Learn recorder: Flute Master

Both of my kids have musical ear. My 18yo learned very quickly all by himself over several years on and off. I didn’t help anything to him, I am not able to distinguish notes. He started at around 11 yo. Then after 7 years on and off (he literally wasn’t touching the recorder for a year or two at a time, then practice 1 time and forget another 2 years) and now he is playing el condor pasa!!! because this song is his father’s request. Now he was fooling around with his 5 yo sister, and what do you know, she started playing too, keeps unlocking new levels. I am buying this g@me again on a different iPad, I don’t need it, but I am grateful to the creators of the game. Thank you. We love it so much. One complaint. Son says blue notes are not picked up by his iPad, he tried with different recorders.

I’ve been using Flute Master for about 6 months with my 4 yo and we’ve both went from complete novice to competent proficiency during that time. We practice 15 mins a day usually 2-3 days per week, sometimes more, and we have a blast. My daughter especially likes the dragon Cornelius flying in before each song and the concept of different colored bats representing notes on the scale. I just witnessed her play the C scale note by note for a friend earlier today (which prompted me to write this review), something I’ve never seen her do, and the game doesn’t even offer playing scales, she’s just picked it up from all the song progressions! From a technical perspective, the game is flawless. I’ve never encountered a single glitch. The game has never crashed or done anything wonky. It always saves our progress. With the mic listening allowed, it hears our notes played and tells us in real time if we’re “slaying the bats” or not (sorry bat lovers). The interface is gorgeous. There is so much detail to this “kids game”. There’s a storyline that’s fun. And one can purchase cheap song packs ($1-2 each) to unlock even more play-along gameplay. As a grown up, I’m pretty excited to move into intermediate proficiency and beyond with this app one day, and am actually looking forward to mastering some of the songs. Thank you!

While other music game apps are really instruction aids with point systems, Flute Master actually has thematic elements to make the learning process fun! I love playing video games and have always thought they would translate well to learning music, and I’ve been disappointed by apps that try to teach dumbed down versions of the same popular songs. Flute Master lets you play fun, original songs using a simple and intuitive method. My only complaint is that the game didn’t go far enough! I was hoping it would go into sharps and flats and the higher notes. I hope the developers are continuing to work on this great game!