Musical Paint - Building Blocks Media

Title: Musical Paint

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.

Jazzy World Tour (Musical Journey for Kids) - The Melody Book

Title: Jazzy World Tour

Developer: The Melody Book

Compatibility: iPad / iPhone / iPod touch // iOS 5.1

Size: 115 MB

Description: Part of The Melody Book's "Jazzy" series, which includes separate apps on the alphabet, numbers, and more general music education, this latest app uses music as the hook into learning about basic music, instruments, and culture of various countries around the world. As of this writing, your child can (via the 2 kitten explorers) "visit" Brazil, Ireland, Spain, Egypt, Kenya, India, Japan, Australia, and the United States in the full-featured version. Each country's portion of the app lets the user tap on various objects and learn more about them via written text, "play" country-specific music (only the U.S. gets jazz) or make country-specific animals make noise, or create animated photos and videos which can be shared via Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, or added to Photos in a manner similar to many video/photo sharing apps for kids.

The interactivity in the "learn" and "play" could be better -- there isn't much room for creativity in the play section. I wish there was an option to have the "learn" text read aloud, and your kids will probably have more fun just banging around on the drums or guitars in Garageband. But there's a nice selection of countries to explore and the app itself is laid out in a well-organized manner that should be intuitive even to preschoolers.

The move to in-app purchases on the App Store does mean that you can download the free version, purchase a $0.99 country and see if the full version is for you. The app isn't broad enough to be an atlas, or full-powered enough to be a creative engine, but if you're looking to start exposing your kids to other countries' sounds and culture, Jazzy World Tour may work for you.

Age Range: 4 through 8

Price: $4.99 / free w/ $0.99 per-country in-app purchase

Link: iTunes (full) / iTunes (free w/ in-app purchases)

Draw on the Table - Spark Studios / Frances England

Title: Santa's Merry Band

Developer: Spark Studios / Frances England

Compatibility: iPad / iPhone / iPod touch // iOS 5.1

Size: 30.9 MB

Description: Note: This app may no longer be available for new downloads. My apologies for any inconvenience.

There are many other drawing apps available, but the number that feature a song from San Francisco's Frances England numbers exactly one. It's a pretty simple one -- the user chooses a food (blueberries, broccoli, coffee, strawberries, etc.) from the top of the screen, and then drags it across the "table" at the center. In the case of liquids (coffee, orange juice) and some solids, the user "drops" them and then tilts the screen to direct where they roll. (So it's a physics puzzler, too!) You may not realize that there are more foods available than what's shown at top -- that menu scrolls left and right. As with most art apps, you can share with the world via various methods.

This won't change the world, but as a fun (and free) experiment (with, I repeat, a song from Frances England), it may be worth the 31 MB on your iDevice to amuse your littlest ones.

Age Range: 3 through 7

Price: Free

Link: iTunes

Santa's Merry Band - Mibblio

Title: Santa's Merry Band

Developer: Mibblio

Compatibility: iPad // iOS 5.1

Size: 341 MB

Description: I know. I've reviewed a lot of Mibblio apps recently (and haven't even had a chance to review the main app). But they keep coming out with seasonally appropriate ones -- Halloween, Hanukkah, and now Christmas.

The basic structure of the app is the same as with their other 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.

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.

Once you've done one Mibblio, you've sort of done them all, conceptually, so the value of any particular app (or individual "mibblet," as they call each song) comes down to the song itself and the accompanying illustrations. There are 8 seasonally-appropriate songs in this particular app:

- G. Love "Christmas Baby" (illustrated by Gabriele Tafuni)
- The Brian Setzer Orchestra "Dig That Crazy Santa Claus" (Leo Antolini)
- Guster "¿Dónde Está Santa Claus?" (Larry 3)
- Indigo Girls "I Feel the Christmas Spirit" (Laura Wood)
- Emmy the Great & Tim Wheeler "Marshmallow World" (Villie Karabatzla)
- KT Tunstall "Mele Kalikimaka" (Kim Sielbeck)
- Dan Hicks "Santa's Workshop" (Joey Ahlbum)
- Rosie Thomas "Why Can't It Be Christmastime All Year?" (Karolina Lijlema)

I liked most of these previously-released tracks-turned-apps, though sometimes what works well on record doesn't work as well in an interactive app -- the Rosie Thomas track, which I have loved since first released, has some kind-of-long instrumental sections during which not much happens in the app itself. But most of the tracks are quick and snappy, with illustrations -- an area in which Mibblio has definitely distinguished itself -- that will be a treat to young readers/listeners/whatever we're calling app users these days. Especially fun are the Indigo Girls' bluegrassy take on "I Feel the Christmas Spirit" and British duo Emmy the Great & Tim Wheeler's rendition of the fluffy chestnut "Marshmallow World," which has a suitably fluffy set of accompanying illustrations.

