Although the tried-and-true technique of “practice, practice, practice” is essential to promoting musical growth, sometimes a small dose of variety can bring new vitality to your practice routine. If you’re interested in finding some new ways to mix up your routine check out these 3 music apps and get practicing!
1. NoteWorks
This fun little app is a great tool for helping young musicians learn to identify notes. This music game can be set to 2 different modes: matching notes on the staff with their names, and matching notes on the staff with their piano keys. The game’s little monster chomps on the notes you get right while also giving you a chance to correct the wrong ones, and it includes different difficulty levels and adjustable speed. The free version includes just the treble clef, but the full version adds bass clef, the grand staff, and even alto and tenor clef.
2. Tenuto
This is my favorite music education app, and I used it extensively in my college days. It’s a music theory training app on steroids that is a great resource for studying music theory and aural skills. It includes both visual and aural note, interval, scale, and chord identification, and all the exercises are customizable to target the specific areas you want to work on. This app is less like a game than NoteWorks, but if you’re a bit of a perfectionist (like me) the constant display of your accuracy percentage will drive you to keep practicing. This app is $3.99 in the App Store, but you can access the same resources for free on musictheory.net.
3. Dancing Line
I stumbled across this app when looking for a rhythm trainer, and although that isn’t exactly what this is, I have enjoyed it immensely. Dancing Line uses the simple concept of tapping along to the melody of the song that the app is playing as the line navigates through obstacles in its environment. The app uses great graphics, and the music is beautiful, but full disclosure—it is DIFFICULT. The game is almost impossible to play without wearing headphones, and if you are competitive (like me), you should probably be cautious about how long you let yourself play. Still, it’s a fun way to mix things up every now and then, and it’s a helpful tool to teach you to focus and listen intently to the music.
At the end of the day, no app can replace the hard work of practicing, but when used in moderation, these fun tools can help re-invigorate your practice routine. Learn these helpful tools and more by signing up for online or in-person lessons with one of our instructors!
- Jordan Koehlinger, Music Instructor at Vibe Music Academy.
