5 Best Music Apps for Kids to Play and Listen

Teaching your kids music and learning to play an instrument can have so many benefits for your child! Learning how to play music, how to sing and listen to music are all a natural part of life.

Music is about communication, self-expression and having fun! A rewarding experience that can help your child improve their ability to listen and focus, promote good self-esteem, self-expression and problem-solving skills, and, best of all, help your child grow as a person.

Nowadays, it is easier for children to learn music, because there are many apps and websites on the internet that offers music lessons and interactive learning games. Music learning games are particularly effective in helping children develop an interest in music, because they are entertaining as well as educational. Here is a list of apps that provide music learning games for children.

Loopimal

( iPad - £2.99 )

Sesame Street Makes Music has serious music-making lessons to learn, from different instruments to how tempo affects songs. Ernie, Abby, Elmo and Cookie Monster are all there to help, with eight instruments to explore.

Kids can learn about music structure, style, and instruments. They'll hear familiar songs played in new ways and get introduced to six musical genres. By experimenting with turning band members on and off, kids can learn about how each member contributes to the overall sound of a song. Kids can also learn the names of six instruments and explore the unique sounds they make. Sesame Street Makes Music's inherent content is limited, but parents can use it as a springboard for lots of musical discussion and exploration.

Musical Me! HD - by Duck Duck Moose

( iPad - Free )

Loopimal is a seriously fun app that allows kids (and adults alike) to explore sequences, loops, and music as they try to animate a bunch of cute animals. Children have endless opportunities to create rich compositions and explore loops and computer sequencing within an easy-to-use pre-programming framework.

Kids can learn about components of music such as beat, rhythm, melody, tempo, and so on. As they create patterns of up to eight musical blocks that repeat endlessly, kids experience visual and auditory loops and sequences. The animals' movements also help give a good sense of tempo and movement as it relates to music.

Music Sparkles – Musical Instruments Collection

( iPad - Free )

Musical Me! takes children on a magical, musical journey. Explore elements of music with familiar Duck Duck Moose Characters and superbly arranged children's songs. Enjoy little surprises throughout this app as your child learns about rhythm, instruments, pitch, and musical notes. Sit down as a family to dance, laugh and create music with Musical Me!

Kids can learn some of the basics of music, including rhythm, notes, and instruments as they play along to familiar tunes like "Mary Had a Little Lamb," "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," and "Pop Goes the Weasel." Music engages many parts of the brain, and through playing with rhythm, memory, and notes, kids can develop critical thinking skills and sharpen memorization skills. Musical Me by Duck Duck Moose is an engaging app that offers kids a variety of ways to make and experience music while boosting their critical-thinking skills.

Sesame Street Makes Music

( iPad - £2.99 )

Music Sparkles sparks creativity and love of music with its interactive instruments and multi-touch play. The free version of Music Sparkles has users playing 4 octaves of a xylophone and banging away on the drums with accompaniment from 5 other instruments. Use one, two or five fingers to play chords and have a blast adding a rhythm line while the banjo plays a simple tune along with you. Be careful of in-app purchases when locked screens are tapped.

Kids can learn many musical concepts including instrument identification and design as well as performing with a number of different instrument types (strings, keyboards, woodwind, and percussion). Kids can also learn listening skills such as playing in key and in rhythm, and music theory like scales, intervals, and singing solfege syllables (Do-Re-Mi). The instruments are polyphonic, so kids can play more than one note at a time and in different octaves, and the keyboards are in 12-note chromatic scales. Though it lacks recording and playback, Music Sparkles is still a fantastically rich and interactive musical experience for little ones.

Mussila

( iPad - Free )

Musical monster adventure is an application suitable for children 6 to 11 years of age in which they learn the basics of music. This beautifully presented app explores the adventures of the Mussila band on a musical journey. Help them find instruments, costumes and create your own music. The app is based on a music curriculum and the player progresses through skill building levels such as recognising instruments, instrumental sounds, rhythm and melodies. This extensive game has over 60 levels of engaging game play and creativity.