Category: Music »

This is a very simple and unadorned but quality little child's xylophone app. A xylophone is pictured floating above a landscape of green grass and blue sky. When touched, the keys darken briefly and the phone emits a tinny note. The keys are very responsive, and multiple notes can be blended. For all of its simplicity, my four-year old became quite engaged with it; it occupied him quite nicely during a forty minute car ride, and he even composed a short little piece while trying to figure out how to play the theme from "Superman", his latest obsession..

I don't believe these types of apps should be substituted for actual musical instruments, but as an introductory tool and to whet the appetite of children for musical education, I believe they can provide a useful "value-added" role. Just make sure you follow up with a real Xylophone.

"Sound Shaker" is a really exciting sound game from Tickle Tap Apps. There are six different sounds to choose from including the flute, drum, and farm animal sounds.  I really enjoyed giving my 2 1/2 year old  son the phone and watch his face as he explored this app. He soon discovered on his own that you can make balls bounce around the page, making sounds when they knock into each other. He was delighted when he realized you could tap longer to make the ball grow bigger, the sound and color changing as well. If you keep tapping the same ball, it cracks open and becomes a chick that flies away. The look on his face the first time this happened was priceless.  I like the cause-and-effect this game teaches and how every time we play with this game, it is different. This app, as well as other Tickle Tap Apps are worth checking out.

Scotty & Lulu are a British children's musical duo and have been performing together since 1994. The app for iPhone and iPod Touch features some of their best-loved songs, which encourage kids to get up and move with high-energy beats, extra twang, and lyrics describing specific dance moves. Cartoon figures of Scotty & Lulu accompany the songs, providing instructions on the dance moves, such as Wriggle & Twist and Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes. Text for the lyrics scroll up the screen as the song progresses.

The app also has a game mode (one- or two-player modes available) for couch-surfers, in which Scotty & Lulu enter a jumping competition- the player touches the character to get him to jump. I found the response time to be slow and frustrating.

The songs are definitely catchy and inspire children to move. My two-year old had fun wriggling and twisting. However, the graphics in the app add little to the experience and I tend to think it may be a better bet just to load the Scotty & Lulu songs to your iPod or watch the myriad Scotty & Lulu videos on YouTube. For a quick hit of kiddie dance fun, however, this app fits the bill.

"Baby Piano" is great way for babies and toddlers to explore music. The cute and colorful animals are attractive and eye catching. There are two options to choose from; when touching the note it can either be an animal sound or piano note sound. It's fun to switch back and forth. There are two different ways your child can play music - he/she can touch any key and play their own little song or play along with a nursery rhyme. There are a total of eight songs children can learn to play. The key will light up and the child can easily follow along and play the song. Also, there is a record and playback option to capture their very own music creation and a lock slide to cover the function buttons at the top of the screen in case you want your little one just to play the notes. This app is certain to become a favorite, and your child will request to play it over-and-over. The price may be higher than some, however it's well worth the money.

The Melody Scribbler – or mScribble – offers the opportunity to create melodies over a bass line by scribbling on the iPhone screen. Users have the option to choose a musical sound and select from seven different musical styles. There’s also the option to send your musical creation to a friend by email using the “Scribblegram” feature. After a few minutes playing with mScribble, I felt like I was channeling a hidden talent for making divine musical compositions. What a fantastic feeling! I found all seven musical styles enjoyable and satisfying to experience, and, surprisingly, many of them evoked an emotional response. Isn’t that what we all want from our music? To fully realize the potential of this app, I recommend a quick browse of the “Hints" section; it does a great job of outlining how to navigate and explore the app’s features. mScribble appears geared for adults, but I think it could offer the chance for children to learn about different musical styles. Further, it offers the opportunity to creatively arrange music and share their creations with others.

“Trivia Wars” is an iPhone game that tests your knowledge in eight different categories (Entertainment, Sports, Geography, Music, World History, Movies, Art & Literature, and General trivia). It offers several features to tailor your game experience, including the option to adjust the pace, number of questions in a round, and level of difficulty; you can also opt for answer deduction and “quick play” for faster transition through the screens. I find this app most enjoyable when the settings are paced at the advanced/quick settings, as it adds to the excitement and otherwise seems a bit slow. When I play, I like to “fly solo”, but the game also offers the option for “two player battle” over a Bluetooth connection. You might learn a few things, but mainly “Trivia Wars” is an entertaining game that engages your brain and it would appeal to anyone who’s amassed a head full of random facts.

