Piano Wizard: Music Playing First, Notes Second

Do your kids want to learn how to play piano but you don't have money in the budget or time left in the week to fit in lessons even if you did? There may be an option worth trying to see if your kids are interested in learning to play piano and have the aptitude and desire to actually do it.

Piano Wizard by Florida-based Allegro Rainbow says it teaches kids to play the piano in four steps, the first two in the form of a video game with a familiar look. If you've seen Harmonix's Guitar Hero in action, you'll recognize the way the colorful ovals (in this case, pterodactyl eggs) move up to a horizontal keyboard. Hit the corresponding color-coded key on a keyboard connected to the computer at the same time the egg hits the on-screen keyboard key, and the correct note sounds.

There are four levels—beginner, intermediate, transition, and advanced. By the time a child reaches the third and fourth level, the idea is they are reading music and playing notes, not color-coded keys. It teaches kids to play first, and learn musical notation second.

It's designed primarily for individual use at home, but Allegro also is branching out of the home market to introduce Piano Wizard in school settings to teach several students to play the piano at one time. A former music teacher of Piano Wizard's founder and CEO, Chris Salter, runs the Piano Wizard Academy at Southern Illinois University and a condensed "boot camp" at Rocky Mountain School in Colorado. An afterschool program is kicking off this month in Chicago, says Matt Shumate, a company spokesman.

You may have seen something similar on toy store shelves. Allegro licenses the Piano Wizard method to Fisher Price for its I Can Play Piano, which sells for about $80. The two companies are planning to do the same for a guitar version soon, Shumate says. With a keyboard and software, Piano Wizard Premier sells for about $200. It hit the market a year ago, but a Mac version was announced at CES this year.

A review unit is en route to my house, and I'll put my three piano-playing kids to work to help me review it for you.