At a tick under $5, the app is a little pricy, but considering you get 8 songs, it's a decent value even if every single song doesn't appeal to you. Your family will get decent use out of it for 5-6 weeks, and then you can put it away (read: delete it from your iPad) for eleven months, so it'll be fresh for next year.

Age Range: 3 through 7

Price: $4.99

Link: iTunes

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

Little Red Wagon - Night & Day Studios / Cat Doorman

Title: Little Red Wagon

Developer: Night & Day Studios / Cat Doorman

Compatibility: iPad // iOS 6.0

Size: 178 MB

Description: This app features a Portland duo -- the iOS app developer Night & Day Studios teaming up with musician and artist Julianna Bright (AKA Cat Doorman). They join forces to turn one of the songs from the Cat Doorman Songbook, the classic "Little Red Wagon," into a musically-based interactive experience.

The app follows a girl and her little red wagon (natch) as she travels various places -- the bakery, the dairy, the orchard -- while the user moves various foods at those stops via touch and drag into the wagon. All the while, the song (with one of three different arrangements selected at the beginning of the app) plays and the notes and lyrics are shown at the bottom of the screen.

Bright's illustrations are lovely, and the app does a nice job of translating the static drawings into kinetic action. Also nice are some of the little interactive touches the un-curious might not discover. (The cow poop was a cute touch.) Some might find the relative lack of flexibility in the app -- can't go backwards, just a single song, even the comparatively long timeframe of the song itself -- frustrating from a parental perspective (though I could see others viewing those as a net benefit). Once a child has "mastered" the app and tires of it, there may be little reason to try it again in the future.

But the app is undeniably beautiful and well-done. Parents looking for a slightly more "organic"-feeling app in its artwork and music should definitely investigate further.

Age Range: 2 through 6

Price: $2.99

Link: iTunes

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

Happy Hanukkah - Mibblio / Matisyahu

Title: Happy Hanukkah

Developer: Mibblio / Matisyahu

Compatibility: iPad // iOS 5.1

Size: 78.9 MB

Description: Mibblio is back with another seasonally appropriate app, this time celebrating Hanukkah with reggae-rapper Matisyahu. Matisyahu released "Happy Hanukkah" as a single in 2012, and while it's not a kids' song per se, it's certainly family-friendly. As with their stand-alone app for "Miss Elephant's Gerald," the app takes the song and applies to it Mibblio's "mibblet" architecture, which allows the user to select the individual tracks (e.g., drums, keyboards) they want to listen to from the song and play music and chords (as well as percussion) in chromatically harmonious ways.

As with a lot of the Mibblio mibblets, the quality of the illustrations are key to whether the overall effect is positive, and Hilli Kushnir's artwork is tremendous in this regard, providing a series of joyful tableux (e.g., flying dreidels, twinkling candles, a playful kitten representing the lion of Judah) to accompany the celebratory text.

One note for Mibblio fans -- unlike the "Miss Elephant's Gerald" app, this is not available in the main Mibblio app. So at $2.99, some families may not want to spend that amount for an app whose playability is limited to maybe 2 or 3 weeks a year. But families celebrating Hankkuah (or getting ready to celebrate it) will find this fun to play along with.

Age Range: 3 through 7

Price: $2.99

Link: iTunes

Note: I was provided a copy of this 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

Miss Elephant's Gerald - Mibblio / The Pop Ups

Title: Miss Elephant's Gerald

Developer: Mibblio / The Pop Ups

Compatibility: iPad / iOS 5.1

Size: 93.5 MB

Description: The Brooklyn-based band The Pop Ups enter the app world with an app that lets kids play along with the slightly jazzy pop tune (which I've previously noted here). The best part of this particular app, besides the Pop Ups' song, are the illustrations by Liz Starin. They are perfect for the song. The app has a decent replay value. As with the "mibblets" produced by Mibblio as part of its primary app (in fact, this song is available there, too, for $0.99), it allows the user to play along on various instruments whose notes adjust depending on the chords being used. This allows your kid (or, well, you) to always be in tune. The user can also mute or un-mute specific tracks to create their own arrangement. Pop Ups fans will be happy, and this is one of the better implementations of the "play along" genre.

Age Range: 3 through 7

Price: $1.99

Link: iTunes

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