Best Apps for Music and Art
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My Best Apps series would not be complete without my best apps for music and best apps for art picks. My kids grew up with plenty of music and art supplies. And, plenty of time and opportunities to explore. These music and art apps don’t replace hands-on music and art experiences. Rather, these apps give creative kids additional opportunities to develop their musical and artistic skills.
Best Apps for Music and Art
#1 Toc and Roll
Recommended Ages: 5 and under
Toc and Roll is a great music app for those creative kids who don’t just like to sing, they like to compose their own music. This music app gives them their own portable studio.
With Toc and Roll, kids can compose songs, then use a variety of instruments and effects to get just the sound they like. What makes Toc and Roll rise above other music apps is they use real instruments and give users the ability to control the volume and effects for each track independently. Kids really get a good introduction to music sounds and mixing. These options give kids plenty of room for creativity. They can share their music with family and friends on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, or by e-mail.
#2 Draw something
Recommended Ages: 6 & up
Billed as the World’s Most Popular Drawing game, this fun drawing challenge is a great way for your kids to practice their drawing sills. The game can be played two different ways: guessing what others are drawing or drawing a picture for other players to guess. Drawers are given a word to draw ranging in topic from science to pop culture. And the more they play, the more they achieve, including badges and additional color packs to enhance their drawings.
#3 Draw A Stickman: EPIC 2
Recommended Ages: 9+
There are many apps for art, but Draw A Stickman: Epic 2 will literally bring your child’s drawings to life! You can draw a stickman, as the title suggests, and enter him into different worlds. Become the hero of your own world in a quest to save your partner. Fight off dragons and goblins with weapons you draw yourself! Save your drawings, and even share them with friends. Solve puzzles and challenges while battling villains with endless creativity!
#4 Let’s Create! Pottery HD Lite
Recommended Ages: 4+
This pottery game will have you mesmerized within seconds of starting it up! It’s pottery in all the best ways, without the mess. Make designs on your own, and copy pre-made designs to earn stars. This therapeutic pottery game will give your child hours of fun creating all sorts of shapes and vessels out of clay!
#5 Gravilux
Recommended Ages: 4+
Gravilux was the Top Ten App of the Year for Art & Music on Apple, and for good reason! This app uses the natural electricity that comes from your body to alter the light and color specs on the screen. Change the light and color direction and size as it glides across the screen. Perfect for entertaining little ones, and provides an excellent sensory experience!
#6 Crayola Dj
Recommended Ages: 6-12
Your kids will have a blast playing DJ with this fun music app. In Crayola DJ, your child can create their own songs by playing with tracks in different genres, including dance, pop, and hip hop. Then, they play their song for an audience to earn points for creativity. In addition to creating cool songs, the music is also color-coded to create a color and light show each time the song plays.
This cool app has a variety of features that will keep your kids entertained for hours, including:
- Almost 100 loops created by professional DJs
- A variety of genres and instruments to choose from
- A selection of real DJ tools, like crossfaders, sound effects, and tempo slider
- The ability to compete with a friend in two-player mode
- The option to save their songs
Awards:
- Parents’ Choice Fun Stuff Award
- National Parenting Centers Seal of Approval
- CreativeChild.coms 2015 Creative Play of the Year Award
#7 My Singing Monsters
Recommended Ages: 4+
Discover the land of singing monsters! Create your own monster, and listen to it sing! Each monster you create has its own unique sound. Pair it with other monsters and watch them make music! This is one of the neatest creative apps for music I’ve seen in a long time, and is sure to make your little ones love music in a whole new way!
#8 Duckie Deck Homemade Orchestra
Recommended Ages: 5 and under
Children can explore everyday objects and see how they can be musical instruments! Explore mode allows them to listen and sample what different things sound like, while Play mode allows the instruments to come to life in song! Perfect for little ones who are new to electronic devices. This music app is a simple platform that doesn’t have a lot of difficult controls, so it’s easy for young ones to use.
#9 Easy Music
Recommended Ages: 6-8
Easy Music is an app designed to teach children music theory through listening. It introduces them to notes, pitch, rhythm, and melody in a fun and playful way! Kids can choose Practice Mode or Compose Mode. Kids can work their way through the app to compose their own song on a rainbow piano! This app was conceptualized and approved by multiple musicians and educators. Teaching children to hear music before playing music is much akin to teaching children to speak before they learn the alphabet.
