When I make music in the living room, my son starts to dance. Also he makes the sound of a beat, a hh and a noise with his mouth. I am teaching him the 303 at the moment, but this is still a little difficult.
This month I made a soundless mix machine for him, with my old Evolution UC33-e and some ear muffs. He loves it to stand in front of his mixer with the ear muffs on his head, making sounds with his mouth.
I think it is time for a next step. I would love to buy some kind of sampler for him. The toy store only has ugly cheap plastic samplers with cats and dogs. It is nice, but doesn’t make beats.
I remember from the past, friends of mine had a sampler with lights and pads . The machine plays a song, shows the song on the lights, I had to repeat the song the machine played. Anyone an idea what kind of thing this is?
Or any suggestions for electronic music machines for my 1,5 year old techno child?
my son is 2 yrs old and i’ve been looking for some kinda of music making gear for him to enjoy that’s both easy to use / rugged enough for him to smack around.
[quote=““De wouzer””]
When I make music in the living room, my son starts to dance. Also he makes the sound of a beat, a hh and a noise with his mouth. I am teaching him the 303 at the moment, but this is still a little difficult.
This month I made a soundless mix machine for him, with my old Evolution UC33-e and some ear muffs. He loves it to stand in front of his mixer with the ear muffs on his head, making sounds with his mouth.
I think it is time for a next step. I would love to buy some kind of sampler for him. The toy store only has ugly cheap plastic samplers with cats and dogs. It is nice, but doesn’t make beats.
I remember from the past, friends of mine had a sampler with lights and pads . The machine plays a song, shows the song on the lights, I had to repeat the song the machine played. Anyone an idea what kind of thing this is?
Or any suggestions for electronic music machines for my 1,5 year old techno child?
[/quote]
Thats funny my 2 year old could care less for the toy musical instruments as well.
Pretty much any thing with triggers/pads, lights and of course sound should work. I have an issue as he can now connect the headphones (gotta protect those ears)
Hey wireless speakers are pretty cheap and iPad app that would probably work.
I actually am going to try that !
Let me know what you decide.
Oh +1 on the casio sk-1
Although I see many good ideas, I keep on searching. I am amazed with the XW-pd1, never seen it before. Even has a mic in it. But this will break. He smacks around the UC33 all the time, also to show my friends what he has got.
Maybe I can buy something for myself, and let my wife pay 50%, because it is for OUR son
I’m happy to second the Kaleidoloop as a great sampler for kids (and anyone).
It’s a very simple device, for sure - as soon as you record a sample, it switches to playback, and there’s no scope for editing at all. You can skip back and forth through your samples, and you have a level knob and a speed knob (which can be smooth or set to chromatic steps). And that’s it!
So it’s really a machine for exploration and performance, and that’s where it really shines. Take it in the garden and sample a bee, sample a bath being run, a kettle boiling, a burp, a guitar, a laugh, a meow - just sample everything, basically. And then wring new sounds out of it by slowing to a crawl, or reversing, or speeding up into a hidden beat. Learn to talk backwards (this is great!), try to pick out tunes in chromatic mode, connect up a lead and resample your live tweaking into the Octatrack - the list goes on.
It’s one of my favourite things - it sits in the front room, ready for action whenever inspiration strikes. Absolutely anything you put into it delivers interesting results, which I think is a fantastic lesson for kids. The Kaleidoloop for me is about the wonder of sound - it’s a sound laboratory in a robust and simple package, and if you think about its limitations, you’re approaching it the wrong way; you should be thinking about its possibilities.
I love it! I don’t regret a penny of the price. Just writing about it makes me wish I had it next to me right now, to capture my keyboard clacks.
My daughter is four and she loves the Volca Keys for the sequencer.
I hit Play+Rec and she goes all over it moves the finger over the play area and ads more and more to the loop.
For me this is perhaps one of our best times together, just making noise in the living room!
I second SK-1/SK-5 and SP-202. Although the point on headphones is good and the SP-202 doesn’t have a built in speaker. Maybe you could also track down an old beat box with a manually braking pause button so he could play with that to do some edits too?
casio sk-1 ! simple to use, got keys on it plus some sounds and rythm.
even very old kids (adults) had fun with mine. when your son gets older
he can circuit bend it.
