Otamatone - have you ever heard about it?

If you thought you have seen everything... then maybe check out this post about a little wonder from the world of music. Little - as this odd thingy that you are going to see is made for those little ones, for children. Toys that serve to enhance creativity, to learn or simply just to have fun. There are also musical toys, even Lego musical instruments. A long time ago I saw in the house of one little student a Lego piano, well, she showed it to me proudly. Though this can't be played - to make a sound - but she could build it in a few seconds as it was a simple one.

It was so tiny that the piano keys would be suitable for ants... definitely not for my fingers. Neither would be suitable for the young student's fingers. I remember she loved to talk so much, a real chatterbox. She still likes to do it, but now we improved the playing part a lot, compared to the time this Lego piano was shown to me. The Lego piano was not playing music, but the real piano became maybe her favourite subject.

However, this was not the little weird plaything I wanted to talk about today. The actual subject of my share is a funny, musical note-shaped toy. I think that maybe we can call it a musical instrument, as you will see and hear it is making music.

It was yesterday that I learned about its existence. Talking with one of my adult students and the practising habits of him and his son he mentioned a new instrument they have at home. They already have I don't know how many guitars, one piano and a keyboard, and now the Otamatone is there to bring music. My confession that I had no clue what it was converted the last 5-10 minutes of our lesson to seeing a YouTube video of a Spanish guy who appeared in a TV programme, Got Talent España. They (the father and son piano students) watched the programme one Sunday morning and saw the performance of Juanjo. Wow, Nessun Dorma, which is an aria (probably my favourite aria of all) from the opera Turandot. It was composed by Giacomo Puccini, you guess originally not for this weird instrument, but let's listen to it. Sorry, I have just a video in the Spanish language with a subtitle in Japanese. これを聞いてみましょう。

video source - YouTube

Those who didn't understand - in a few words. The performer is a 28-year-old musician who bought this souvenir in Japan. You can see on the faces of the jury the fun and enjoyment they had. Two of them. The third member of the jury, who is known to be the toughest one kept his decision until he tried the toy - musical instrument and later gave the golden pass to the contestant Juanjo.

I was amazed too when I heard it as it was a surprise, how a yellow emoji - note can sing like that!?! Apparently, it is a Japanese invention. It has a stem and how I understand when you are pressing the stem, or sliding on it, it gives a sound. There is a mouth on that yellow note head and when you open it you change the way it sounds. Yeah, like singing :D

My husband said that he knew about this instrument. I, as a musician, haven't heard about it hahaha, but we learn something new every day. I didn't think I knew everything in this world, but would not think about hearing a toy that can sing an opera aria 😁

オタマトーンについて聞いたことがありますか？