This was one of the toys I had on my baby registry. I didn’t have that many toy items, but I thought this sounded like a neat choice. It’s colorful, musical, and grows with your child. It sounded good then, and it’s been a pretty popular toy in our household over the last 15 months.

THE BASICS
The Fisher Price Classical Chorus Gym is a musical toy intended to grow with a baby. There are two ways in which it “grows”: by changing the mode (Stage I plays complete melodies, Stage II plays the scales and some short musical riffs, and Stage III allows baby to create his/her own music) and by altering the leg positions (upright with a tilted keyboard, on the ground, upright with a flat keyboard). There is also a switch for use with Stage I and Stage II that allows a parent to change whether the music is only activated when the child kicks/pushes a button or if it plays continuous once a key/rattle is pushed. A non-rolling, non-sitting up infant can lie beneath the Classical Chorus Gym and kick at one of the three dangling rattles (a clear moon with colorful beads, a thin blue plastic star with 3 thin dangling attachments, and a spinning sun rattle), each of which activates the music (10 different classical or nursery melodies) and the lights (there are five “singing stars” above the five keys that light up and appear to change facial expression and sing). Since the keyboard is tilted when it is in this position, infants can see the lights while enjoying the rattles underneath. For older infants who can sit up, the five color-coded keys play the same 10 songs while the stars light up. For still older children, there is an independent play mode in which they can push the keys to create their own melodies. There are two legs that twist onto the sides of the keyboard to support it and there’s an orange reflector that mounts to the back of the keyboard.

ASSEMBLY
The only loose parts that came with this gym were the two legs and the rattles, which all snap on though care must be taken so you don’t catch your finger. The legs click into place and then simply require a few turns of the outside knobs to tighten and secure them. Three C batteries are needed.

BABY’S VERDICT
I’m not sure when we pulled this out for Wendy, but I’m sure she was very young (probably only a few months old). We used to put her on top of our bed and put the gym over her and she’d happily listen to the music and kick at the rattles. As she got older, she pulled and tugged on the rattles and was easily able to separate the three dangling toys from the star. At that stage (probably around 5 months), she was more interested in biting on the toys than on kicking them and would get upset when I’d snap them back into place. She still enjoyed the music and would sit in my lap and watch the stars light up.

As she learned to roll and sit up (and the weather got warmer), we would put her on the floor in the living room next to her toy. Sometime around this point, I took off the legs allowing my daughter to just play with the keyboard. Without the legs, it fit much better inside our Pack and Play and I didn’t worry that it was going to fall on top of her. She enjoyed pushing the keys and making music.

Now that my daughter is over a year, she still enjoys this toy. I still have it set to the youngest stage setting (the one that plays entire melodies) and she likes to push a key, step away, and do a little bouncy dance. As soon as the song ends, she’ll run over to the gym and press another key. Sometimes she’ll keep pressing keys until she finds a song she likes, such as Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. For variety, I’ll occasionally change the setting and let her create her own music. But she tires of that mode sooner.

MOMMY’S VERDICT
Babies love music and my daughter is no exception. She loved this toy from the get-go. The lights kept her fascinated, the dangling toys intrigued her as she tried her hardest to pull them off, and the music was entertaining and sometimes soothing. In fact, every baby who has ever visited our house is drawn to this toy. They love the music and pushing the buttons.

The musical selections are a nice mix (5 classical tunes and 5 traditional children's tunes, 4 with a children's chorus) of nursery rhymes like Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and If You're Happy and You Know It and recognizable classical music. I’m less familiar with the titles of the classical music, but I believe some of the songs include Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring, one of Mozart’s Piano Sonatas, and possibly Eine Kleine Nach Musik (sp?). There are two volume settings and we have always kept it on the lower one, which in its own right is pretty loud. As with most loud musical toys, this one can get annoying after a while, but my threshold of tolerance is pretty high with this one, although my husband can tolerate it for even longer. When I do get tired of hearing the music, I change the mode for variety. That way I’m not bored and my daughter gets to interact with the gym in a different way.

When my daughter learned to roll and sit up, I tried to adjust the legs. An adult is supposed to be able to turn the legs so that they are laying on the ground to support the keyboard rather than standing up. That way the entire gym is lower to the ground and easier for a crawler to play with. This makes the rattles virtually inaccessible, even though at this point most of them were pulled off and scattered throughout the house. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the legs to fit in this position and gave up after a few tries. What I ended up doing was simply removing the legs and allowing Wendy to play with just the keyboard. I also couldn’t figure out how to adjust the legs to their last stage setting (upright with flat keyboard), so the toy has either been in its original position (upright with tilted keyboard and dangling rattles) or been legless the entire time we’ve used it. I also never figured out how to keep the orange reflector in place. Its purpose baffles me since its position doesn’t really reflect the light that much and it never snapped into place properly so we’ve never used it.

There was a period when this toy was banned from Wendy’s presence. It was when she was just starting to stand and walk and would use it to pull herself up, which scared the heck out of me since the toy is heavy enough to hurt her but not sturdy enough to support a shaky baby, especially since we have hard-wood floors in a lot of areas and the Classical Chorus slides on them. What I ended up doing was taking the legs off and putting the keyboard on top of our soft leather ottoman, which I didn’t mind her using to pull herself up.

This is an enjoyable toy for baby and a relatively painless one for adults. The musical selections are nice and have a good sound quality and buttons and rattles allow baby to easily activate the tunes. We’ve gotten just about 15 months of use out of it (and only one change of batteries) and it’s still going strong. We received it as a gift, but it retails for about $30-$40.

From the Manufacturer
Enhance baby's development with beautiful classical music and favorite children's songs. "Singing" stars and a chorus of children's voices add a delightful touch! This musical gym offers fascinating rewards from baby's earliest days of reaching, through sitting and playing, right up to a toddler's love of standing and playing the piano keys.

www.fisherprice.com




Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): gift
Type of Toy: Baby Toy
Age Range of Child: 12 to 36 Months

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