Melissa & Doug Beginner Band Set

We didn't realize the instruments wouldn't be tuned. For example, the xylophone's keys are not in order. They are just random notes, not in a scale. That makes this a really poor toy for people who would like children to learn something about music. It's only useful as a noise maker. A shame from a toy company I had trusted to make good quality toys. As a Kindergarten teacher and mother, I would not recommend this toy.

I bought this set for my 2 year old. The harmonica, jingle stick, and the castanets were a hit. However, the xylophone and the kazoo were a huge disappointment. No sound will come out of the kazoo. As for the xylophone, the only time we can really hear different musical notes is if we run the wooden mallet quickly across all of the bars at one time. If we simply hit each bar separately, the sounds are very close and not at all entertaining for our little one.

My grandson is enjoying his new band in a box and I consider it his first official music lesson from me. I can't say my daughter and son-in-law love it as much as I do, because they are not as noise loving as I am, so it's strictly a Nonna/ Maxwell activity. And that's awesome.

This was a very disappointing toy set. The harmonica is awful, the xylophone was worse. The only thing that works is the castanets.

For the price, it's not fair to expect concert quality instruments, but it is perfectly fair to expect the items to do what they're supposed to do on a basic level. The xylophone and the harmonica don't work. It's hard to elaborate without demonstrating, but the sound from the bars on the xylophone were blunted (had no sustain) or flat out had the wrong pitch (even the plastic Playskool models can accomplish acceptably accurate pitch) and the harmonica sounded as if it had been thrown against a wall and had the reeds knocked out of alignment, making it sound detuned. Manufacturing these instruments can be done in cost effective ways while still retaining good outcomes with sound quality. Durability might be another story, but they're not supposed to be family heirlooms at this price (which is fine). Still, it's fair to expect that they do what they were designed to do. No word from the company after writing, so I guess this will just end up in the landfill. Save your money, though. You can get separate pieces that will actually work for pretty cheap and you won't be driven crazy by the dissonant noises your child makes even when using the pieces correctly.