My Favorite Phone Apps for Music Therapy

A little while back (like last week-lol) I put together a post about my favorite free music-making websites for therapy and education. This one is the sequel: my favorite music-making apps.

These are the apps actually living on my work iPad right now. Some are free, some are paid, all of them earn their keep in real sessions with real clients. I work with kiddos, teens, adults, older adults, and folks in mental health and rehab settings — so this list is all over the map population-wise, but that's kind of the point. A good app is a good app! :)

Hoping this is helpful to a fellow music therapist, music teacher, parent, or anyone who just likes playing around with music apps. Let's get into it!

ORO Well

ORO Well guides you through calming breaths and then drops you into making relaxing music — which sounds simple, but the whole thing feels like a little mini vacation for your nervous system. It's part guided breathing, part sound creation, part visual chill-out.

ORO Steward

Same developer as ORO Well, but a totally different vibe. Steward is more about creative play and making little sound worlds. I use it with clients who are ready to make something but get overwhelmed by too many options in a full DAW.

ORO Visual Music

The third in the ORO family (Light the Music makes these — they're amazing). This one is all about looping. You touch the screen, you get sound AND visuals, and it builds into these layered little compositions that look as cool as they sound.

Piano Academy

This is the one I recommend to clients who want to learn piano at home between sessions. It uses real sheet music, has a virtual keyboard built in, and it gives instant feedback so you know if you're hitting the right notes at the right time. It also connects to a real piano or keyboard if the client has one!

I use Piano Academy with adolescents and adults working on piano as a goal, and the fun games for hand coordination and rhythm are great for clients working on motor or attention goals too. Some content is free, more is unlocked with a subscription.

Rhythm Cat

I'm not exaggerating: Rhythm Cat is one of the most useful single apps I own. It teaches you to read rhythm notation by playing along to actual music with adorable cats. You tap along to quarter notes, eighth notes, and on up — and the levels get progressively harder.

I use this with:

• Kids learning to read music

• Adolescents and adults working on rhythm and steady beat

• Clients working on attention and motor planning

• LITERALLY any time we need a focused rhythm activity that doesn't feel like work

There are several versions: Rhythm Cat Lite (free, fewer levels), Rhythm Cat, and Rhythm Cat 2 (more advanced). The whole Melody Cats family is great — they also have Treble Cat and Bass Cat for learning to read pitched notes!

Drum Pad Machine

When a teen says "I want to make beats" — this is where we go. It's a colorful drum pad with sound packs in trap, hip-hop, EDM, dubstep, and a bunch more, and you can layer loops and record what you make.

I use it a lot with adolescent groups and teen clients in mental health settings, because the sounds are current and it doesn't feel like a "therapy app." Clients want to look cool, and Drum Pad Machine lets them. There's also a "Beat School" lesson mode that's basically Simon Says for rhythm.

Heads up: there's a paywall for the cooler sound packs, but the free version still gives you plenty to work with in a session.

Beat Cat

Cute little cats… playing piano, guitar, drums, harp, and a bunch of other instruments… and you build songs by tapping along. That's the whole thing, and it's wonderful.

Beat Cat is great for younger kids and clients of any age who respond to cute visuals (which is, let's be real, most of us). I use it for rhythm work, for attention goals, for cause-and-effect, and just for the moments when I need an app that's joyful and easy. The cats are doing the heavy lifting here and I'm grateful for them.

Medly

If a client is ready to make a full song — like an actual song with melody, beats, instruments, the whole deal — Medly is my pick. It's like having a recording studio on your iPad. You break a song into sections, add notes by drawing them in, layer instruments and loops, and end up with something that sounds genuinely impressive. The starter pack is free, which is enough for a lot of session work. Members get way more sounds, but you don't need that to get started.

It's iOS only, FYI.

A few honorable mentions for the road that I haven't tried, but want to!

• Music Sparkles — instrument exploration app for little ones, great for early intervention.

• Loopimal by Yatatoy — adorable animal-based looping app for young kids. Sensory gold.

• Bloom by Brian Eno — ambient sound generator. Lovely for relaxation and sensory regulation.

• Singing Fingers — finger-paint with your voice. Seems like it would be wonderful for vocalization and play-based goals with younger clients.

  
  

That's my current list! I'll keep adding to it as I find new ones (because the App Store never stops), and I might do a Part 3 eventually. If you have a favorite app I didn't mention, I'd love to hear about it — feel free to send it my way.