Musical Me! – Kids Songs Music

Our toddler had this app on her iPad for a long time and would occasionally play with it. It has a part where fish sing a song that goes do-do-sol-sol in a C major scale. You can also move the notes and it will sing the new note. Our child learned to sing do-do-sol-sol and she always sings it with the do being right on the C without being given the starting note. I believe her early exposure to this app helped her associate a name with certain pitches so they got fixed in her head when she was young - a skill that's very hard to develop in adulthood. I highly recommend getting your child this app as early as possible!

Musical Me has really clever ways of getting kids to engage with music beyond just listening. The app has age appropriate games to teach kids about rhythm, musical notation, and music memory. Also, the instrument sounds it produces are really pleasing, as is the singing voice. My wife and I were able to listen to the nursery rhymes dozens of times without getting tired (keep reading to learn why we were forced to). There are a few problems though. First is that the game makers decided to add in distractions. In the memory game, a cow randomly appears. It serves no purpose in the learning, and it is no more fun to click the cow than it is to play the memory game. Nearly every game in this app has a built-in distraction that (at least for my 2-year-old) prevents full engagement with the more valuable learning elements. The second problem is that the skill level selection isn't hidden behind a parental control. Kids can just choose their own skill level, including one that isn't appropriate, decreasing their enjoyment. The third problem is primarily frustrating for parents (or whoever is managing the iPad). The music in the app continues, even when the iPad goes to sleep. I'm no iExpert, but that seems to break with iConvention, at least for kids apps. So we've listened to that wonderful singer's rendition of "Mary Had A Little Lamb" far more than necessary.

As a Music Educator, I got this to give my daughter something to do on my iPad related to music instruction. The only thing worth while in this app is the moveable pitch notation. The rest is not really worth having for me. I gave it three stars because I do like it, but it's not instructionally valuable in the way that I hoped it would be as a digital item. Did you talk to professional elementary Music teachers? We'll tell you what you need to know to make it instructionally valuable. If you really get it right, it may even make our "at-school use" list.

In preparation for a 14-hr drive with my 18-month old, I downloaded this app. When I turned the app over to him for the first time in the car, he played with it for 40 minutes straight without tiring, and with no direction from me. It has become his favorite app. And with five completely different activities, I feel I get a lot of value from this app.

My almost three year old son loves this app! Very cute way to teach some basic music skills that I haven't seen in other apps. The memory game is similar to a memory game I loved as a child (Simon).