Mobile Music Apps
- A Jazzy Day – Music Education Book for Kids - a fun and interactive story that will teach your child about music instruments. The book features original illustrations and music, as well as sounds from real acoustic instruments. Price: $4.99
- Animoog - A professional polyphonic synthesizer. Price: $9.99 for iPhone, $29.99 for iPad. One of the first synths for the iPad. Great fun to use, plus a way to show sound waves.
- Asian Drum - Virtual instrument app connected into a sound system. Price: .99 * Uses: Students can sing songs and accompany themselves on instruments. Virtual instrument apps add another tone to the ensemble and can assist students who have issues with their fine coordination skills.
- Autoharp - Virtual instrument app connected into a sound system. Price: .99 *Uses: Students can use this app to accompany.
- aXylophone - Another basic virtual xylophone. Price: Free *Uses: Add another instrument and depth of sound to our ensembles.
- BabyMusician - Baby Musician allows your child to play as the conductor of an ensemble of cute animal musicians. Clicking on the musician's flash card will show your child the instrument's name and how it is spelled. Price $2.99 *Uses: This app integrates letters and spelling into music class, along with instruments and their sounds.
- Beat Bots - a Beat Boxing app Price: .99 *Uses: Create music and loops using various sounds created by beat boxers.
- Bongos - Virtual instrument app connected into a sound system. Price: Free - .99 *Uses: Add another instrument and depth of sound to our ensembles.
- BrainPOP Jr. - Ideal for kids in Kindergarten through grade 3, the BrainPOP Jr. Movie of the Week app spans subjects within Science, Social Studies, Reading, Writing, Math, Health, Arts and Technology. The gentle, humorous, and relatable characters Annie and Moby serve as guides through each topic, empowering kids to form their own ideas. BrainPOP Jr. content is designed to cultivate critical thinking skills and encourage children to ask questions and make connections. The app is easily navigable by kids ages 5-9. Price: Free * Uses: If your school has a subscription to BrainPOP Jr, then you can access everything on this app. There are seven movies that involve music from the musical alphabet, to musical instruments, to Mozart.
- Cadenza Lite - Cadenza Pro is a powerful yet simple to use Music Notation sketcher. Created by musicians for musicians it should be intuitive to both beginners and professionals. Price: Free for Lite and $1.99 for Pro *Uses: Have the students write notes and rhythms on the staff.
- Congas - Virtual instrument app connected into a sound system. Price: Free - .99 *Uses: Add another instrument and depth of sound to our ensembles or if you have access to numerous iPads/iPods, create a drum circle and compare and contrast an electric drum circle with an acoustic drum circle.
- Crazy Piano! - Definitely lives up to its title. It has rhythm games and many different voices. Price: .99 *Uses: Use this with very young students who will love the sounds and the app will inadvertently work on their rhythmic skills.
- Cymbals - This app just has cymbals, which is nice if you only want your young students to perform the cymbals with an ensemble and the young students have problems playing acoustic cymbals too loud. Price: .99
- DigiDrummer HD Lite - There are eight drum sets and you have the ability to record your beats. Price: Free *Uses: Students can record their own drumbeats and improvise a melody over it using their recorders, orff instruments, or band instruments.
- Djembe - Virtual instrument app connected into a sound system. Price: Free - .99 *Uses: Add another instrument and depth of sound to your ensembles. It is also very easy to create rolls.
- Do Re Mi 1-2-3 - Fun, musical ear training games challenge your children’s minds as they laugh, create, and play with moo-sical cows, boat-rowing pandas, and twinkling stars. Price: $1.99 *Uses: Ear training.
- Doodle Buddy - Drawing and painting on the iPad. Price: Free *Uses: This app is fun, and could be used to have students draw patterns for form or for movement to high and low.
- Dropophone - Creating a loop based composition. The sounds are very simple as they are a flute, raindrop sounds, bells, and xylophones. It is a very peaceful and pretty sound. Price: Free *Uses: Have the students use this app to create a song that could accompany poems they wrote in their classroom, or as a background accompaniment to a movement exercise involving scarves or other flowing props.
