APP OF THE DAY: Learn to play & sing Christmas carols with My Note Games

My Note Games is a new application, which teaches users how to play (or sing) a range of different songs from an iPhone or iPad.

However, instead of just displaying notes on the screen or giving users basic lessons like many other musical apps, My Note Games uses a cool kind of sound recognition technology (just like Singstar), so it knows if you’ve hit the right note. It then gives you a badge if you’ve done well or tells you how you could improve if you don’t get it quite right first time.

It’s officially called an educational music app for kids, but it’s also got fun carols added into the mix for Christmas and would help adults too if they don’t find the bright and simple interface too patronising.

The great thing about My Note Games is that it isn’t just about teaching children one or two songs, but it’s focused on helping them to understand music theory too, which is much more valuable and a great way of accompanying professional lessons.

My Note Games currently supports a range of different instruments, like the piano, guitar, recorder, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and trumpet. It also offers limited support for violin, viola, cello, voice and even whistling.

At the moment My Note Games is free, but to access different levels and more complicated lessons you do have to part with some pennies, so try it out for a few weeks first to see if you and your kids think it’s worth it.

Available from iTunes for free.