Without a doubt, becoming a gifted musician is much, much easier for someone who received the right kind of stimulation as a child. This is proved by the fact that children who grow up speaking a tonal language like Mandarin, which requires “singing” for correct pronunciation, are far more likely to develop perfect pitch.

In fact, taking music lessons at a young age actually causes a child’s brain to develop more quickly, leading to greater proficiency even in non-musical skills.

This interesting little toy can help to give your kid a leg up in this regard. It’s not a musical instrument in its own right; instead, it’s programmed to play any one of eight compositions by Mozart when activated.

The wrinkle is this: touching any of the six buttons on the sides of this 5-inch cube allows your child to add or remove individual instruments from the melody to see how their tones and textures help to create an overall harmony.

Each song excerpt is only about half a minute long, which is probably close to the attention span of its intended users. These are, nominally, no older than three, but playing with it is a surprising amount of fun even if you’re an adult.

Also, despite the limited selection of music, it’s really not that annoying a sound to have in the background, especially considering that you can turn the volume down. Children don’t get bored with it quickly, either, and they will love explaining and demonstrating this toy to their friends.