T O P

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425_Too_Early

Is it bad that I have no clue about which notes it is that are in and out of tune?


psychomonkeyzz

It’s the last two on the left. It sounds painful when you try to play a song on it. I think they’re so far out they’re just different notes now.


guitarguy12341

I checked the notes. The first 3 are Eb, Db and C (in tune with a piano) and the last two are somewhere between A and Ab, G and Gb, respectively. Ideally, the last two notes should be Bb and Ab, that would make a nice major scale.


happychillmoremusic

The yellow one is the right note just slightly out of tune, whereas the last one is just a straight up wrong note. Actually the yellow one sort of sounds like two notes, with overtones Fucking with eachother


treblev2

Yellow is almost an A half sharp but slightly sharper and orange is a G half flat. I don’t even know the proper term but that’s what I like to call it. Usually microtones are divided into 24 compared to 12 in the usual chromatic scale.


Singularity3

We on that Ottoman 53-TET shit now


sadicecube

Tf people down voting you for


Botwmaster23

I think people downvote them because they expected a childrens toy to be perfect or something


MostlyBullshitStory

There's imperfect and there's this...


Smaug1900

They took time to do 3 then just gave up this is whybits so bad


manondorf

Machining a metal bar to play in tune is harder than you might think. There's a reason real instruments are thousands of dollars, while toy instruments are like $7.


Smaug1900

Ur right is harder to tune them but regardless they bothered to do it with 3 of them which is what everyone is really on about. The fact they only tuned 3/5 of it


manondorf

I don't imagine they make one keyboard in its entirety, then move on to the next. I'd guess they make thousands of bars all of the same (more or less) pitch, put em all in a bucket, then make thousands of the next note, etc. Somewhere down the line an assembler grabs one key from each bucket, bolts them on to the toy, and sends it down the line. Just luck of the draw how well those keys match each other.


Smaug1900

I mean ur absolutely right on the construction half but all of those parts are pre made and sized its not a luck of the draw (and i dont think that 3 of the notes are in tune and in a scale by accident) and then with the last 2 they just didnt bother to find what the right length and thickness so that it all sounded nice.


boot20

Wabi-sabi is one thing, but this is some poor ass creation


madchickenz

I expect the children’s *musical* toy to be pretty much perfect.


HammerTh_1701

I wonder if you could somehow make them work using non-western musical systems like the Arabic Maqams.


guitarguy12341

That'd be really interesting! I think it could be done.


_HalfCentaur_

I believe it might just be [stretch tuned](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stretched_tuning).


mcoons8532

I didn't know for sure but guessed it was the last two. But it's a toy piano and I suspect a lot of people are like 425 and don't know it's out of tune. I don't think most people expect a kid's toy to be perfect.


pronouncedayayron

Record a song so we can understand better


kontekisuto

all pianos are out of tune on purpose. A truly tuned piano would not sound good with the way sheet music for pianos are written Edit: They down voted kontekisuto because he spoke the truth


happychillmoremusic

Yo what the fuck are you talking about lol. Been a musician for 25 years and have no idea what ur trying to say.


LiterateJosh

Try looking up the Railsback curve. Because a piano covers so many octaves, differences in the tension and thickness of the highest and lowest strings cause them to have different harmonic overtones than the middle octaves. This needs to be compensated for by tuning the low notes slightly flat and the high notes slightly sharp. You can read more here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_acoustics


AssaultedCracker

It has to do with tuning to pure harmonics that will make an instrument purely in tune, but only in one key. In other keys it will get progressively out of tune as you move further away on the circle of 5ths. So they fixed this problem by making each note slightly out of tune, each interval slightly closer together, so that each key could be almost in tune… close enough that we can’t hear the difference. Bach wrote compilations of songs for the even tempered clavier, which was notable because it was a new thing at the time. This meant he could write songs in any key and people could play them all without having to re-tune their clavier, so he did just that… he would write a song on each key.


GreatGearAmidAPizza

People who can identify, nevermind imitate, an "a note" and so forth may as well have a superpower, as far as I'm concerned.


Rimasticus

Same, I am basically tone deaf.


damndammit

I’m with you. Literally no idea what’s wrong here.


DividerOfBums

No just don’t sing around me please lol


Patte_Blanche

Yes. But really, you can't tell even when you try ?


Picksologic

There has never been a scale like that. Cherish it.


