Review: Paper Jamz

Overview

Set to be one of the top selling toys this Christmas (hey – it’s summer, OF COURSE the kiddies are writing their letters to Santa already) Paper jamz are a whole new way to experience rock and roll. You thought that Guitar Hero numbed down musical instruments? This one doesn’t even need you to place your fingers properly if you don’t want to. Which is great for someone like myself who has zero musical talent and very tiny hands. Like most children come to think of it. So I grabbed myself a Paper jam and let rip!

Review

So, what are Paper jamz? Well, they’re musical instruments without any of the hassle. I’m reviewing a guitar, although there also drums available too. The guitar has no strings, requires no plectrum, and works by you strumming nothing and ending up sounding like a pro. Well, on one setting anyway. You can go ridiculously simplified with ‘Perfect Play’ mode, where all you need do is strum and the guitar plays it all for you perfectly (stop strumming and the music stops though – they don’t do it all for you!). Or you can step up the difficulty a little in ‘Rhythm’ mode, where a backing track will play but you can use simplified fingering to produce chords etc. Or you can produce a sound roughly like torturing cats in ‘Freestyle’ mode, where you get to play it as close a possible to a real guitar. Although ‘Torturing Cats’ might just be my new song, because apparently that’s not how it’s meant to really sound. Who knew? Although it does explain why I’m not doing a video review…

First things first – make sure you read the instructions before giving this to a small child. I didn’t get any with mine and I nearly went all Rolling Stones and smashed it onto the floor in sheer frustration the twentieth time it started to play ‘Born To Be Wild’ when I was searching for ‘Smoke On The Water’. But once I got emailed a copy then working it became, if not simple, then at least a little more obvious! You have to press a certain button and play a certain fret for it to do what you want to do. Unfortunately, I found that it sometimes took three hits for my selection to register. But as they say practise makes perfect…

So, what’s it like actually playing a Paper jam them? Well – it’s not as good as Guitar Hero I’m sad to report. The ‘Perfect Play’ mode is fun for a bit, but then you start to feel a little silly waving your hand in front of a bit of plastic. Although if you’re five years old I guess that would happen less, or at least more slowly. The ‘Rhythm’ and ‘Freestyle’ modes are consistently fun, but require some basic guitar knowledge for you to get the best out of them. Credit to the Paper jamz people, they do include a table of chords in the instructions and how to play them. But if, like me, you don’t actually know what any of that means in the real world, you’re a little done for. But hey – there’re lots of instructional videos on YouTube to get you started, and when given to a talented guitarist, these things do actually work as semi-good electric guitars. Pretty swish for a kids toy eh?

For £25 they’re a not too expensive way to make sure your child really wants to learn guitar before you shell out for all the real equipment and expensive lessons. They’re also ridiculous fun when given to drunken adults with faded dreams of making it big in showbiz. Not that I tried that as part of my reviewing process of course…

The Gaj-It Verdict

Design: 10/10
Usability: 6/10
Features: 7/10
Value: 8/10

We say

Fun to fiddle with, and addictive to do, although a more user friendly way of switching modes is needed. A fourth function where it taught you to play the songs would have been nice too, and could be done with either flashing LEDs to follow or even just a track of someone telling you what notes to play (E, C, E# F etc). It’d be a nice midway into the ‘Freestyle’ mode and would’ve extended the playability for non-musicians. But as a way to keep the kids interested and get them inspired to play real music then the Paper jamz are winnerz.

Five designs available, each with three different songs. Thanks to Firebox for the loan of a Paper jamz Guitar.

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