- Drum Pad - Drum Pad is a portable drum pad that you can take with you wherever you go. Create solo beats, or team up with others. Price: Free *Uses: This pad is set up with colors and shapes for each drum part, so it is nicely set up for young students to use. You can use this app to study the parts of a drum set, to create beats, and to reinforce an integrated unit on colors and sounds.
- Drum Set - Drum Set is a fun virtual instrument. Price: Free * Uses: Add another instrument and depth of sound to our ensembles.
- Educreations Interactive Whiteboard - Educreations turns your iPad into a recordable whiteboard. Create, record, and share your lessons with your students. Price: Free * Uses: Record your lessons for your students and share it on their or your website.
- Etude (Steinway Etude) - If you haven't played piano before, it's never been easier to start. Just find the song you want to play from the in-app music store, download it, and Etude will show you the exact keys to press at each moment. You can slow it down and even practice each hand separately. Price: Free
- Explain Everything - Everything is an easy-to-use design tool that lets you annotate, animate, and narrate explanations and presentations. Price: $2.99 * Uses: Assessment and recording students’ works. Share the works through email or social networks.
- Finale SongBook - Imagine bringing all of your music to every practice, rehearsal, and performance—in one hand. Imagine hearing sheet music play back. Imagine printing copies and parts. Price: Free
- Finger Stomp - Finger Stomp is an innovative instrument app that pays respect to old-school hip-hop, rap and street musicians by putting users in an urban recording studio. Price: .99 * Uses: Another way to enhance a Stomp unit or class.
- Flashnote Derby - Flashnote Derby is a fun way for kids to learn and practice identifying music notes by name. Price: .99 *Uses: Great way to assess students on note reading skills.
- Graphical Music 2 - The general concept remains: you draw a picture on your iOS device and the app plays music according to what you've drawn. Price: .99 and currently only available in the UK store.
- GrooveMaker Free - GrooveMaker gives you a completely new way of making music. Thanks to our patented “groove generator” technology, you can automatically remix the hundreds of loops included (grouped into “songs”), on the 8 available tracks, in virtually limitless ways, all with one touch. Price: Free
- Hand Drums - The free version lets you play the hand drums as a virtual instrument. The .99 version allows you to enable the recording features and gives you more options of hand drums. Price: .99 * Uses: Add another instrument and depth of sound to our ensembles.
- Harp - Virtual instrument app connected into a sound system. Very nice sound Price: $2.99 * Uses: Add another instrument and depth of sound to our ensembles.
- Holiday Bells - Entertaining app to use as a virtual instrument and to practice holiday tunes on handbells. Price: .99 * Uses: This is a fun app to use around the holidays to have your students play holiday tunes.
- iAmBeatBox - iAmBeatBox has created an innovative way to sketch out music using beats and samples on the iPad. Price: Free, however with the free version, you will not be able to share your work unless you are a FaceBook user.
- iAmGuitar - Wish you could play the guitar but never learned? Price: Free (.99 to add another guitar) * Uses: This is one of my students’ favorite apps. We utilize this app in our classroom to add to our Orff/percussion/virtual instrument ensembles. Please visit my 2nd and 3rd grade pages to hear this app in action. Price: Free
- iCardsort - Put all of your flash cards, note cards, and other items you create for lessons in this app.Price: $5.99
- iBeat - Metronome. Price: Free
- iDoceo - iDoceo is your new powerful and easy to use gradebook for the iPad. Its spreadsheet engine will calculate averages in real time as you put information in. No internet connection is required to use it. * Uses: Grading, assessments, record your students, seating charts, attendance, and so much more!
- iSteelPan - Turns your iPad into a Caribbean steelpan drum. It's a fully mapped chromatic Tenor steelpan. If you miss a note region, a miss strike sound will be played. It can also teach you how to play a song with an interactive game, just follow the mole. Price: Fre * Uses: Great virtual instrument app to teach your students about this instrument.
- iTalk Recorder - If you have a second generation iPod, you can use this app along with an external mic like a Blue Mikey to turn your iPod into a voice recorder and assessment device. Price: $1.99
- Itsy Bitsy Spider by Duck Duck Moose - A traditional favorite where your students can sing along, record your students singing, perform in a variety of languages, and listen to the song on a variety of instruments. Price: $1.99 * Uses: Have the students listen to this song in a variety of languages.