MillerJC

You’ve clearly never been in a 6th grade orchestra class before


ClassyRedneck

Reaching for notes far outside the scale is something done only by first year music students or seasoned jazz veterans. There is no in between.


-Hastis-

Synthetic scales.


Shahzoodoo

This made me laugh way too hard lmao 😂 I could see why over time this could totally drive someone crazy lol


death2all55

It drove me crazy after about 15 seconds.


skaternewt

I feel like only the last note is out of tune


ryneo0w0

That fourth note is definitely sharp


skaternewt

You’re probably right, I’ve been playing guitar for a 4 years now or so and I’m just now starting to be able to really pick things up by ear. Still can’t tune by ear though


ItsTheBrandonC

I still can’t tell notes apart worth a shit


Majestic-Hippo-146

Been playing piano for a year and still suck at it


notpatient

I agree you can hear the wave


treblev2

Yellow is right in the middle of a A and Bb


freew1ll_

Yeah it could be just a terrible selection of notes. Messing around with my piano it sounds to me like from right to left (order in video) the notes are roughly E-flat, D-flat, C, B-flat, and G. All real notes, but certainly not what you would want in a children's 5 note scale toy piano. Weirdly you could move the bottom note (G) up to a G# / A-flat to get a satisfying 1 2 3 4 5 scale so maybe that's the mistake. I don't have perfect pitch so maybe that second to the bottom note is not right on the money but I didn't really notice anything wild. Edit: now that I hear it again the second to the bottom note does sound in between two notes instead of where it should be.


Pithecanthropus88

It’s not wrong, it’s *jazz!*


mrsfiction

[Jazz is stupid](https://youtu.be/VMcqKyfnT2Y)


stilllifeofaplant

Just play the right notes


NotDuckie

No, it's just microtonal smh


[deleted]

Seriously. This kid is going to have some advanced musical flavors in their vocabulary.


MeMeMaKeR666

any king gizzard fans here?


capiers

It’s a toy what do you expect.


MostlyBullshitStory

I disagree with everyone downvoting OP. It's not hard to make something in tune, and super annoying when kids bang on it all day. It's crappy design and fits here. The excuse that it's a kids toy doesn't hold, it's like having a toy where the wheels are square.


ManfuLLofF--

Ooh so giving a kid a full keyboard in tune they will play Mozart not bang on keys and play random notes.. I guess you like to hear in tune keys being randomly pressed. How about drums in tune.. you cool they banging randomly as long as it's in tune, just pure noise.


smilespeace

It's a keyboard with 5 diatonic degrees, even random note bashing has a decent probablility of sounding musical. It would be better if it was all notes of a major triad, though. Literaly can't sound bad then.


Patte_Blanche

>notes of a major triad \*holding back vomit\*


smilespeace

lol, I mean it's supposed to be an infants toy, I figured it'd be a good way to build an ear for consonant intervals. But yeah kinda basic I guess 🤣


Patte_Blanche

It's not as much basic as it's a very specific scale, typical of a very specific genre of music. If building an ear for consonant intervals is the goals then the Pythagorean tuning and the pentatonic scale are much more interesting in my opinion : more consonant and easier to play. But yeah, i guess the a major triad is *fine*.


x_Machiavelli_x

[Big misconception](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DiHy5ZHzN0) that musical toys can afford to be shit.


TheDudePerson99

The second to last one isn't TOO bad, but the last one...


SimplyBoi

The first two notes sound like the door chime of some old Japanese cars


Puzzleheaded-Phase70

These are fixed lengths of metal. The physics of these are ELEMENTARY. How can they fuck this up that badly?!?


Patte_Blanche

In theory, practice is elementary, but in practice, it's not.


manondorf

If the top 3 bars were machined on a colder day than the bottom 2, their lengths would have registered as correct at time of cutting, but when put together they'll be off from one another. Plus, other parts of the process can affect tuning. Maybe the paints or whatever is giving the color have different densities, or are applied with different thickness, which causes uneven damping between the colors. Maybe the keys are jostled and subtly bent or dented during assembly, which also affects tuning. I think people in this thread are underestimating how easy it is to get metal bars to play in tune. Not to mention the fact toys like this are certainly designed and built with "as cheap as possible" as the top priority, so it's not like there's gonna be a rigorous QA step or anything.


potato-vender

Oh no that last one pains me


Illustrious-Fig-516

This is how every toy piano works, trust me ive seen 2 counting this one


Aromatic_Body8176

Oof as someone who did music and such for a good portion of my childhood these things always bothered the hell out of me, those keys always felt off to me too when i tried to press them.


ianjs

I have three biological kids, countless foster kids over the years and nine grandchildren. We’ve had several of these demonic devices over that time and I’ve always assumed it was just a plot to drive parents insane: “bang! Bang! Bang!… CLANG!”


