Companion Apps
I specifically choose curricula that have companion apps that assist student in-home practice. I see marked improvement in the playing of students who regularly use the companion apps versus those who don't.
Piano Maestro
Piano Maestro is a subscription app, but I have a studio account and can gift the subscription for free to my students. I set up an account for them and link it to mine so I can see what they practice and how they progress.
Piano Maestro works with any instrument, digital or acoustic, to check the student's notes and rhythm. Students can earn stars on each song depending on their performance and go up in rank.
Piano Maestro works with any instrument, digital or acoustic, to check the student's notes and rhythm. Students can earn stars on each song depending on their performance and go up in rank.
The following curricula I use in the studio are available on this app:
Faber Piano Adventures Player
For those who use who are in the Faber curriculum, this app has all the method books and most supplementary ones available. Students can listen to their songs and change the tempo. If they have an instrument with a MIDI connection, they can have the backing tracks follow along with them as they play.
Many Skills in One
NinGenius
Available for: Apply only (unlike NinGenius Ultimate)
This version of the NinGenius app has less skills, but the simple layout of it makes it a bit easier to navigate. Students can practice finding the correct keys from a given note, note identification, and rhythm. After each round they earn a different colored ninja belt depending on their performance. When they answer correctly, a little ninja kiais and kicks a board.
Tenuto
Available on: in app form for Apple devices or using any browser at www.musictheory.net
Price: $3.99 for app, free as website
This is the most comprehensive review resource there is for music theory. Student can review notes, intervals, chords, and scales by sight, ear, or constructing them themselves. While it keeps score, it does not have kid-friendly graphics or a game-style of playing, so I recommend it mostly for adults and advanced students.
Note Reading
Note Rush
Available on: Apple and Android
Price: $4.99
Note Rush is one of the few apps that requires a piano. It can be used with any type of piano, acoustic or digital. It has various levels or you can custom create your own, which I often do with just the notes in a specific song that a student is playing. It shows notes on a staff that the student can play. It times them and keeps track of their high scores.
Flashnote Derby
Available on: Apple and Android
Price: $2.99 on Android, $4.99 on Apple
This app allows you to select exactly which notes to practice every time you play. Students race against another horseman, getting more ahead for each correct note or more behind for each wrong one. Additional themes include pegasus and spaceships!
Staff Wars
Available on: Apple and Android
Price: $0.99
This one allows you to choose between multiple instruments and staves. You can choose what range of notes to practice. The idea is to blast them off the staff as they come in succession. The longer you play, the more you level up and the faster it gets.
Rhythm
The Most Amazing Sheep Game
Available on: Apple
Price: Free!
This is the most elemental of rhythm games. Its purpose is to tell students feel and tap to the steady beat. Often beginner students can grasp different note values but have a hard time playing along to a steady beat. For this game, you have to tap the screen to make the sheep jump to the steady beat. If you tap before or after the beat, it will fall off!
Rhythm Swing
Available on: Apple
Price: $3.99
For this app, students have to tap the rhythm correctly to avoid being eaten by an alligator! It ranges from very basic note values to advanced. It has both a practice and play mode so students can first practice without the stress of trying to not be lunch!
Rhythm Cat
Available on: Apple and Android
Price: $4.99 on Apple, $0.99 on Android
For rhythm cat, students unlock progressively difficult levels by tapping the beat on the screen. It has a range of son with different tempos and note values. Students can redo a level as many times as they need to master it and move on. They can miss up to three notes before they must try again.
Beat Sneak Bandit
Available on: Apple
Price: $2.99
This is another app that helps students nail the steady beat without realizing they are working on musical skills at all! Students play as Beat Sneak Bandit who is trying to stop Duke Clockface from building a time freeze device. The catch is that they can only move through the game by tapping exactly to the beat.
Rhythm Lab
Available on: Apple
Price: $3.99
This app is like the Rhythm Swing app above for more advanced students. It features many rhythms, from very simple to extremely complicated, that the student must tap on the screen. The app keeps track of where and how the student was off with their rhythm and gives them feedback to be able to correct it.
Rhythmic Dictation
Available on: Apple
Price: $0.99
This app is the opposite of Rhythm Lab in that instead of being given the rhythm and you have to tap it, the app play a rhythm for you and then you have to recreate it. It is a cross between rhythm and ear training and is excellent practice!
Ear Training
Ear Cat
Available on: Apple and Android
Price: $4.99
The relaxing and fun app trains students to hear and identify the distance between notes and what notes they hear. Every five levels they play a song by ear, starting out with very short and familiar tunes. They earn points they can use to buy food and toys for a little cat called Echo that lives in the app.
Composition
Notion
Available on: Apple, PC
Price: $14.99 in Apple app store, $150 for PC software
With a simple printer cable and a digital piano or keyboard (or the keyboard in the app itself), Notion transcribes whatever notes you play. You can add whatever clefs, instruments, dynamics, etc that you want and as soon as you stop playing it is ready to print out! It will also play back your score for you. It feels miraculous!
NicoNotes Composer
Available on: Apple
Price: free (with in-app purchases for more instrument sounds and features)
NicoNotes is well-suited for introducing my youngest pianists to creating their own melodies. They can put songs on a staff for multiple instruments and hear/watch it performed back to them!