Pitch Painter
© 2013 Morton Subotnick
Music educator Morton Subotnick has a long history of using computers to help children learn and apply musical concepts, which is why we were pleased to test his latest app. This is a musical finger painting app that lets children create music, while introducing them to a variety of musical instrumental sounds and authentic scale tunings from four regions of the world. Features include: select 3 instrumental sounds from each of 4 different regions of the world; the ability to hear what you are creating as you paint it using up to three fingers at one time.; play the "canvas" in many different ways; hear exactly how you painted it; hear it as a normal piece of ‘written’ music played from left to right; hear how it sounds upside down, backwards; scrub it like a DJ; erase notes you don’t want; save and load your compositions; and detailed instructions for parents and educators. Need to know: The menu is rather cryptic, but once you figure it out, there are a lot of cool effects to try. For example, you can make a song and then flip it upside down, or hear it backwards.
$3.99, iPad
Teaches: music
CTR Rating: 90%