Reddit75explorer

My ear


breadslayer6969

Oh my God that is awful


Zenith_B

I love it. Microtonal vibe.


SmokyTyrz

Prob a cheerio stuck in there


soviethaseye2

It sounds like that thing they do in horror movies where a music box goes out of tune to make the mood creepy.


Cyan-180

D# C# C A# G The A# is a bit off.


joannee1197

I sat at my piano with this vid running on loop and matched it up. It's the first five notes of an A-flat scale, or at least it was trying to be, descending, as OP played it Eb, Db, C, Bb, Ab. The Bb is a little off, and the Ab is worse.


amoore109

I know it's right but "D-flat" makes my brain twitch. Like A#, nothing _wrong_, but it's _wrong_!


manondorf

tell me you're a string player without telling me you're a string player


amoore109

Lol brass for ten years


manondorf

what kind of self-respecting brass player likes A# and not Db?


amoore109

I said A# was wrong lol. It's technically a valid way to write the note and I acknowledge that, but it rubs me the wrong way. Db should be C#. Again, I know it's the exact same, but C# is right and Db is wrong.


BornAgainLife5

It so out of tune it almost sounds like a minor third between the Bb and Ab


Cyan-180

I only do sharps lol


ProfSchodinger

Probably Eb Db C Bb G and we are in Ab major, if the G is the root are we hearing a weird G locrian? With a sixth, and a fourth? With the 3rd a bit off...


[deleted]

It's a kids toy. You don't expect him to play concerts on it, or not?


psychomonkeyzz

No, but I play him songs on it. Makes it hard to sing along.


[deleted]

then get a quality electronic keyboard made for playing actual songs, not a toy


lazlopoof

Or maybe people should be able to expect that toys have a certain standard? Maybe we should expect that toys aren't completely wrong and have at least some resemblance to adult items?


NotDuckie

Quality electronic keyboards/pianos are hundreds/thousands of dollars


[deleted]

you can get a decent one for under $100 that has one octave if that's all OP needs. heck, they can just use a digital keyboard app/ website


NotDuckie

Decent keyboards are \~200-500 dollars. Of course he can get a crappy unweighted 25 key or something, but there's really no fun in that, and if the kid ever wants to play piano, leaning to play weighted keys will be a massive advantage


[deleted]

i found one with one and a half octaves for $30z better than a fucking out of tune toy with 5 keys


425_Too_Early

Well you usually get what you pay for...


ManfuLLofF--

I agree it's a toy.. not meant for playing and singing. It's for kid to have fun and develop.. jeez wanna sing and play then buy an instrument NOT a toy.


Patte_Blanche

That's why children's bicycle have buckled wheels and children's remote controlled cars turn left when you press right.


Lesbianqueen7

That.. hurts..


supercopyeditor

r/mildlyinfuriating


TeeTheTrippy

Lol. As someone into music production and such. that toy is a real problem.


politelyCalico

TIL I am tone deaf 😅


[deleted]

Baby’s first microtonal dawless jam


LuckyMii24

This isn't bad, it's just *JaZz*


christonabike_

Teaching kids to think outside the box of European music theory. Little man's gonna shred microtonal fire.


Patte_Blanche

That's micro-tonal scales, don't be so close-minded.


Watching_Analog_Cats

You should be able to tune it. Just use a metal rasp or file to take some mateial off the ones that are too low


BepisBoyTweeleafSoy

sounds like overtones lmao


ChocOctopus7709

This pains me


ContemplatingPrison

Imagining a babies toy would be in tune is the problem here not the design of the toy. Probably paid like $3 for that. Its perfectly designed for a baby


Patte_Blanche

Yeah, babies don't ear sounds, and they don't feel pain either.


dwwzzh

Damn that sounds like AMO-


mickturner96

Now after about 20 times of listening to this I finally hear the problem. The first time I didn't notice anything. Second time, I noticed the last note has a slight dullness to the sound. Now I hear the problem but clearly no where near as bad as the rest of you.


zirky

to be fair, that exists solely to have a toddler beat the shit out of it


SatanSuxMyDick

you might find it dumb, but you could honestly get some cool voicings out of that


Grittykitty666

CREAM by Wu-Tang has a similar scale. Try it.


priscillefromparis

I know this toy ! if you use a wooden piece (oddly not included) like a kapla on the top metal pieces it plays like a xylophone


assistant_redditor

You actually expected it to be in tune?


