Parents' Guide to

Morton Subotnick's Pitch Painter

By Erin Wilkey Oh, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 3+

Innovative music app gets young kids composing.

App iPad Music
Morton Subotnick's Pitch Painter Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this app.

  • Morton Subotnick's Pitch Painter App: Screenshot #1
  • Morton Subotnick's Pitch Painter App: Screenshot #2
  • Morton Subotnick's Pitch Painter App: Screenshot #3

Community Reviews

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age 3+

Based on 1 parent review

K W.
K W. Parent of 4 and 9-year-old
October 5, 2019
age 3+

fantastic visual/touch exploration of musicality and composition

This is fun for kids and adults. You can create a "score" simply by painting, which immediately gives sound. And you can play it back and scrub back and forth. So kids can quickly sketch a "shape" and see what it sounds like, change instruments, then just clear it away and try something else. you can play back either the way it's "written" or by the way you dragged your finger. You can switch between instrument sets, so hear what your shape sounds like with different instruments. Overall just a really direct fun experience of music and creation.
See all 1 parent review

What’s It About?

Kids tap to choose a set of instruments from one of four regions of the world. To compose, kids finger draw with any number of fingers on a blank canvas, tapping to change instruments as they would select colors in a painting app. Each color on the canvas represents a different instrument, and the musical pitch gets increasingly higher from the bottom to the top of the canvas. Press play and the composition plays from left to right. There are options to reverse and flip the canvas. Kids can save their creations to the app library and return to them later to play or edit.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say: (1 ):
Kids say: Not yet rated

MORTON SUBOTNICK'S PITCH PAINTER allows young kids with no formal music training to experiment with musical creativity and composition. The ingenious interface is a perfect creative activity for young kids, who will love seeing and hearing the music they create. Additionally, with its musical canvas grid, the app introduces kids to the basic structure of written music in a concrete and visual way.

Keep in mind that Morton Subotnick's Pitch Painter is designed for young kids, and the limitations of the app reflect that fact. Older kids and adults will likely crave the ability to compose longer pieces or use more than three instruments in compositions. Inspiring a desire to create music seems like less of a complaint and more like a testament to this app's brilliance. Don't miss this one.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Encourage your kids to experiment with drawing different patterns in the app, for example, a row of dots or a diagonal line, and listen to how the music changes.

  • Bring more music creation into your kids' everyday activities. Tap out a rhythm and have your kids try to repeat it, then ask them to give you one to try.

App Details

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