Learning how to read the notes on the stave can be a slow and difficult process for youngsters (and adults!), and this app takes a fun and simple, arcade game style approach to the subject. You can choose from Treble, Bass and Alto Clefs and customise the range of notes to include or exclude ledger lines. Notes fly across the stave on the screen and you have to guess the correct note. A spaceship fires at the stave, akin to Space Invaders. The speed of the travelling notes increases with each new level. 

I have used this app with lots of children in a private lesson context,  but it works even better in a school situation. With a lot of pupils you can create a class leaderboard and encourage some healthy competition between classmates!

Download Staff Wars here

Also see Note Perfect which is another note-recognition game.

Over the past few years, my iPad has become a key tool in my teaching. I thought I'd list a few iOS apps that I find helpful.


1. insTuner Free (£free)

This comes in a free version and a full version which includes a tone generator. Nice GUI, simple layout, accurate tuner of any instrument, with a fine-tuning mode where you can really refine your tuning and check the intonation of your instruments. That can be particularly helpful on cheaper ukuleles which often suffer from poor intonation.



2. Steinway Metronome: (free)

This is an excellent free metronome App with plenty of time-signatures, an emphasis on Beat 1 and a tap tempo function. This can be useful if you want to calculate the tempo of a song you are learning.



3. Rhythm Calculator (£2.29)

With this App you can enter any section of rhythm in any time signature at any tempo, and it will play it back to you. It is laid out in a similar way to a mathematical calculator and is intuitive and easy to understand. Helpful if you are trying to work out a tricky rhythm in an exam piece, for instance.



4. Tenuto (£2.99)

This App contains a series of music education games, testing your music theory and Aural knowledge. The great thing about this App is that all the games are fully customisable so you can alter them drastically for each pupil at any level of ability. 



5. Staff Wars (£2.29)

A brilliant way that young students can learn the notes on the stave by playing a simple Space Invaders style game. I have found it particularly useful in schools where you can create a full class scoreboard, encouraging some healthy competition between classmates.



There are many other great Apps available for music education but these simple utilities are probably my most used in an average instrumental lesson!