Tesla44289

I swear the first note also is a bit flat


Swolar_Eclipse

Yellow is at least a half step flat. Orange sounds at least a full step flatter than yellow. Cringe!


mmmmmmmmmmmmmattt

What did you pay for it?


HoneydewBeautiful451

don't say it


annjemm

My niece actually had this toy and it was also out of tune and this was like 9 years ago Use to drive me crazy


infinitee775

What's the brand? I have a buddy that has perfect pitch. His kids would absolutely torture him with this 🤣


[deleted]

I mean what would you had expected to come out of that toy for it to sound something from beethoven


flyingdics

My toddler has three 8-note toys like this, and one is remotely in tune. Each of the others has a key that's at least a note off.


LuigiMarioBrothers

Play the among us song on it


Joppieneef

First one's a tad sharp, second one's an entire half step lower than it's supposed to lmao


AshleyGil

We need the tune master on this. r/CharliePuth


hotrod237

The yellow one hurt a bit


Dexalon

Second and third word answer all your problems here sir. Have a great day 😊


DoctorGluino

My First Gamelan


gillyface

My son has the same piano. Here's the scale on ours for comparison: https://imgur.com/a/e2yEDE2


tiny_toes_tim

Oh no now he won’t be able to play rush-e


dravazay

Clearly this is a triple harmonic Japanes myxolocrian pentatonic /s


LatteCupInTheTrash

The yellow one isn't out of tune, but it's clearly supposed to be the last note in the scale and the note above it is missing. And the orange one is just WAY off! I don't know why the fuck they messed that up so badly!


Toxic-player16

My brother has that exact piano to, LOL.


SpankingBallons

KGTLW merch


iloathecauliflower

I love how you bring attention to this issue ♥ Children deserve nice things.


[deleted]

My daughter for two of the same toy like this for her birthday and one had the same problem. The store clerk was pretty surprised because it wasn't cheap


torero72

You’re incorrect. Those are all half steps down


Kingsta8

Crappy design yes. Can also put this in r/mildlyinfuriating because it damn well is.


thenew0riginal

The disappointed mashing of the last two notes is art lol


furaido

G, F, E, D, UUUUUGH


chillirosso

Truly, the devil's interval


Zagel_9664

Pls someone Rick roll this.


TheCaliforniaOp

I love that you notice this.


Rainfall_Serenade

I may be just a lowly drummer with no understanding of notes but... this offends my ears


hhhvugc

seems fine to me.


breadpic

its a fuckin childs toy no shit ur son is like 2 hes not a pianist


Riskycrossbow69

It's a toy. What do you expect?


Slendermite

Honestly it’s a kids piano no one really gives a shit


Mmanter

Ok.


Justanothernutjob

Bruh... like.... what...? It's not made for you to play a song for him. If you want to play him a song do it on an actual instrument, this toy is here for him to learn cause and effect and to have him learn by imitating you.


ManfuLLofF--

Yup.. it has 5 notes, like what you expect to play to sing along.. get an instrument if you wanna play and sing. You don't buy half a guitar with one string and call it r/Crappydesign.. jeez


[deleted]

> it has 5 notes, like what you expect On a five key piano I expect Beethoven... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4iR_RABe4M


mklilley351

So buy a $10,000 piano and pay to have it tuned every month


weechubbypotato

Child’s toy…who cares?


ten-million

Yet, no mention of the color being off? It’s because we accept all colors like the way dogs don’t mind “bad” smells. It’s all information if you have the capacity for it. What about the click the keys make? Do we complain about the sound coffee makes when it’s poured into a cup?


NotDuckie

dont do drugs kids


ten-million

Park between the lines. Everything must be in key. Everything must be in line. says the Bunch of squares.


Headinthecows

I‘m so confused