Toca Band by Toca Boca

Swedish developers Toca Boca have produced a really interesting stable of apps that could be described as play 'worlds'. All of their releases so far allow children to explore the environment and gain a sense of achievement whilst remaining open-ended and not relying on 'points scored' to be engaging. As with their other apps, Toca Band introduces a quirky and intriguing range of characters. In this case, there are sixteen personalities ranging from a croaking frog to a soprano opera singer. To play, children choose from the characters to build sounds together making a song. The position on the screen effects the tempo of each 'instrument' The variety of sounds and positions gives the impression of composing your own song although Toca Boca have engineered it so that any combination works in reality. The addition of the ability to choose a soloist (who's instrument you can 'play') adds an additional dimension. The biggest downfall of this app is that ultimately, there is only one short song which can become grating (I have never used this with more than one child at a time) and limits the musical creativity it offers. We have got around this issue by using the skills practised in the app as a gateway to using Garage Band.