2007
By Dave P
I have been playing electric bass for 20+years. I learned the basics on guitar with quite a bit of formal training (bass, guitar, piano). I bought this product for my 6 year old son. He really enjoyed decorating his "Axe" with the stickers that came with it. I think they did a good job with the ergonomics of a 6 year old guitar. The issues:
1) The cable that connects between the guitar and the TV requires a lot of strength to seat properly.
2) The sensors that sense the strum are not very sensitive and must be strummed very hard. So a big -1 on teaching bad strumming habits that will need to be unlearned later on down the road.
3) The sensors are not able to pick up anything faster than a quarter note. Don't expect the kids to get the "funk" feel of a pickup note.
4) The fretting exercises are difficult. They need to focus on 1 string at a time and build up. Apparently they do not understand guitar instruction. After playing Bach Preludes, I struggle to get 75% of the notes with practice. And then factor in the bad sensors and it is frustrating and nearly impossible. My son will not do the fretting stuff. He hands me the guitar and says its too hard.
5) The music notation is backwards from what trained musician's would expect (lowest pitched notes are highest on the screen). So experienced musicians will have a tough time reading the notes. And if the young player gets to a high level of site reading proficiency with this toy, he will need to relearn.
So at the end of the day, it is a TOY. Its educational value is not so great. With the some modifications to the hardware design (sensors) and some improvment on the games (fret hand 1 string at a time build up to all six strings), this could be a good product. I get the impression this was not well thought out by someone with a musical background.
31 of 32 found the following review helpful:
Great way to playOct 31, 2007
By Jane Whitman
My grandson received this for his birthday, and loves it. He is 7, and still has a ways to go yet, but it holds his interest, and he enjoys it. I would recomend this toy.
45 of 57 found the following review helpful:
A poor attempt.Nov 20, 2007
By R. Moore
"old gamer"
My five-year-old is addicted to Guitar Hero, so when I saw this product, I thought it would be a great way to wean him off that game and onto something that would actually help him learn. Unforutnately, the product doesn't live up to my expectations. The sound and "fun" quality just aren't there. The guitar isn't responsive enough, so he has to strum very hard to get it to recognize any input. The game doesn't do enough to teach how to use the guitar, and all the buttons and colors become very confusing. But this is for six years and up, you say? Well, I have just as much trouble as he does with it.
Guitar Hero has already set the bar high for sound quality and graphics. Coming in late to the game, even if it is intended for a younger audience, this product should be of a little higher quality. The benefit was supposed to be that it teaches, but it does a very poor job of that as well.
Bottom line: this product just isn't very much fun.
See all 35 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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