Low stress piano app for kids

April 1, 2022 8:12 AM

My 7.5 year old periodically seems interested in learning the piano. She has taken lessons previously, but quit. I have the Yousician Piano app on my iPad, but she gets very frustrated even on the practice setting. Can you recommend a lower-stress alternative iOS app for learning piano?

I'd love to get her back into real lessons, but she's not that interested yet. However, if she could spend more time with the instrument and see some progress, she might feel differently.

Kiddo has ADHD and anxiety, and is perfectionistic by nature. While she makes interesting sounds when she sits down to the piano, when she starts to play along with the Yousician app, she has only about 2-3 minutes before she gets too agitated and quits. (it's much the same with actual video games, as well--just too over stimulating.)

Are there any piano apps/games out there that are more "exploratory" in nature? I.e., even less "score" oriented than the Yousician practice mode?

Thanks!

posted by Admiral Haddock to Media & Arts (4 answers total)

I was looking at piano apps for my kids a couple years ago and didn't find anything quite right. The free video lessons from Hoffman Academy were better for actually learning how to play. They're very calm & easy to understand. I just set the ipad on the piano's music stand so we could see the videos and play along.
posted by belladonna at 1:02 PM on April 1, 2022

I'm a fan of the Piano Adventures books (and app), which I used with my two young piano students beginning around age 6.
posted by emelenjr at 1:52 PM on April 1, 2022

Came here to recommend Hoffman Academy. Because of it, my 6yo is really getting into piano.
posted by Dr. Wu at 9:36 PM on April 1, 2022

It sounds like your child has issues with frustration and perfectionism, and that's more of a barrier to practising piano than the piano app.
posted by Didnt_do_enough at 8:13 AM on April 2, 2022