Keezy - Elepath

Title: Keezy

Developer:  Elepath

Compatibility: iPad / iPhone / iPod touch // iOS 7.0

Size: 45.1 MB

Description:   Is Apple's Garageband app too unwieldy, does it overwhelm your kindergartner? (It's OK, sometimes it overwhelms me?)  Are they bored with Toca Band and its limited set of interlocking sounds?  Does Toc and roll offer some -- but not enough -- flexibility, or does it also feel too much like project management, Garageband on training wheels?

Then perhaps Keezy is for your kid (or you).  It's actually for both of you, for different reasons.  The basic organizing concept is that of "boards," an iOS screen split into eight differently colored squares, each of which has a different sound.  Those sounds could be beats, vocal loops, synthesized notes, or your toddler banging pots and pans in the kitchen.  Touch a square, and it produces a sound; touch them in sequence, Simon-style, and all of a sudden you've got yourself a song. Or something.

How do you get boards for your use? Two ways -- 1) record your own sounds, or 2) use pre-loaded boards from the likes of Reggie Watts, Tegan and Sara, and others.  So, basically, you can be as DIY as you want (or don't).

From my perspective, it's not totally intuitive swiping around between the different functions (basically, touch and hold in the center, and the big black circle will expand to reveal a wordless menu, which the user will then have to remember, for example, the "hamburger bun" means "menu of boards to choose from."  I'm sure with regular use it becomes second nature, but initially it's kind of confusing.  Also, there's no way at the moment to record the songs or set an unending loop for a particular sound, although it sounds they are working on both concepts.  (They're also working on a drum machine of sorts, which I feel mad at myself for not having stopped by their tent and checking out when I was at XOXO.)

But for a toy with a deceptively simple interface and a large range of possibilities (some I'm sure beyond what the creators intended), this is an app worth your download.

Age Range: 4 through 10

Price: Free

Link: iTunes

Toc and Roll - minimúsica-Sones

Title: Toc and Roll

Developer:  minimúsica-Sones

Compatibility: iPad / iPhone / iPod touch // iOS 5.1.1

Size: 165 MB

Description:   I'm a big fan of Apple's Garageband app as a kid-friendly musical app -- tapping on the drum set or other "instruments" can produce a surprisingly interactive effect for something that is, well, tapping on a glass screen.  But it can be an incredibly complex experience, and if a kid were trying to put together an actual song, the sheer number of choices would probably him or her.

That's where Toc and Roll comes in.  Simply put, this is the app kids graduate to after getting bored with Toca Band but before they're ready to really create music in Garageband.  The app was developed by the much-beloved Barcelona-based minimusica, and it allows you the user to put together tracks designed to fit together harmonically.

There are 10 types of tracks -- piano, glockenspiel, guitar, voice (you can record those tracks), violin, drums, saxophone, trumpet, bass, and percussion -- and each of those tracks has well more than a dozen different modular units that are probably a couple measures long.  The user can tweak each instrument by changing the volume and providing effects (vocoder, delay, and reverb) and changing the overall tone of the song by changing the tempo.

You can save and title the songs.  It also offers you the option of saving your songs, but it requires a YouTube account.  (There is probably a technical reason, and possibly business reasons, but why oh why can't these types of programs just create an mp3 file?)  That's a minor complaint, and I guess my only other complaint is not minor -- that is, to say, there's no option for a minor-chord song.  The song is essentially a major-chord song, and I wish there was another option for a sad (i.e., minor-chord) song.  (I also wish they would offer an 80 bpm tempo in addition to the 100, 120, and 140 beats per minute tempos.)

But those are pretty insignificant complaints.  For kids with a musical bent, this is a playground well worth your money and their time.

Age Range: 5 through 9

Price: $1.99

Link: iTunes

Dr. Seuss Band - Oceanhouse Media

Title: Dr. Seuss Band

Developer:  Oceanhouse Media

Compatibility: iPad / iPhone / iPod touch // iOS 3.2

Size: 42.9 MB

Description:   If this were 5 years ago, we could call this "Baby's First Rock Band" or "Baby's First Tap Tap [Whatever]" and lots of people would recognize the reference to the games that gave players points for tapping correct "notes" in time with the song.

This app is one of the many Seussian apps from Oceanhouse but doesn't really use the famous Seuss words or drawings (the songs are totally made up to Seuss' book titles).  The user gets to customize wonderfully goofy instruments (think trumpets with all sorts of crazy bagpipe-like attachments) and, once set, taps notes that  correlate to a C major scale in time with the lighted pulses coming down from the top of the screen.

You can change the difficulty level -- the harder the difficulty, the more notes you need to tap.  You can select a number of different songs, but some instruments and some songs are locked -- you need to achieve a high-enough score to unlock them (or you can just be lazy and pay via an in-app purchase).

While the app offers free play, we've never bothered to try it -- aside from the goofy sound and bright colors, there's no advantage to this over, say, Garageband (which we also have installed).  Also, until I was prepping this review I hadn't realized that you could also play this on an iPhone or iPod touch.  I have no idea why you'd ever want to do that on such a (comparatively) tiny screen.

As musical games go, this is reasonably diverting.  Once mastered, it probably won't hold much allure, but I think it could take your kids a long time to do that...

