For Chris Salter, learning how to play the piano came easy. But learning how to actually read music was not.

This challenge inspired Salter, a 1983 graduate in linguistics and music, to develop Piano Wizard, a video game that taches users to play piano through a color-coded keyboard and on-screen prompts. The game is already being sold by major online retailers and should reach shelves by the end of the year.

While fun and entertaining, Piano Wizard aims at teaching aspiring musicians how to read music through graduated game play.

In the game’s beginner levels, colorful icons or “notes,” such as dinosaur eggs and rocket ships travel on a straight line from the bottom of the screen toward an on-screen keyboard at the top. When the icons reach the keys on the screen, players hit a corresponding colored key on an electronic keyboard, which plugs into the computer.

As the game advances, notes scroll across the screen horizontally, imitating the lines of the staff and the way music is read. Advanced users can import electronic music files and play along to learn scores and arrangements.

“When most kids start playing the piano, they have a 90 percent failure rate, but it’s not the music, it’s the way we teach music,” Salter said. “This kind of takes the torture out of it, takes the abstractness out of learning how to read the musical language.”

Salter said he first thought of inventing the game shortly after graduating from SIUC. He entered the University in 1978 to study cinematography and began producing films about music.

Shortly after, Salter met piano instructor Don Beattie, who came to the School of Music in 1979, and began taking piano lessons with the new faculty member. While Beattie helped Salter learn to play piano before he graduated, Salter said he never mastered reading music.

Then, a few months after graduating in 1983, Salter took keyboarding classes to learn how to type. He said the lessons were frustrating until he played a typing game, and soon he was typing 40 words per minute. It dawned on him that a piano video game could have the same effect.

After years of consideration, Salter decided to form a business to develop and manufacture the game. Allegro Multimedia was born in August 2001; following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the dot-com business bust, finding investors was difficult.

But $3.5 million and a few patents later, Piano Wizard is riding on the popularity of the video game market. Last year alone, video games made for a $12 billion industry.

Salter said CompUSA recently placed a large order to sell the game, and online retail giants, such as target.com and amazon.com, already sell the game. On target.com, the game retails for $109.99.

He also said a major toy manufacturer is looking into developing the game further for sales late next year and an infomercial featuring the game will debut nationally on Wednesday.

Throughout the process, Salter kept his connection with Beattie and with the SIU School of Music.

This fall, with the help of Beattie, and his wife Delayna Beattie, a Piano Wizard academy was founded in conjunction with the School of Music.

Comprising mostly of 4- to 8-year-olds from the Child Development Laboratory, the academy focuses on teaching children to play the piano and read music through playing the game.

Children work with adult mentors from the School of Music, along with Don and Delayna Beattie, to learn simple songs on the game. After practicing the song on an electronic keyboard, children move to actual pianos to apply what they learned.

The academy and its students are featured in the infomercial, and students from the Department of Radio and Television are developing a documentary about the game and the academy.

“It’s a wonderful and extraordinary game that will ultimately help a whole lot of people,” Don Beattie said. “It’s a wonderful starting point that allows them to read a dozen pieces a day and helps them become literate readers of music while still having fun. Music is a language, and this helps increase their vocabulary.”

Last week, 10 children packed the academy’s cozy studio space one afternoon in the Old Baptist Foundation, singing along to “Merrily we roll along,” which they were learning to play on the game.

After stopping for a brief lesson about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and reviewing music notes, the 3- and-4-year-olds ran to the computers set up with the game. Perched on booster seats and sometimes the lap of a mentor, the children played along, getting instant feedback from the game about their timing and tempo.

“I got a 98 percent!” one little girl shouted out before turning back to the screen to tackle the song again, hoping for a perfect score.

“Don and I are firm believers that music is a birthright not reserved for the elite,” Salter said. “It should be open to all, not just those who have access to classical education. Music is something joyful and joins people at a spiritual level, and allowing everyone to have that is a beautiful thing.”

Although today’s economy is in a slump and many people believe a recession is on the way, there is still a strong demand for music to brighten our mood. Of course, savvy buyers continue to look for great bargains when they purchase their pianos, which is where the new website, http://www.bobspianosforless.com comes in.

Online sites are increasing in popularity, since consumers are always looking for the best deal in today’s economy. Customers that visit this new site find low prices on grand, baby grand, upright and digital pianos from famous makers of quality instruments such as Steinway, Baldwin, Knabe, Bosendorfer, and Bechstein.  In addition to pianos, Bob’s Pianos also features organs by Hammond, Leslie and others. Electronic keyboard are available from top manufacturers including Casio, Ensoniq, Korg, Kurzweil, Roland and Yamaha, making this site an attractive one to those looking for a great deal.

Today many consumers are no longer willing to pay the high prices that high end pianos used to command, although discounted high end pianos still have quite a market. For this reason, many consumers are finding this new site to be an excellent place to purchase the piano they want for prices that truly are affordable, even in today’s economy.

In addition to pianos and organs, Bob’s Pianos also offers for piano and organ parts, piano rolls, and more. Bob’s Pianos for Less is a site that is specifically devoted to keyboard instruments, and it is partnered up with eBay to offer customers an easy way to find great deals.

To find out more about the excellent prices available for quality keyboards, visit http://www.bobspianosforless.com for more information.

 

 

 

 

Most experts recommend that you buy an electronic keyboard with at least 61 keys so that you can play more traditional music. A good option is a piano keyboard with a Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) sometimes known as a USB Keyboard, which can communicate with your computer and other electronic instruments. The USB keyboard is a less expensive option and have no built in sound so can only be used with a computer. It is expert opinion that even the lowest priced piano keyboards perform better than the USB keyboard which loses some sound quality.

Digital Pianos sound closer to the true acoustic piano but they are much more expensive and more suited to experienced players. Digital Pianos are great for professional musicians who travel around and need a portable piano. They also have the ability to reproduce many other sounds as well as piano. Musicians like the fact that they can produce rhythm patterns, bass lines, acoustic and electronic instruments, and percussion sounds, along with all the digital effects like reverb, delay, distortion and chorus.

It really does depend on what type of musician you are when it comes to choosing a keyboard. You might be a DJ wanting to add in some more musical effects or you might want to learn to play without the expense of a full size piano. You may well be a touring musician. The only true restriction is how much you want to spend. Prices start at under £100 and rise to over£3000.