- iTriangle - A virtual triangle instrument. Price: Free * Uses: Add another instrument and depth of sound to our ensembles.
- i Play My chinese Drum - Used as a virtual instrument to enhance an ensemble Price: .99 * Uses: Add another instrument and depth of sound to our ensembles
- JoyTunes Recorder Master - Learn to play the recorder in a fun and addictive way. Play notes on the recorder to avoid obstacles, collect bonuses and scare away evil birds, on your way to become a “Recorder Master”. Become an expert in playing songs while working on rhythm, correct and stable tone production, ear training, fingering technique and more! Price: $1.99 * Uses: Great assessment tool for students learning the recorder.
- Jug Band - Four jug band instruments including the jug, washboard, spoons, and kazoo. Price: .99 * Uses: This app requires you to blow on the iPad to make the sound for the jug. It is a unique way for the students to experience the instruments of a jug band.
- LaDiDa - You can sing or rap into the phone and LaDiDa will analyze your voice and choose accompaniment music to match. Also works on melodic instruments such as a guitar. Price: $2.99 * Uses: Students compose lyrics to a melody, or write short poems, and record them into LaDiDa. Post these musical creations on the music website or burn them onto CD.\
- Learn to Play Recorder - This app is based on the Recorder Resource Kit by Denise Gagné. Learn and Play Recorder teaches beginners about the recorder, how to read music and how to play the soprano recorder. The app includes 38 songs from Just B to Camptown Races, all with a full performance track to play along with! Price: $3.99 * Uses: Another great assessment tool for students learning the recorder, especially if you are using Denise’s series.
- Loopseque Kids - LoopsequeKids is a musical constructor for the smallest composers. Price: $.99 * Uses: The students can use LoopsequeKids to create an accompaniment and then use rhythm instruments and rhythm patterns to create a full musical creation.
- MadPad HD - Remix your life with MadPad! Turn everyday sights and sounds like your car, an empty soda can, or your friends into the ultimate percussive instrument. Who would have thought everyday life could be so musical? MadPad now features hip-hop duo Chiddy Bang’s sets! Price: $2.99 * Uses: Corresponds greatly with a unit in creativity or a unit about STOMP!
- Magic Guitar - Your iPhone is now a whole new magical instrument. Just cradle your phone in the palm of your hand like a guitar neck, and watch as beams of light approach your fingertips. Now press and hold to hear each note, then shake your phone to bring your song to life. Price: Free * Uses: Fun app to have your students try before a school break.
- Magic Piano - From Bruno Mars to Mozart, play the hottest songs effortlessly on this piano game. Turn on game mode to unlock achievements and free songs, or just relax and play your favorite tunes. Price: Free
- Master in a Minute - Music note trainer. This easy to use yet challenging app will have you sight reading music notation and easily recognizing note intervals in a very short time. Price: Free to $3.99
- Melodica - Melodica is a revolutionary music application that mixes lights and sounds in a unique way, allowing anyone to compose music intuitively creating amazing visual effects just with the tips of your fingers. Price: .99 * Uses: Have students write letters or words and choose the mood of their creation and then verbally describe or write about their musical creations.
- Melody - Just by touching the pads or by setting triggers using the four bar pattern editor you can create a melody. Price: Free * Uses: Have students create melodies.
- MelodyMelody - Tap on a tile to hear its melody. And then the tile will turn light green. Next, search the same melody and tap on it, and then its melody plays. Remember where you heard a certain melody. If the melodies match, then the tiles turn yellow and show its musical score. If the melodies do not match, then the tile turn red, and add 1 to mistake counter. It is listening concentration. Price: $1.99 * Uses: This is a great game of listening concentration. The students could play this one-on-one or in groups. It is also a good assessment for students’ listening of melody lines.
- Melody Street - “The House On Melody Street” interactive eBook tells the heart-warming story of the instruments of the orchestra learning to live in harmony. Price: Free * Uses: Project onto screen and read to the class.