The children’s application Bumblebee Touchbook offers two main features. The first is “read and book” and the other is “watch a movie.” The book section is interactive and educational, while the movie portion is a 3-D animated short featuring adorable bumbling bees. When my son and I first played this application, I expected a passive book reading experience; we soon learned it was much more of a teaching tool with learning activities focusing on word recognition and counting. The lessons are concise and simple, but exquisitely done with graphics that have Pixar-like quality and charm. We especially enjoy the bumblebee movie, set to Tchaikovsky’s classical tune “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies”, which is reminiscent of my favorite Disney films “Fantasia”.

Poke, tap, and slide the colorful illustrations and the world of the Itsy Bitsy Spider comes alive. This skillfully-crafted application is made by Duck Duck Moose, the award-winning production company who brought us two other preschool songs-apps, “The Wheels on the Bus,” and “Old MacDonald.” This particular rendition seems to top the others with its endless critters and even more interaction to rouse a toddler’s curiosity. It promotes exploration and can facilitate as a learning tool when caregivers and children experience and talk about it together. My favorite feature is the chatty fly Chloe who buzzes around the periphery of each scene offering helpful tidbits of information about nature and the environment. I also like that my son and I can record ourselves singing. What a find! The Itsy Bitsy Spider is epic entertainment!

This song-based application has six popular preschool songs including the ABC song, 12345, Incy Wincy Spider, Three Little Monkeys, Row, Row, Row Your Boat, and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. All of the songs are well-executed with simple animation, pleasant instrumentation, and a lovely chorus of talented young voices. There isn’t much to look at with this application but the audio is so nicely done the visual content doesn’t seem to matter. Many believe that music, especially songs with repetition and rhyme, can help children learn how to talk and communicate. My son benefits from Kidzongs Preschool Sing-along fun two-fold; he enjoys listening to music while sharpening his language skills, and he gets a break from hearing his tone-deaf (though well-intentioned) Mom sing to him.

The application Preschool Music offers four different activities with various musical opportunities. There are sheep who harmonize, parrots who sing music-in-the-round, aquatic creatures that produce various percussion sounds, and a keyboard labeled with musical notes. Visually, this application is nicely done with lovely bold and colorful artwork but – ironically – I found Preschool Music to be a somewhat unpleasant listening experience. The audio for three of the four activities (all but the percussion section) was difficult to listen to over and over again. It’s truly a shame since I’m a fan of what this app tries to teach, like different musical concepts (harmonizing and rounds) and how to make your own music (percussion and keyboards).

As the name infers, this application has a bevy of different features geared toward very young children. In fact, Baby App: All-in-1 contains five distinct categories including: flash cards, a phone display, a piano keyboard, a notepad, and a quiz. At this point we don’t find much use for the phone display and the notepad which require a more advanced understanding of numbers and letters. The features my son and I enjoy the most are the piano keyboard and the quiz which exercise the identification of colors, numbers, shapes, animals, seasons, fruits and vegetables. Aesthetically, I wasn’t impressed by the artwork which looked like cutesy stock clipart and some of the items to be identified didn’t look much like the objects they represented. While it’s not the most artistically innovative app I’ve experienced, it’s functional, full of features, and will likely keep your child entertained.

Elephant Song is a ditty about a confused singer trying to figure out if an elephant flies through the trees or a monkey swims in the ocean, and other perplexing predicaments. A savvy young boy helps the singer throughout the song pick the right environment for each animal. This app is somewhat educational (teaching children about the typical context for different types of animals) but mostly it’s a melodious song with fanciful illustrations and captivating opportunities for interaction. Pause each animal and there are extra animated bits; and at the end, there is a clever elephant puzzle. Watch out – you might find yourself humming this one in the shower!

TappyTunes allows you to play some of your favorite tunes by tapping the screen in rhythm to the music. As you tap, you’ll see colorful graphics in time with the music. It seems to me that you either love this app or you hate it. For me, it’s the former and I find it strangely addictive and soothing and especially enjoy tapping to the rhythm of songs that bring back fond childhood memories. I enjoy sharing these special songs with my son and teaching him the fundamentals of keeping a time to music.