Below is a collection of some good music apps to use with students in school. and young. The apps offer a wide variety of educational music content that includes lessons, videos, and interactive activities all of which are designed to help students explore the world of music in fun and engaging ways.
Using these apps, students will get to learn the basics of music composition, recognize melody and pitch, learn about different musical instruments, write their own songs, and practice their music skills via guided instruction. I invite you to check them out and share with us if you have other suggestions to add to the list. For more educational music resources, check out these list of the best piano learning apps, guitar learning apps, and educational music websites.
Music Apps for Schools
Here are our top picks for music apps for schools:
1. GarageBand
GarageBand is Apple’s staple music app. Students can use it to create and share music on the go. GarageBand offers a full-featured recording studio and a collection of Touch instruments with Live Loops. Other interesting features provided by GarageBand include play and record using the Alchemy Touch Instrument, download free instruments and sound packs from the app’s Sound Library, capture any sound and edit it using studio-class effects, add virtual session drummers to songs, create songs using professional mixing effects, and many more.
Compatibility: iPhone/iPad / Price: Free, offers in-app purchases / Age: 4+
2. Simply Guitar
Simply Guitar is a guitar learning app created by teachers to help you learn to play guitar in fun and engaging ways. The app offers a wide variety of tutorials, songs, and step by step video lessons ideal for users of different skill levels and ages. Simply Guitar is compatible with pretty much any guitar. As you play, Simply Guitar analyzes your performance and provides you with feedback and guidance.
Other interesting features provided by Simply Guitar include the ability to learn all the required techniques for playing songs (e.g., playing chords, read and play tabs, strumming techniques, chord switching, guitar fundamentals, technique boosting exercises, etc), tips and tricks for playing guitar correctly, integrated professional tuner to help you learn how to tune your guitar, track progress, and many more.
Compatibility: iPhone/iPad and Android / Price: Free, offers in-app purchases / Age: 4+
3. Yousician: Guitar Lessons
Yousician enables you to learn and play your favourite songs using your real instrument while it listens and provides feedback on your performance. Yousician offers step by step video tutorials and over 10.000 lessons and exercises to help users of different skill levels learn how to play guitar. ‘ Fun gameplay tracks your progress and keeps you motivated to practice and learn. You’ll be amazed how fast your skills advance. So grab your guitar or bass, and start playing now!’
Compatibility: iPhone/iPad and Android / Price: Free, offers in-app purchases / Age: 4+
4. Fretello
Fretello helps you learn guitar through step by step lessons and by playing your favourite songs. Ftetello also teaches you how to compose your own songs and how to read TABs. ‘imply download Fretello, grab your guitar, and start advancing. It’s that easy!Once you’ve mastered the basics, you’ll deepen your skills and your practice as you progress to more advanced lessons and courses in our curriculum.’
Compatibility: iPhone/iPad and Android / Price: Free, offers in-app purchases / Age: 4+
5. Flowkey
Flowkey is another great piano learning app for iPad. Flowkey allows users to play their favourite songs and learn everything related to notes, chords, and proper technique. It works with various instruments including keyboard, electric, real piano, and acoustic,. Flowkey offers instructional step by step guides to help you learn about music and develop the proper playing technique.
Flowkey’s library contains a wide range of courses and songs from classical to pop that you can easily access and work on. The app also enables you to ‘practice effectively with learning monitoring via microphone or MIDI connection’. Flowkey premium offers way more features and perks and comes at different subscription plans. 1 month costs $19.99, 6 months plan costs $83.99, and 12 months plan costs $119.99.
Compatibility: iPhone/iPad and Android / Price: Free, offers in-app purchases / Age: 4+
6. Piano Marvel
Piano Marvel helps you learn how to read music and play piano. You can use it to play your favourite songs. Its song library contains over 26.000 songs with the ability to upload your own songs. The app also offers a wide variety of instructional materials and lessons covering 10 levels from complete novice to professional. You will get to learn things such as phrasing, expression, dynamics, articulation and theory, and many more.