- Moozart - This is a fun app that lets you create music by placing farm animals on the staff. It also comes with preloaded songs that the animals sing. Price: $1.99 * Uses: Young students will adore creating music with farm animals. In addition, load one of the preloaded songs to see if the students can identify the melody.
- Music Box - Exploratory app for very young children to easily create and explore music. Price: Free
- Music for Little Mozarts - Note reading/piano app Price .99
- Music Tutor - Improve your sight reading skills using Music Tutor. This is a perfect tool for people learning music. Choose to practice between treble, bass or both kind of notes for a duration of 1, 5 or 10 minutes. Price: .99
- Notebook - The SMART Notebook app for iPad is a light version of SMART Notebook collaborative learning software. Using this app, you can create basic multimedia files and complete SMART Notebook lesson activities. You can use the app for individual and collaborative learning with an iPad, and you can use SMART Notebook software with a SMART Board interactive whiteboard for small group and class learning. Price: $6.99 * This is a very light version of notebook. Ideally, if you have multiple iPads in your classroom and a SMART Board, then you can have the students work on your notebook lessons in groups, if it does not involve the “bells and whistles” items on notebook.\
- Note Squish - Learn to read music the fun way with Note Squish. This simple game will teach you the names of the notes on the treble, bass, and C-clef. Price: .99 * Uses: You can customize this game to your curriculum. If your students are studying a pentatonic C Scale, you can customize this game accordingly.
- Old MacDonald by Duck Duck Moose - A traditional favorite where your students can sing along, record your students singing, perform in a variety of languages, and listen to the song on a variety of instruments. Price: $1.99 * Uses: Have the students listen to this song in a variety of languages.
- Percussive - Virtual glockenspiel, kalimba, xylophone, vibraphone and marimba. Price: Free to $1.99 * Uses: Add another instrument and depth of sound to our ensembles.
- Pitch Painter by Morton Subotnick - Pitch Painter is a musical finger painting app that is simple yet surprisingly sophisticated. While engaged in creative musical play, the child will be introduced to a variety of musical instrumental sounds and authentic scale tunings from four regions of the world. Price: $2.99 * Uses: Great app for young students to “draw” melodies.
- Pluto Piano - Help Pluto catch the musical notes while avoiding sharks, rocks and jellyfish. Once you have mastered a song, play it on the piano included in the game. Price: Free (It comes with two songs. You will need to pay to purchase more) * Uses: If you are teaching piano and rhythm patterns in your classroom, then this app will nicely reinforce this in a fun way.
- Rain Stick - Virtual instrument app connected into a sound system. Price: Free * Uses: Add another instrument and depth of sound to our ensembles.
- Rainbow Music Notes - Rainbow Music Notes creatively associates colors with notes to help beginners to recognize and remember them while playing. At the end of each game, a fun score card is given to encourage players for more practice. Price: $1.99 * Uses: Good assessment tool if you are teaching note reading with piano skills.
- Ratatap Drum - The harder you hit the drums, the louder they sound. Swirl your finger around for slower or faster rolls. The drum sound varies slightly from hit to hit, just like real drums. With the fastest response time of any drum app, it feels incredibly good to play. Price: Free - $1.99 * Uses: Add another instrument and depth of sound to our ensembles.
- Recorder Interactive: A Magical Method - This book is available for download with iBooks on your Mac or iOS device. Multi-touch books can be read with iBooks on your Mac or iOS device. Books with interactive features may work best on an iOS device. iBooks on your Mac requires OS X 10.9 or later. Anybody can learn to play the recorder! Recorder Interactive contains everything you need to learn the basics, as a stand-alone method or a supplement to lessons. Starting from the very beginning, you'll learn over an octave of notes, basic playing techniques, and over 30 songs! Every song includes two audio tracks: the recorder melody, and a fun accompaniment track. Accelerate your learning with quizzes, popovers, and ear training challenges. Intended for ages 8 to adult, it's never too late to play music!
- RhythmCat - Put your rhythm skills to the test! * Above all this game is highly entertaining with a great soundtrack to play along to, but it also has the added benefit of teaching you to read the most commonly used music rhythm notation. Price: Free *Uses: Assess your students’ rhythm reading and performing skills.
