Digital Photo Frames That Can Play Mp3S

[bellowbelle]

Have wanted to post about this for a while so finally here it is.

 

I've wanted to mention is how helpful -- for learning -- I've found my digital photo frames to be. There are a few on the market that have the ability to play MP3s, from either SD cards or USB sticks, while they show whatever pics you put on them. I have a few of the ones made by Micca (though, not all models of the Micca have an audio capability).

 

They don't cost much to run, though you do have to plug them in. I use one as my cockatoo's 'television' -- he loves it.

 

I have MP3s of TOTMs and other concertina songs, accordion songs, my own stuff, others' stuff -- the photo frame will 'find' whatever is on the USB drive or card, and right now my playlist is wide and varied, until I tailor it a bit.

 

But, the fact that I play these digital frames almost always 24/7, while I'm doing whatever I must around the house, at least some of them -- means that I'm taking in all these tunes that I've wanted to learn. I find myself humming the tunes, and sometimes (when I am able to) I can sit down with the concertina and play along. The Micca's have remote controls, so I can turn them off easily if I want to. When they're playing, they're never very loud -- they sound very basic, they're just simple players.

 

So, I find it a great way to learn.

 

Once I'm easily humming a tune from the playlist, I usually have to remove the USB from the digital frame and stick it in my computer to figure out exactly what the name of the tune is. If it's on the USB it's also on my computer, so then I track down some printable music for the tune, and print it out for myself.

 

I am one who always played only by ear, but then I did work more on sight-reading and using music. I am happy to have progressed in reading music, but I feel like the ear must come first -- get the song through the ears, first, THEN bother with the printed music.

 

I guess some people would simply play their tunes from the computer, but I like the 'set it and forget it' factor of the digital photo frames. And they make good night-lights, too.... and one of them, at least, has a very nice clock screen.

 

I got the Micca digital photo frame with MP3 player through Amazon, though if you try that, be sure you are getting a model that is in fact an audio player.

 

 

I've not been able to play my concertina a whole lot lately due to the usual problems with my hands/fingers, but hopefully, as usual, that will stop again for a while and I'll pick up where I left off. Have been using my feet, instead, having a great time playing my foot bass.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[iradcliffe]

How about using the photo part to display the dots for the tune? I don't know much about them so I don't know if the two can be synchronised.

[bellowbelle]

How about using the photo part to display the dots for the tune? I don't know much about them so I don't know if the two can be synchronised.

Hmm... Maybe someone very tech-savvy would have a way, but otherwise, you can't really synchronize it. But, a nice photo slideshow with tunes is possible. Also, with some, you can play .mp4s -- movies -- supposedly, but I've had a lot of trouble getting that to work and I don't really care about it much anyway.

 

The one I have on constantly for my parrot to enjoy (and he loves it) plays a wide and varied odd assortment of a TON of stuff -- you can put a whole lot onto a flash drive, and it will of course skip over any files it can't play and play everything else. The sound quality is just very light and kind of tinny but the bird doesn't care, and that way, too, it's not too loud or annoying. The screen is small so I'd hate to have to read dots from it. But I find myself humming along to several of the tunes, having heard them over and over, and someday soon I've got to go read the flash drive on the computer to see exactly what the songs are. They're ones I saved, downloaded for some reason, but I can't remember why or where I grabbed all of them.