23 TOOLS

Great Apps, Games, and Websites for Music Education

Whether you're a music teacher looking for digital tools, or just looking to add some music education into your classroom, this list has what you need. There's a ton of apps, games, and websites for teaching the basics of music and music composition and recording. We've narrowed these tools down to the most useful and engaging. With these great music apps, games, and websites, students can listen to and better understand music, make it, or just experiment with rhythm, pitch, looping, and more. Watch them turn tunes from major to minor, hear songs arranged for a range of instruments, make themed playlists, and record and mix pro-level tracks! With these tools, your students from elementary to high school will see how easy and fun it is to make digital music.

Bandimal

Captivating music creation app for young musicians

Bottom Line: For iOS-infused preschool and kindergarten classrooms, this could be an excellent intro to electronic music.

Grades: Pre-K–K
Price:
Paid

Musical Me - by Duck Duck Moose

Lively activities introduce kids to music, rhythm, and instruments

Bottom Line: This whimsical app offers kids a variety of ways to make and experience music while boosting their critical-thinking skills.

Grades: Pre-K–K
Price:
Free

Sesame Street: Elmo's Musical Monsterpiece

Silly Muppets make learning music fun for young kids

Bottom Line: A great intro to music concepts for young kids, but only engages one child at a time.

Grades: Pre-K–K
Price:
Paid

Easy Music - Give kids an ear for music

Music-exploration app offers great balance of play and guidance

Bottom Line: Great, easily accessible approach to building the foundations for musical literacy.

Grades: Pre-K–2
Price:
Paid

Musical Paint for Kids

Create digital drawings, explore musical tones

Bottom Line: With appropriate teacher guidance, this can be an engaging if limited creative experience for pre-K-grade 2 students that cleverly mixes drawing and music creation.

Grades: Pre-K–2
Price:
Paid

Piano Maestro by JoyTunes

Great sharing features help parents, teachers support piano practice

Bottom Line: A cool way to get piano students, their teachers, and their parents on the same page, but it might need tweaking to remove some distractions.

Grades: Pre-K–12
Price:
Free to try

PBS Kids

One-stop shop for a wealth of fantastic PBS Kids educational content

Bottom Line: Robust collection of learning resources covers an impressive array of topics.

Grades: Pre-K–4
Price:
Free

LOOPIMAL by YATATOY

Dip a toe into DJing with drag-and-drop music app

Bottom Line: The intuitive design strikes a nice balance between ease of use and a feeling of unique creative expression.

Grades: K–5
Price:
Paid

My First Classical Music App HD

Inviting, interactive app makes learning classical music fun

Bottom Line: My First Classical Music App is a great interactive introduction to the Western classical music tradition.

Grades: K–5
Price:
Paid

Smithsonian Folkways

Text-centric world music site could use more activities, music

Bottom Line: Kids won't hear every tune in its entirety, but Smithsonian Folkways' resources can help them comprehend and appreciate cultural music.

Grades: K–12
Price:
Free

GarageBand

Amazingly powerful audio workstation unleashes creativity

Bottom Line: There's exceptional functionality in this solid, all-inclusive audio workstation that's fantastic for high-quality, anytime, and anywhere audio recording and sharing.

Grades: 3–12
Price:
Free

BrainPOP

Clever animated hosts Tim and Moby masterfully tackle complex topics

Bottom Line: This extensive collection's videos and games break down ideas in a straightforward and thoughtful way.

Grades: 3–8
Price:
Free to try

Sound Shapes

Jazzy music game lets kids design levels and create music

Bottom Line: A visually stunning music game that inspires creativity by providing simple but powerful tools to build your own music games to share with others.

Grades: 4–12
Price:
Paid

WURRLYedu

Sharp music program has popular music, standards-based curriculum

Bottom Line: Since it features a standards-based curriculum and good skills-building for students, this is worth a look for teachers.

Grades: 5–12
Price:
Free to try

iTooch Music

Charming visuals, challenging quizzes build solid musical knowledge

Bottom Line: iTooch Music is a terrific reference and review tool for beginning to advanced music students.

Grades: 6–9
Price:
Paid

Noteflight

Safe, collaborative space for creating and sharing original music

Bottom Line: This useful, well-constructed music composition tool lets classrooms collaborate and comment on student-created songs.

Grades: 6–12
Price:
Free, Paid

The Orchestra

Stellar interactive features bring classical music vibrantly to life

Bottom Line: A terrifically designed tool that invites students into the often unwelcoming world of classical music in a way that deepens appreciation and understanding of the complexities and beauties of the art form.

Grades: 6–12
Price:
Paid

ToneSavvy

Customizable quizzes harmonize music theory and ear training skills

Bottom Line: An exceptional, teacher-led resource for practicing key ear training and music theory facts.

Grades: 6–12
Price:
Free to try

Yousician - Your personal music teacher

Appealing, feedback-rich tool helps kids build core musical skills

Bottom Line: Paired with great in-person instruction, this is a fabulous tool to boost musical skills.

Grades: 3–12
Price:
Free to try

SmartMusic

Music practice tool's flexible features need fine-tuning

Bottom Line: With good support from a music teacher -- and a good microphone setup -- this is a cool tool for supporting (but not taking over) practice time.

Grades: 5–12
Price:
Free to try

Auxy Studio - Music & Beat Maker

Loop beats like a pro with stellar music-maker

Bottom Line: A stellar, approachable tool for constructing your very own digital beats and tracks.

Grades: 7–12
Price:
Free

Flat

Compose, perform, and practice with powerful music education tool

Bottom Line: This digital companion for in-person music study is an excellent tool for beginners and pros alike.

Grades: 7–12
Price:
Free to try

Soundtrap

Powerful online audio production with built-in collaboration features

Bottom Line: Soundtrap is a uniquely collaborative sound-production environment, but if you want the top-quality EDU version, you have to pay top dollar.

Grades: 6–12
Price:
Free, Free to try, Paid

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