I was a band geek as a youth…I played flute and piccolo for more years than I can even count. When I had children, I knew that music lessons would be a part of their lives from a young age. My daughter has been playing piano for 3 years and my son has played guitar for 4. He also just started playing the trombone. I will say that a 12 year old boy just learning the trombone is a horrid thing to listen to but I have hopes that he will improve…QUICKLY! I have a daily argument with my kids about exactly how long they will practice for. I’m sure I’m not the only one! Our music room is not particularly well lit and the kids are always complaining that it is too dark in there. I recently came across a company called Mighty Bright that makes LED lights not only for use in music but also e-readers, craft lights, book lights and many others. If you are not familiar with Mighty Bright, here is some information about them from their website:
Mighty Bright® has a sound understanding of the needs of book readers, musicians, crafters and hobbyists, and has earned a shining track record as an innovator and leader in personal lighting. Having established itself as a provider of quality lights for over 20 years, the company has a proud reputation from which they are seizing new opportunities and rising to greater heights.
The Mighty Bright lights use an LED bulb which is much more environmentally friendly than traditional bulbs. 98% of energy in an incandescent bulb is lost as heat. Typical LED lights have a lifetime of up to 100,000 hours or more without generating heat. These bulbs contain no mercury and they are also far more resistant to breakage than incandescent or fluorescent lights.
For my review, I was sent 2 lights to try out with my kids. The first is the XtraFlex LED Music Light which is shown at left and the other is the Duet LED Music Light shown above right. Both of these lights use 3 AAA batteries that come included in the package and should last for 28 to 32 hours.
The single light XtraFlex version has a precisely engineered optical grade lens that spreads light evenly and a flexible gooseneck arm to allow you to direct the light where it is most needed. It has a small, stable base with a padded clip that opens extra wide.
My Opinion: I decided to try the XtraFlex on top of our piano for my daughter. I was impressed that I could open the clip wide enough to actually clip onto the top edge of the piano and since it has a nice soft padded grip, I didn’t have to worry about it damaging the wood. The gooseneck arm is amazingly flexible and it stayed exactly where I positioned it. There is an easy on/off button that you just press to activate and the tiny little bulb easily lit up the entire sheet of music.
The Duet LED Music Light has individual switches to control lighting level and the arms fold into a compact storage position. It also has flexible gooseneck arms and a padded clip.
My Opinion: The Duet music light was clipped onto my son’s music stand for his guitar practicing. (we banish him to the bedroom to practice trombone!) The clip is strong and the 2 music lights provide a ton of light for him to practice by. They stand about 8 or 9 inches away from the top of his book so they don’t get in the way of page turning, taking notes, etc.
Overall, I was very pleased with both of these lights. They are easy to turn off and on with just a light touch and the flexible are makes it easy to position the light exactly where you need it. For such a tiny little bulb, it gives off quite a bit of light and I don’t think my kids will be complaining about not seeing their music any more.
Of course, they will still complain about having to practice but I guess that is to be expected!
My thanks to Mighty Bright for allowing me to review their products. If you would like to learn more about them, check them out on Facebook and Twitter.
Disclaimer: As per FTC guidelines, I received the product mentioned here in exchange for my honest review. I received no monetary compensation. All opinions expressed here are mine and mine alone.
Diane is a professional blogger and nationally certified pharmacy technician at Good Pill Pharmacy. She earned her BS in Microbiology at the University of New Hampshire and has worked in cancer research, academics, and biotechnology. Concern over the growing incidence of human disease and the birth of her children led her to begin living a more natural life. She quickly realized that the information she was learning along the way could be beneficial to many others and started blogging and freelance writing to share this knowledge with others. Learn more about her HERE.
I love that. Sheet music can be terrible to read unless you have great lighting. I’m thinking this might be good for my husband’s kindle as well.
I love that it clips right onto the music stand. We could use a couple of these in our house. Thanks for the review!
that looks like it’d be useful for other things, too – though it seems to work really well for reading sheet music.
that would be so useful for me when i am traveling!
thanks 4 sharing this post with us
This looks really cool! I’m going to have to look into this for my mom for her piano! Thanks for a great idea!
Good lighting is so important when reading sheet music. I bet these would be great for working on huge puzzles with itty bitty pieces too.
I think one of these would be perfect for our piano. Thanks for sharing.
That looks like a handy little tool!