Mussila Music School

If you would like to help your child to build or expand their musical education you cannot go wrong with Mussila. It is fun, comprehensive, and educationally well designed.

Very many apps debut displaying great promise and a commitment to growing and improving. Sadly an ever-growing measure of time beneath the 'last updated' heading on their store page shows that they have been abandoned by their developer. A lack of commercial success, a change of interest on the part of the developer, and a lack of ideas conspire to end the ongoing support.

How wonderful it is to see an app in a poorly served educational niche, already debuted in a form that earned it 5 stars, that has also continued to grow and improve. That app is Mussila.

Children with musical parents or who are lucky enough to go to a school that has not cut back on its music provision, get the inspiration to learn about and develop an interest in music. Children without this exposure might never get the chance to learn a skill or develop an interest in a subject that gives so many people, both players and listeners, such pleasure.

For those that are lucky in terms of musical education, Mussila can only enhance their learning and offer further support. For those unlucky children, Mussila provides a music education that many parents and schools cannot.

The musical education that this app provides is a very full one. It covers music in both its theory and practical components which include specific skills such as reading musical notation and then playing it upon a keyboard. All of the knowledge and the skills that the app conveys are wrapped up in beautifully produced and entertaining activities. The app's characters play the part of colourful and friendly guides. Sounds and music, as you'd expect, are crystal clear, natural, and expertly produced.

Players can choose from two main sections: courses and theory. In theory, they can choose to learn about melody, instruments, rhythm, and musical keyboards. Where appropriate, these activities provide a useful correction to wrong answers, for example, by linking the question to the answer in an animated form. Players are also given the opportunity to work with the band formed by the Mussila characters. By tweaking the instruments and arrangements, players can see how the mood of a piece can be altered by quite subtle changes.

In the courses section, children learn all about playing the piano including the position of keys on the keyboard, musical notation, and how to play a few simple melodies. It is this section that has been given the most attention in recent months and it has developed into a comprehensive and useful piano-learning course for beginners. It wasn't possible to see them all while preparing this review but there are 20 different courses each of which contains multiple activities and cover a variety of classic musical works.

Following a marker along sheet music and hitting the right key as it reaches the written note is a superb activity that not only develops sight reading of music but links the position of the note on the stave to its pitch relative to other notes. Even players who cannot accurately select the right key on the musical keyboard can make an informed guess based on the current note's position relative to the last one played. Players should soon develop fluency in reading sheet music and in the layout of the piano keyboard with the practice and support provided by Mussila.

Of course, playing a virtual piano is not quite like playing the real thing but the knowledge is transferable to the physical instrument and this app provides a level of support and tuition that just sitting at a keyboard with a book cannot.

Best of all, Mussila avoids the pitfall of many apps where the meshing of learning and entertainment feels a little forced. The main activities in this app don't feel shoehorned into a game-like format but rather designed to introduce children to instruments, songs, and sounds and they make the skill or knowledge being taught an intrinsic part of the activity. As already mentioned, the piano course is excellent but there are other ways in which children can exercise their creativity and build an understanding of music.

For example, in the third section of the app, games, learners can take on the role of a DJ at a mixing deck. Sounds and instruments can be mixed, scratched, and manipulated into something new. The device's microphone can also be used to record new sounds or voices from the real world. It is a surprisingly full activity that is both easy to use and flexible.

The game called Mussila Planets is a little more tangentially related to music education but is fun to play and offers a change of pace accompanied by familiar music and original pieces as well. A child who opens the app to play this game is also a step closer to moving on to one of the other courses or activities that build skills and knowledge.

The app is free to download and there is plenty to do in that version for you to gauge its usefulness. A subscription to the app unlocks the full content which grows the app immensely. It doesn't make the experience pay to win, though, as children must still complete earlier exercises to move on to the more complex ones. This is a good decision as children can be inclined to get ahead of themselves and then feel demoralised when the jump was too much. By following the app's well-judged programme as it was intended, children progress along a gentle learning curve that consolidates and builds understanding.

Review ratings systems are never perfect. Mussila achieved 5 stars when it was half the app it is now. In this polished, expanded and even more well-designed app, it has to be worth a couple more stars at least. Sadly it can't have them. Mussila will have to settle for the full 5 stars and a well-earned and an entirely justified recommendation for you to download it for your music-loving children.

If this app doesn't jibe with your kid's learning style, keep searching! There are many other tech-based music learning resources available. Read Educational App Store's Best Music Apps for Kids.

You can download Mussila Music School on your iOS or Android devices from the app stores. Download the Mussila Music School app from the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store.