Paper Jamz Guitar Review

Tiny Toy Reviewer #1, who is 6 years old, has aspirations of being a Rock God and is desperate to learn to play an electric guitar. But since I can barely get him to practise his recorder, a fancy guitar and music lessons are a big no-no at the moment. Fortunately, I heard about the Paper Jamz guitar by WowWee which allows him to practise being a rock star.

What is the Paper Jamz guitar?

This toy is not, as the name would suggest, made of paper. Although there is a paper layer hiding the electronics, it is mostly plastic. Clever circuitry means that when you pretend to strum the printed strings it detects the movement of your fingers and responds accordingly, allowing you to 'play' it as if it was a real guitar. Very cool.

There is a volume control - which I'm sure my neighbours are thankful for - and a headphone socket for when you really can't take any more of your child's playing.

What can it do?

There are three modes:

Freestyle mode: The first is freestyle mode, which is the best for role play and good for younger kids because it is designed for perfect play however rubbish you really are. The Paper Jamz guitar has three in built songs to choose from and you simply strum along to the music. The guitar backing music only plays when you are actually moving your fingers across the 'strings' so it makes it feel like you are really playing! I was quite impressed with the technology, it works well and responds in a very realistic manner.

Ours is the Rock 5 version, which comes with All Star (known to most people as "that song from 'Shrek'"), Helicopter and Hey There, Delilah. These song choices were a big hit with both Tiny Toy Reviewers and they aren't grating on my nerves yet despite the fact I've heard each of them approximately 298 times since Christmas.

Freestyle mode: This mode has been a bit neglected due to the age of my children, but in my opinion is the best thing about the toy and what elevates it from novelty item to something with long term appeal and playability. In freestyle mode you can actually play the Paper Jamz guitar as though it were the real thing, using genuine chords. For complete novices (like me) the product does come with a list of the chords and gives the finger positions so that you can compose your own music or, presumably, use proper guitar music to play songs on your Paper Jamz (I haven't tried this though).

Rhythm mode: This mode lets you control the rhythm of the song for each of the included 3 tunes. I haven't mastered this mode yet, which may be accounted for by my lack of natural rhythm, and I haven't encouraged my children to try this mode because if you're not getting it right it doesn't sound great!

Is it good?

To be honest, I wasn't expecting to like the Paper Jamz guitar very much or for it to work particularly well, but I love it! It has been a big hit with both kids, aged 6 and 4, who surprisingly are playing with it fairly regularly (I was worried that because there are only 3 songs and they are too young to appreciate freestyling that they would get bored of it quite quickly). I'd recommend it for children aged 4 to 10 and it is really handy as an introduction to playing a real guitar since you can learn the basic chords. It's definitely a good way to 'test the water' if you aren't sure whether your children possess the discipline and dedication to learn a proper instrument. And of course it's just an entertaining toy for any child who has ever played air guitar!

Any criticisms?

Although it isn't something which has started to bother me yet, I can see that a lot of parents would probably get tired very quickly of the repetitive song choices. More song choices would be nice, but that is the only criticism I have.

Verdict

Tiny Toy Reviewer #1 once won an air guitar competition and has taken this as confirmation that he's destined for Rock stardom. So who knows, maybe the Paper Jamz guitar will unlock some natural talent for music. If not though, we'll all have had good fun playing with this toy.