Casio caters to the musician in all of us.

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Remember when we were kids: just when a bunch of us would really start having some fun, there would be that inevitable call from one of the neighborhood mothers for little Junior to come inside to take his piano lesson. Grrrrrr! Actually, the entrapped youngster usually was no more thrilled about having to abandon his friends than they were. After all, not only were piano lessons a bore, they were hard work. What was that all about?, we'd wonder. Apparently the thinking was that if you didn't practice diligently and master technique, you never would become proficient at your instrument.

However, Casio, Inc., Dover, N.J., thinks it would be fun if musical instruments could be played by anyone. Its light-up keyboards feature a simple system that allows you to learn as you play. Since our second-grader has expressed an interest in tickling the ivories, we considered Casio's CTK-710 ($99.99), which is supposed to be ideal for beginners and children. There is a sing-along function, stereo sampled sounds, three-step lesson...