Baby Einstein - Meet the Orchestra - First Instruments

To tell the truth, I was a little disappointed in the DVD. I have been waiting for it to be released, and my expectations were very high. All in all though, I do have to admit that it is a good introduction to musical instruments for small children. My son is 19 months old. He definitely enjoyed the video, and I think it will be beneficial for him as well. I'll list what I feel are the positive and negative aspects about the video below.

Good Things:

*Tons of real footage of children and adults playing instruments solo, in small groups, and in full orchestras. Scenes of marching bands were included too which is nice.

*The video was broken out logically into all of the major sections: Brass, Woodwinds, Strings, and Percussion. The piano & guitar were introduced together at the end. Both the String and Percussion section included all of the major instruments one might think of. Though, there are so many different percussion instruments that a Percussionist might disagree. :)

*Lots of puppets which my son always loves. There is nothing more fun for him than watching those silly hippos!

Not so good things:

*The brass and woodwind section left out some major instruments and included some minor ones instead. The woodwind section introduced the recorder which is RARELY (if ever?) found in an orchestra and left out the oboe which has ALWAYS been a critical instrument in the orchestra. The brass section included the bugle and left out the euphonium. This doesn't bother me as much, but it doesn't make a lot of sense.

*In many of the scenes with elementary children and junior high children, it was obvious that the kids were actors who had never held the particular instrument in their lives. Would it have been terribly difficult for them to borrow kids from real music programs who knew how to hold their instruments properly? That is the first thing you learn before ever playing your first note. Granted, the babies and toddlers don't know how to hold the instruments, but I don't have issues with that.

*Some of the music sounded obviously synthesized. When introducing what an instrument sounds like, shouldn't the real instrument be used rather than a synthesized version? I did notice this only in a few places, most obiously with the "recorder".

Here is a synopsis of the instruments introduced. It is not listed anywhere on the DVD cover.

Brass:

Trumpet

Trombone

Tuba

French Horn

Bugle

Woodwinds:

Flute

Clarinet

Saxophone

Bassoon

Recorder

Strings:

Violin

Viola

Cello

Bass

Harp

Percussion:

Drums

Xylophone

Cymbals

Timpani

Tambourine

Piano & Guitar

My husband and I have a very strong background in instrumental music, so we had very high expecations and were being very critical when evaluating this dvd. Our goal is to instill a love for music in our son from a young age, and since this DVD is for young children, I guess it is OK that it isn't 100% perfect. I do believe that this DVD will be a great for our son, and he enjoys it. Had I not had particular issues with it, I would have given it 5 stars.

Also, please note that it is definitely not for the youngest Baby Einstein audience. My son would not have enjoyed it a few months ago, and I believe he will continue to appreciate it more as he gets older.

Baby einstein usually puts out great videos. We so far have 5, I think. I have noticed that the newer ones are starting to lack some quality. I think they are being rushed into production, possibly after having sold to disney? But that is just a hunch.
Anyway, my husband and I are both orchestra teachers and our daughter loves instruments, especially violin and cello, so we thought this would be right up her alley. Unfortunately as mentioned above, the sounds are mostly synthetic, the animation is truely aweful and there is very little use of the trademarked baby einstein puppets that my daughter loves. They do include some odd choices of instruments- like why included recorder in the woodwind section but not oboe? But bassoon is included. Very odd.
As a strings teacher I am offended by the "music box" orchestra. I don't understand why baby einstein feels that children cannot appreciate fully orchestrated pieces. Personally, I feel that it is just a ploy to get people to buy their cd's for kids instead of using regular classical recordings. Our daughter just loves listening to Beethoven's 5th over and over and over.
Perhaps the worst thing about this video is that it does show kids playing the instruments wrong. How is that supposed to be a good model for kids? If they are going to hire kids to be shown playing instruments have the common sense to hire kids that can play the instruments.
And finally- why did they have to "jazz up" fur elise at the end? Really it is a classic all on its own and kids love it.
my daughter will watch the other baby einstein videos we have straight through, but this one doesn't hold her attention for more than 5 mintues.

First off, my local grocery store obviously accidentally put this out early because I bought it today, 4 days before the release date. So I bought it for my 1 yr old girl who loves, loves baby einstein.

My review of it was it was ok. I was pretty excited about it coming out thinking it was going to be great but like I said it was just ok. I feel like it lacked visual colors that stimulate babies and toddlers. It also didn't have alot of the cutesy things in the dvd that I always wonder where they get this stuff( like toys playing instruments, ect). It mainly used alot of teenagers playing instruments, showing bands playing, and it used the puppets alot more that some of the other dvds. I do think that a toddler watching this would definetly understand that music is something you can make and do, If it keeps their attention long enough.

I liked the recent 'on the go' dvd alot more and so did my baby.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 40 reviews  3.2 out of 5 stars