From: soltys@cs.unc.edu (Mitchel Soltys)
Subject: Re: Seeking Opinions on Miracle Piano Teacher System
Organization: UNC Office of Information Technology
Distribution: usa
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 15:26:05 GMT

In article <1993Jan5.182743.22042@cs.ucla.edu>, gds@york.cs.ucla.edu (Greg Skinner) writes:
|> In article <1993Jan4.222653.19681@nynexst.com> rsilvers@nynexst.com (Robert Silvers) writes:
|> >Maybe you can get keyboards for $100 (are they velocity sensitive,
|> >have MIDI, and 16 note polyphony?) 

Good point.

|> >I can't imagine a real instructor
|> >being as effective, let alone a workbook. 

|> IMHO, there is a difference between learning how to play songs and
|> learning the instrument.  The Miracle will teach one how to play
|> songs, but not how to play keyboards.  If all one wants is to learn
|> how to play songs, the Miracle is fine, but once they progress past
|> that point they will have to employ other learning devices.


My brother-in-law has a Miracle and I think it's a really neat system. The
keyboard is a good starter keyboard and the software make the system very much
worth the price. I did the piano lesson thing for a couple of years when I was
about 7 and then for several more years in high school and I think that the
discussion so far bring out some interesting points but miss the real point. 

ON THE BENEFIT OF COMPUTERIZED INSTRUCTION
IMHO the real advantage of the Miracle is that it makes practice fun :) This is
really good for children (and adults :)). If I had had a Miracle when I was 7 I
might have been a little less anxious to "do something else" when it was time to
practice. The Miracle allows the user to "explore" and try all kinds of things
that might be new to them. Exploration of this kind brings a feeling of freedom
whereas a workbook and even a live instructor can make the person feel
constrained or bored. There's a lot more that I can say on this point, but I
think it boils down to the fact that the fun and exploration promote interest
which provides motivation for learning.

ON THE DEFICIENCY OF COMPUTERIZED INSTRUCTION
As a computer scientist and a teacher, I am convinced that the computer can 
provide great tools for instruction, but in no way could it (at least in the near
future) provide better instruction than an "real" instructor. Performance
metrics, by necessity cold and calculating. Because the computer cannot watch,
hear and "feel" the effectiveness and "heart" of your performance it cannot make
you into a great musician (It can't even tell if your fingers are curved
properly or if you're even using correct fingering! :). 

ON THE MIRACLE SYSTEM ITSELF
IMHO it is a well worth the price if your desire is to get something that is fun
and can help you learn to play keyboard and read music for your own enjoyment.
It's certainly can be as much fun as most computer games and has much more merit
in terms of personal improvement. The rhythm section can be frustrating, because
it does not tell you exactly where you are making mistakes and it does not have a
good mechanism for helping to improve your ability to stay in tempo. (The Roboman
game can actually be inacurate in measuring your rhythm.) 

The selection of song pieces is fairly good, but not extremely broad. It's
even fun just to listen to the different pieces. There is a large number of 
options for practice, so learning is well divided. On major drawback is that you
apparently cannot get the software without buying the keyboard. I imagine that
this is because the system (at least for the Nintendo version) does not use the
MIDI ports for communication (though it does have MIDI ports). Seems that it was
just a poor design choice, but I don't know. Since I already have a good MIDI
keyboard, I don't want to have to buy another one. If I could find the software
alone I would probably get it today :) Does anyone know of a comparable music
system that is sold as software only for an IBM-compat PC?

Mitchel Soltys
soltys@radonc.unc.edu