- Rhythm in Reach - RhythmInReach is an educational music game designed to improve the rhythm reading skills of students. Developed by professional music educators, it can be used as a great tool by students and teachers to reinforce a musical curriculum. Price: $3.99 *Uses: Test rhythms for older elementary students.
- Simon’s Cat in “Purrfect Pitch” - The creative mode allows you to compose your own tunes, save them, and then watch as Simon's Cat sings them back. The game mode sees you taking on Simon's Cat, as he tests your ability to follow his lead in a series of increasingly difficult musical challenges. Price: Free * Uses: You record familiar melodies and have Simon “sing” them as the students guess the titles of the melodies. You can also have the students perform the challenge, which is similar to the Simon game, but using piano keys.
- Seuss Band - Experience the excitement as Dr. Seuss Band transforms your device into a vibrant, energetic musical instrument that all ages will enjoy. Jam along with playful Seussian melodies or create your own whimsical masterpiece. As you play, you'll unlock new instruments, silly effects and catchy songs. Contains over 120 combinations of sounds, so you'll always have something new to discover. Price: .99 * Uses: The game is set up like guitar hero where the students have to play the correct note at the correct time and hold it for the length of the note.
- Songify - Songify immediately turns speech into music. Price: $2.99 * Uses: Students compose lyrics to a melody, or write short poems, and record them into Songify. Post these musical creations on the music website or burn them onto CD.
- SoundBrush - With SoundBrush, you can draw music on an iPad. Create musical masterpieces with a swipe of your finger. Draw a line or a shape to create sound, and let SoundBrush turn it into music. With multiple instruments at your fingertips, you can create a dynamic and textured song. And when your masterpiece is ready, export and share your song with the world through SoundCloud, Facebook, Twitter and email. Price: $2.99 *Uses: Have students paint music on the iPad.
- Soundrop - Draw lines and watch as Soundrop uses them to create music. Price: Free Pro: $1.99 *Uses: Have young students draw basic shapes and compare and contrast what that does to the sound.
- Sounds of the Orchestra - Sounds of the Orchestra is a fun way for children, parents, teachers, and anyone with an interest in music to learn about the classical musical instruments that comprise the orchestra. Price: $1.99 * Uses: Play musical concentration with the instruments of the orchestra or learn about and listen to the orchestra
- Tabla Drum - Used as a virtual instrument by teacher and students. Price: Free - .99 * Uses: Add another instrument and depth of sound to our ensembles.
- Taiko Drums - Used as a virtual instrument by teacher and students. Price: Free - .99 * Uses: Add another instrument and depth of sound to our ensembles.
- Talkapella - Turns spoken word into a rocking acapella harmony. Creates four different versions of your voice, and stretches out vowels. Price: .99 * Uses: Students compose lyrics to a melody, or write short poems, and record them into Talkapella. Post these musical creations on the music website or burn them onto CD.
- Tap Metronome - Tap Metronome is a simple metronome for those who want quick access to a reliable metronome. Price: Free
- Tonara - As you play, it shows where you are on the score and automatically turns the pages. Tonara provides a high quality music library with scores of various levels, instruments and styles. Each of these scores has been formatted especially for the iPad viewing experience. Price: Free
- Treble Clef Kids - "Treble Clef Kids" is a fun, interactive and educational way for kids to learn the basics of music theory. Rated "The Best iPad Music Apps for Kids" by iPadForKids.com. Price: $1.99 * Uses: If you are addressing note reading with piano skills in your classroom, then you can use this app to reinforce and assess these skills.
- Vidrhythm - A fun way to make music videos. Price: Free
- Virtual Erhu - Used as a virtual instrument by teacher and students. Price: $2.99 *Uses: Have the students experience this Chinese instrument as a part of the Chinese New Year or during a unit involving the study of world music.
- Wheels on the Bus by Duck Duck Moose - A traditional favorite where students can sing along, record your students singing, perform in a variety of languages, and listen to the song on a variety of instruments. Price: $.99 *Uses: Have the students listen to this song in a variety of languages.