Reviews - A Baby Grand For Little Hands

Sharon Abbott - music genius and entrepreneur - had a brilliant idea. How about making a musical toy for toddlers that is also a proper hand-made piano in miniature - that you don’t need batteries for!

One of my personal gripes about musical toys for little ones is that they are never ‘real’ enough and are expensive considering that they don’t have a very long shelf-life. A plastic guitar on which you can press a button only to hear a distorted jangly tune being played is enough to put anyone off music for life! And it is inevitable that they will either get broken or end up being forgotten about as they don’t really stimulate the child effectively to inspire them to learn the instrument.

At home, we are very musical and we have plenty of instruments around the house including an old piano (from Free-Cycle) a few guitars, an electric gigging piano, drums, percussion, whistles and our newest addition - a baby grand! Our little daughter Maya (13 months at the time of writing) was very impressed when we opened up the box and set up the Keyskills piano in our lounge at home. And she has played on it every single day, sitting ‘nicely’ on the stool that comes with it (and sometimes standing up and playing or sitting on the lid!) The sound is quite ‘music-box-esque’ - a really pretty sound which is accomplished in the same way you’d get a note out of a ‘real’ piano. You hit a key, the key is attached to a hammer and the hammer strikes a steel rod. This is cause and effect at its finest! There are over two octaves (with 30 keys) and you can play as many keys at a time as you wish (a task you can’t usually perform on a toy keyboard - which is very frustrating as this is a prominent factor in the developing of specific skills when mastering the key board).

Observing Maya whilst she plays her own little piano is fascinating as we see how she picks out each note with one finger, sometimes playing a little chord or two and even tunes (perhaps unbeknownst to her but I swear she played ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ the other day!)

As a music teacher by profession, I cannot emphasize enough to parents how important it is for a child to foster a love for music from the earliest age. This is something I feel passionate about - not just to give our children official lessons when they are older but to bring music-making to life and to make it an integral part of the daily routine, in and around the home. Every single day Maya comes downstairs and her piano is there - just like the table and chairs and everything else that she instinctively knows how to use. Sometimes we’ll say ‘Do you want to play your piano?’ and she will immediately crawl over to play it. Other times one of us will sit with her and show her basic tunes and how to play - and she copies and takes it all in surprisingly well. Never underestimate your child (or baby) when it comes to learning something new. On the Keyskills site, it says that the piano has been made for toddlers from 24 months but judging from our own baby (and all her friends who also love it!) I would say, ‘Why wait?’

The piano is built from a solid wood construction and the keys are made of plastic - no need to tune and it’s very easy to assemble.

The Keyskills piano currently retails at around £129.99. Don’t be put off by the price as this is an instrument that will last for years to come and can be passed down generation to generation. It may also enable your child to develop a real passion for music, with all the skills they learn being easily transferable to a bigger piano when they are older. The piano will soon be available in a wide range of colours and Keyskills plan to make more ‘toy’ instruments in the future.