#10 NodeBeat
Recommended Ages: 4+
Drag and drop different shapes to add to the beat. The beat runs on a permanent loop, so you can hear your song change as you add items. Distance from the original node changes the tempo and/or pitch of the sound you add. NodeBeat is an awesome way to introduce rhythm and tempo to young children!
#11 Art Class with Dr. Panda
Recommended Ages: 3 & up
In Dr. Panda’s art class, your kids can make all kinds of fun crafts without the mess. Kids have the option to make six different crafts, including creating new friends with fruit, spinning pottery, making kites, or constructing pinwheels. They can even play with their crafts when they’re finished. The combination of beautiful drawn 2D art and 3D animations make this game entertaining for children and the content gives them an opportunity to use their imagination to create wonderful works of art. Some of the crafts also offer instructions on how to make them in real life. This fun app is part of the Dr. Panda series, which develops educational games for kids that help them learn about the world. It is free of in-app purchases and ads, and it is designed with minimal UI, making it easy for young children to use.
#12 AutoDesk SketchBook
Recommended Ages: 13 & up
This full-feature design app is perfect for teens who are serious about drawing and art. It offers a huge selection of tools for creating amazing digital art, including a variety of brushes, pens, stamps, and colors. Your budding artist can learn to draw using a mirror image and manipulate their artwork by moving or rotating, rearranging, and adding layers. It also offers a pen-only option, allowing the user to draw using a stylus without hand pressure becoming an issue. In addition to having the option to save their in-progress work, your child can also export their work for use in different programs (including Photoshop). This app is an extension of the desktop version of the popular design software. It includes most of the features available in the desktop version, but some differences do exist between he iOS and Android versions.
#13 Kapu Bloom Tunes
Recommended Ages: 1 to 5
Kapu Bloom Tunes blends music and art in a beautiful and engaging way. Young learners will enjoy painting musical tunes while also learning how melodies are crafted. To play, your child will begin by digging to find and decorate a seed which eventually sprouts as your child paints melodies into the soil and pours magic water over the seed. Nursery rhymes and other cheerful melodies play when your child tickles the flower or spins its petals. There are no scores or timed levels, making this app perfect for a younger audience, and its intuitive controls are designed so there really is no wrong way to play in this fun app.
#14 Magic Piano
Recommended Ages: 8 & up
Play your favorite songs on the piano (on your favorite device). This fun rhythm game mimics the keys of the piano on your device, allowing your child to learn how to play their favorite songs on the piano. New songs are added to the collection daily – the app currently features more than 1,000 different songs across a variety of genres. And with an adjustable difficulty level, kids of any musical ability will have fun playing. You can even create your own music using the app’s piano composer.
#15 Band Blast – The Music Education Revolution
Recommended Ages: 5 & up
This curriculum-based educational app makes it easy for any child to learn how to play an instrument. This unique app has a variety of fun rhythm and pitch games, on top of an awesome real-life recording studio. The instructional videos available feature some of the top philharmonic and studio musicians in the world. Using this app, your child has the option to learn violin, flute, cello, tenor sax, alto sax, viola, clarinet, trumpet, trombone, guitar, and double bass. The app is made up of four different elements:
- Step-by-step lessons on how to play an instrument through a selection of 250 instructional videos that cover playing your first note, reading music, and playing popular songs.
- A rhythm game, which teaches students how to count beats, follow the beat, learn notes and rests, and develop coordination skills.
- A pitch game, which helps students improve their ability to learn notes on an instrument and train their ear to detect different pitches.
- A recording studio that allows your child to record their own music using one of 40 backing tracks from some of the world’s best musicians.
There are no in-app purchases or ads in this app, making it great for younger kids.
What are your favorite apps for music? Do you have some favorite apps for art? Share them with us in the comments section!
Hi Leah,
The following link that you left for parents who attended the TPA conference in Wichita, KS is not working.
“If you are looking for quality app recommendations for kids, I’ve written an entire series on my site. Apps are listed by subject, by device, and also by age. You can find that series here.”
Thanks so much for letting me know Angela. I’ve corrected it and it’s working now. Here’s a direct link for you as well in case you want to copy and paste this into your browser.
https://leahnieman.com/?s=best+apps
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