Title: Musical Paint
Developer: Building Blocks Media
Compatibility: iPad / iPhone / iPod touch // iOS 6.0
Size: 77.8 MB
Description: Less a musical app with some painting components than a painting app with some musical components, this app allows your kids to "finger paint" and produce both a visual piece of art -- the "canvas" -- while generating sound that changes with where the finger goes on the canvas. Different colors produce different sounds. And you get to sign your name at the end.
The downside of the app is that it doesn't have a lot of painting or musical features. Painting-wise, you can only pick one color at a time, then change its intensity. Musically, you can't change the instruments -- you're stuck with the same 5 color/sound combinations and many of the vibrant instrument sounds the animated characters at the museum splash page play aren't found in the painting area. But there are probably a number of families for whom the specific multi-sensory experience (visual plus music) this provides is the key feature, and providing too many features otherwise is over-complicating matters. (Teachers may also find the included lesson plans useful.)
The interface is reasonably easy to use, with saving the picture to the app's "gallery" easy enough. (So is e-mailing pictures, so you may need to supervise your kiddos unless you turn that feature off.) While the app is available on all 3 types of iOS devices, I only used it on the iPad; it seems the iPhone screen might be a bit small, or at least difficult to do much more than the blockiest of drawings.
Families seeking a pure fingerpainting experience or a more musical experience probably won't find much here worth retaining. But if the idea of audio-visual art intrigues you, you might want to try this (or even its older sibling, not specifically designed for kids, but cheaper).
Age Range: 3 through 8
Price: $4.99
Link: iTunes
Note: I was given a copy of the app for possible review.
