Platform: iOS
Price: Free
Tune Train features one of the most elegant designs for helping anyone create a musical melody. The player draws a line with their finger connecting what looks like a train line to different tree points to pick up passengers. Each passenger is a different note of a chord or a passing note between those chords and the train line represents the shape of the melody. Some of the levels have a well-known melody hidden within them such as Mary Had a Little Lamb called Little Lamb Lane in the app or Jingle Bells called Winter Time.
One fun part of the app is a little bit hidden. You can add a backing track to your melody. When I showed this to some of my students it definitely turned the level of fun up. There is a choice of two styles of backing track per level such as rock, classical or pop styles that let you hear the same melody within different genres.
The graphics for the app are simple and sparse, the only animation is the movement of the train and the image for each person looks like a chess pawn. The sound of instrument is very synthetic but aside from this the app is so satisfying that nobody seems to mind. It is a great example of a streamlined and clever design that does not need anything flashy to improve on its experience.
Musical pitch and harmony games
For those wanting to use the app for teaching, make sure to look in the teacher guide. It will show you the system the designer has created for representing pitch and harmony. For example, the people represent the notes and their position on the Y axis make them higher or lower in pitch. There is a gradient based around a graph in the background that represents each note in a diatonic scale. The towers the people are placed on have different designs that represent different diatonic chords that are normally written in Roman numerals as I, II, III, IV etc.
You could challenge learners to create step wise or flowing, leaping or jagged, ascending or descending melodies to explore melodic shape. You could have learners attempt to find the hidden melody. Such as Jingle Bells (Hidden in ‘Winter Time’) or Mary Had a Little Lamb (hidden in ‘Little Lamb Lane’). If you can find any other famous songs in the other levels, please let me know in the comments below.
Chord progression activity ideas
Students could respond to one another’s music through ear training activities. In Eurythmics each chord can be given an action. For example, walking forward for chord one, backwards for chord V and sideways for chord IV. Below are the chord progressions for each song within the app for your reference.
Baritone Beach: I, VI, III, V, I, VI, V, I
Feel good farms I, IV, V, I, IV, V, I
Piano Pond I,V, IV, V, I, V, IV, V
Little Lamb Lane I, V, I, V, I
Creepy Caves VI, IV, I, III, II, IV (minor key)
Harp Hills I, V, VI, III, IV, I, IV, V, I
Chordy Candylane I, III, IV, V, I, V, Vi, V, I
Goodnight Graveyard IV, III, IV, III, IV, VI (minor key)
Do Re Mi Desert I, III, II, V, VI, III, II, V, I
Rockin Rainbow I, IV, I, IV, Vi, V, I repeated
Winter Time I, IV, I, V, I
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