Sometimes it is the simplest of apps that can become one of your most useful resources. This is the case with What Note Is This? Designed to help you learn basic note reading, this app uses an on-screen piano keyboard and a very simple user interface to make it as easy as possible.

Flashcards containing notes are displayed and you must choose the corresponding key on the piano keyboard to succeed. The tone sounds and a shadow of the note is displayed on the flashcard as you tickle these virtual ivories, so if you choose incorrectly you get the added feedback of seeing which one you actually chose.

As a nice added feature, there are lights above the keyboard that glow red when you’ve chosen an incorrect key, and green when you have it correct! Still need more incentive? A sticker-reward system gives you little ‘trophies’ as you complete a variety of achievements including things like: completing your first quiz, finishing a quiz perfectly in 20 seconds or identifying 100 notes (10 quizzes).

Built in quizzes allow you to test your skills, and scores are saved giving you an overall average so you can evaluate your progress.

This app allows you to review bass, treble or both clef options at one of three levels (beginner, intermediate and advanced). For an added challenge you can choose to hide the letters for the notes from displaying on the keyboard keys.

What I liked: I love that the app records overall scores from the quizzes. This means I can let my daughter test herself and I can review how well she did after the fact, without necessarily standing over her shoulder the entire time.

What I didn’t like: As you are reviewing flashcards to learn your notes, you have to swipe your finger across the screen to dismiss the current card and get a new one. This isn’t terribly intuitive, especially for children. It would be nice if there was some kind of ‘next’ button. It would also be nice if you could have multiple profiles, so if you had more than one person in your house learning to read notes they could track their own progress individually.

To buy or not to buy: If you have always wanted to be able to read music or you are studying an instrument, this is a very helpful and worthwhile app. It makes learning to read notes a lot more interesting!

App Name: What Note Is This? Version Reviewed: 1.0 Category: Music Developer: Okeedoke Studios Price: $0.99 Score: