Piano Wizard game: does it teach?

Shiva Stella over at Gaming Horizon has been testing Piano Wizard with 49E Keystation, which claims to teach piano playing through games.

Short answer: it doesn’t.

It seems its main shortcomings are:

• no musical notation display option
• no instruction on piano technique
• limited songs and games

Whilst learning musical notation is certainly not everything, learning good playing technique is essential.

Continued below...

Mimicking piano playing doesn’t produce musicians – it produces robots.

The game is Windows only, though ironically the keyboard is just as happy functioning on its own on a Mac.

It’s a shame – perhaps a future release of the software will improve things because it’s a great idea. At the moment, Shiva recommends you spend your money on a tutor rather than this combo.