Common Sense Media Review
By Jonathan H. Liu
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Learn ABCs by listening and seeing musical instruments.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 3+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Download
Videos and Photos
ABC Music
What's It About?
Kids can learn the alphabet by tapping on letters and hearing them pronounced, and seeing words that begin with those letters. Also, they will learn about different instruments by seeing photographs and watching videos of them being played. Some instruments also have a mini-game that allows them to color the instrument with their finger; the mini-game will play back the sound of the instrument, but the child is not really playing the instrument.
Is It Any Good?
ABC MUSIC is an innovative app that teaches the ABCs. The app starts with a grid showing letters of the alphabet and at least one musical instrument beginning with each letter. Tap on a letter to bring up a word starting with that letter, or tap a specific instrument name to jump to that word. Each instrument is accompanied by a photo and its name (with letters held up by little cartoon people), and a voice reads the initial letter and then the word itself. After a brief pause, another little cartoon person pops down holding a screen, which the child can tap to watch a video about that instrument.
Tapping any of the letters held by the people jumps to another word that starts with that letter, and the process repeats. Also, tapping the "abc" button jumps back to the alphabet grid, and the grayed-out squares are replaced by thumbnails of the images already viewed. It's a fantastic app that allows kids to learn the alphabet while watching entertaining videos and exploring links. The app is self-contained and doesn't present any options or settings screens, making it very kid-friendly.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Show kids how they can jump to another letter by tapping on any letter in an instrument's name.
Make music with your kid using instruments. Even young kids can play an instrument like the triangle, and have fun with a recorder. Homemade instruments work great too!
App Details
- Devices : iPhone , iPod Touch , iPad
- Subjects : Language & Reading : letter or word recognition , spelling , vocabulary , Arts : music
- Pricing structure :
- Release date : February 23, 2011
- Genre : Education
- Topics : Arts ( Music and Sing-Along )
- Publisher : Peapod Labs LLC
- Version : 1.0
- Minimum software requirements : Requires iOS 3.0 or later.
- Last updated : October 1, 2025
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