Music
GarageBand
Kids play touch instruments, trigger loops and record songs, beats and their own voices on an iPhone or iPad.
GarageBand turns an iPhone or iPad into something like a pocket recording studio. Kids can tap out a tune on the touch keyboard, strum a smart guitar that stays in key, or drum with their fingertips. Live Loops lays out a grid of musical clips to trigger like a DJ, and a song can apparently come together in minutes without any training. A virtual drummer keeps time and responds to simple directions such as softer or busier. Older kids might record their voice or a real instrument, stack tracks and arrange a full piece with verse and chorus. A sound library adds more instruments and loop packs across styles from hip-hop to orchestral. Younger children may stick to tapping and looping, while tweens could dig into the arranging side.
- Ages
- Curious young musicians and up
- Works on
- iPhone and iPad app
- Topics
- Music, Making
- Languages
- English
- Listed
- 2026-10-18
What kids do
- Play a melody on the touch keyboard
- Trigger loops in Live Loops like a DJ
- Record a voice track over a beat
- Arrange a song with verse and chorus
- Give directions to the virtual drummer
Who it suits
Curious young musicians and up.
Notes for parents
Made by Apple and rated 4+ on the App Store. Smart instruments keep notes in key, so even first taps tend to sound musical, and headphones come in handy in a shared room.
What you need
- iPhone or iPad
- Headphones are nice to have
More Music
- musictheory.net: Short lessons and drills on reading notes, rhythm, scales and chords.
- Chrome Music Lab: A collection of browser experiments for playing with sound, pattern and rhythm.
- Ableton Learning Music: Browser lessons from Ableton on how beats, basslines, chords and melodies fit together.
- Ableton Learning Synths: Interactive lessons on how synthesizers shape sound, with controls kids drag and then listen to.
- Incredibox: A music game in which kids drag sounds onto animated performers to build a mix.
- Blob Opera: Kids appear to conduct a quartet of singing blobs, dragging each one to shift its pitch and vowel.
- Piano Maestro: Kids play a real piano or keyboard while the iPad seems to listen in and light up the notes they hit.
- Classics for Kids: Kids hear composer stories on a weekly radio show, play note and rhythm games, and write little tunes of their own.