The way Piano Marvel works is simple: First ‘Set your device (iPhone-iPad-iPod) on your keyboard or piano then sign in or create a free account. For MIDI pianos, connect via USB or Bluetooth MIDI and for acoustic pianos, use Book Mode to play along’.
Compatibility: iPhone/iPad and Mac / Price: Free, offers in-app purchases / Age: 4+
7. Chordify
Chordify provides you with accurate chords to play any song you want. The way Chordify works is simple and easy: open the app, search for a song you want to play, select the instrument you want to play it on, and ‘jam along with your favourite song’.
Chordify automatically recognizes the audio signals of songs and synchronizes this with your song in a simple music player. Some of the features provided by Chordify include the ability to download chords from your favorite songs as MIDI files for easy audio editing, transpose chords to play in different keys, export chords in PDF format, and many more.
Compatibility: iPhone/iPad and Android / Price: Free, offers in-app purchases / Age: 4+
8. Theory Lessons
Theory Lessons helps students learn everything related to theoretical aspect of music. It offers over 39 music theory lessons sourced from musictheory.net and presented in their original animated version. These lessons include:The Staff, Clefs, and Ledger Lines; Note Duration; Measures and Time Signature; The Major Scale; The Minor Scales; Scale Degrees; Introduction to Chords; Triad Inversion; Seventh Chords; Nonharmonic Tones; Phrases and Cadences; Circle Progressions; and many more.
Compatibility: iPhone/iPad and Android alternative / Price: $3.99 / Age: 4+
9. Playground Sessions
Playground Sessions is another good iPad piano learning app. It helps you learn piano through playing songs you like. As you perform, you get to receive real time feedback from celebrity teachers and trainers. Playground Sessions features over 1000 songs by artists like Taylor Swift, Queen, Beethoven, and many more.
Other features provided by Playground Sessions include: specialized courses to help with your piano learning, a helpful community of passionate piano players to exchange tips and learn from each other, access to accuracy score after every session, unlock rewards like free songs, effective Bootcamp to guide you through your learning journey, and many more.
Compatibility: iPhone/iPad and Mac/ Price: Free / Age: 4+
10. SoundCloud
SoundCloud is an audio and music streaming platform where you can search for artists and musicians and discover amazing songs in different genre. You can create playlists to share with others, connect with friends and interact with artists.
SoundCloud also has a premium version which offers extra features including uninterrupted listening experience with no ads, unlimited access to the full catalogue of tracks, the ability to stream and save music offline, and many more.
Compatibility: iPhone/iPad and Android / Price: $3.99 / Age: 12+
11. Piano Maestro
Piano Maestro helps students learn and practice playing piano. It offers a wide range of lessons, method books, and practice exercises to help students master sight-reading, rhythm, technique and playing, make sheet music come to life and many more.
The way Piano Maestro works is easy: download the app, place it on your piano and start playing. The app automatically recognizes what you are playing and offers you feedback on your performance.
Compatibility: iPhone/iPad / Price: $3.99 / Age: 4+
12. MusicQuest
MusicQuest helps students learn music through guided lessons and practice activities. They will learn to write songs with a wide variety of instruments using block or standard notation. They will also play with over 500 pre-built song grooves and turn their mobile devices into music labs. MusicQuest costs $8.99 for a month or $79 per year.
Compatibility: iPhone/iPad and Android/ Price: Free, offers in-app purchases/ Age: 4+
Final thoughts
This collection of music apps for school offers a a wide variety of educational opportunities for students to dive into the world of music with enthusiasm and engagement. From GarageBand’s studio-like experience to MusicQuest’s songwriting journeys, each app is tuned to the unique frequencies of learning and creativity.
Students can delve into music theory with Theory Lessons, strum their first chords with Simply Guitar, or master piano classics with Flowkey. These apps are more than mere tools; they are digital maestros waiting to guide young learners through melody, rhythm, and harmony.