Age Range: 2 through 7

Price: $0.99 (plus in-app purchases -- $7.99 unlocks everything)

Link: iTunes

The Disappointing Pancake - Mibblio / Lisa Loeb

Title: The Disappointing Pancake

Developer:  Mibblio / Lisa Loeb

Compatibility: iPad // iOS 5.1

Size: 91.7 MB

Description:   Another month, another stand-alone Mibblio app.  This one features "The Disappointing Pancake " from occasional kids' musician and author Loeb.  The song, like the titular pancake, has bounced around for awhile -- it originally appeared on Loeb's first solo kids album, 2008's Camp Lisa (with Steve Martin on banjo!).  As with other Mibblio apps, the song plays while the user can add or remove different tracks (e.g., guitar, percussion, keyboards) from the recorded song while simultaneously being able to play melody and stringed/guitar instruments in harmonically compatible keys, not to mention percussion.  It basically lets kids (and adults) play along in ways that allow some creativity but also help make whatever comes out sonically sound decently.  (You can also pinch out to expand it to full screen if you just want to read and sing along.)

In addition, the songs are accompanied by illustrations that feature lyrics to those songs.  The result is a musical picture book over which the user has some small control.  Along with the song, which is one my favorites of Loeb's, I also enjoyed the retro illustrations of Brad Renner; his pancake looks very happy as he goes on his adventures in Loeb's story song, which is kind of the point, isn't it?

The price for the app, $0.99, is pretty cheap, the same price as if you'd buy it through the main Mibblio app if in fact you could do so -- which you can't at the moment (or at least I couldn't find it in my app).  [Ed.: The folks at Mibblio say it's now available in the main app, too.]  As with the rest of the Mibblio apps, it's well-done, and this is definitely one of the more appealing songs in the Mibblio library.  Fans of Loeb or the song will enjoy it, and it would make a fine selection if you want to explore the concept for the first time.

Age Range: 3 through 7

Price: $0.99

Link: iTunes

Note: I was provided a copy of this app for possible review.

Dropophone - Lullatone

Title: Dropophone

Developer:  Lullatone / Hayashi Yosuke

Compatibility: iPad / iPhone / iPod Touch // iOS 3.1.3

Size: 1.2 MB

Description:  A simple looping program, but, as the page for the app says, "This app is super simple on purpose. Simple is magic!"  Select from 30 different tone/instrument combinations (that would be one for each of those drops in the screen grab above), and set them to a-looping.  The sound is both from 1964 and 2064, hypnotic and charming.  It's too bad you can't record your kids' (or your) creations, but it's a beautiful introduction to creating song loops.  (Read the original review here.)

Age Range: 2 through 8

Price: Free

Link: iTunes

House Band - Jumping Pages

Title: House Band

Developer:  Jumping Pages

Compatibility: iPad // iOS 4.3

Size: 42.9 MB

Description:  I have a lot of "crazy animated figures make music" apps on my iOS devices -- it's the occupational hazard of reviewing music-related iOS apps.  One of the funkiest in both sound and design is Jumping Pages' "House Band," a spinoff from their The House That Went on Strike app.  Much like Toca Band, you get the option of selecting various non-traditional "instruments" set to play loops that all fit with one another.  Unlike Toca Band, these loops were designed by Vernon Reid (whom parents of a certain age may remember from his band Living Colour).  They're funky, eclectic, and not necessarily related to the "instrument" selected (the bespectacled iron is a simple bass line).  These are loops that parents would enjoy every bit as much as the kids.

While the music is pretty cool, the user interface, while lovely (and every bit as funky and handmade as Reid's loops), is not totally intuitive (or at least, not as intuitive as Toca Boca's).  You can record the songs and e-mail them, but I'm still not entirely sure I've done it correctly.  (I wish the help screen had more written directions to go along with the pictures.)

In summary, I liked the sounds that Jumping Pages produced, probably more than any similar app -- I just wish it was easier to share those sounds with others.

Age Range: 3 through 9

Price: $1.99

Link: iTunes

Note: I was given a copy of the app for possible review.

Toca Band - Toca Boca

Title: Toca Band

Developer:  Toca Boca

Compatibility: iPad / iPhone / iPod touch // iOS 5.0

Size: 48.9 MB

Description:  The most musical of the many playful apps from the Swedish app powerhouse, Toca Band is probably the most intuitive and repeatable "make your own music" app.  There are roughly 15 different characters, each one with a unique musical sound -- the rapper, the "la la la" lady, the beat-maker, the thingy that looks like a harp.  If you've used any Toca Boca app, you know the recognizable but slightly daffy drawings that populate them.  The user can move each character (up to 7 in all) onto 3 levels of platforms -- the higher the level, the more complex the music each character makes.  There's a fourth "star" platform that lets the character "solo" (pursuant to your child's touch commands).  The notes are all synchronized to the same melody.  It's a great melody, actually, but you'll probably get tired of it 5 to 10 minutes after you start playing it.  And you (or, rather, your kid), will probably play with it at least 5 to 10 minutes at a time.

So, yeah, if there were a second or third song, that would be great.  Also, just because of screen size, it works better on the iPad.  Toca Band does one thing really well and, from a parent's perspective, almost too well.

Age Range: 2 through 7

Price: $2.99

Link: iTunes