Free Xylophone / Glockenspiel App to Practice Without an Instrument

Update (3/17/20): It seems the app reviewed below is no longer available for Android. Not to worry, it is still available for iOS and there are plenty of xylophone apps for Android. I will be testing the other Android apps soon and I will then update this article with my recommendations. In the meantime, here are some to that I have found quickly, but please be aware that these are currently untested:

Xylophone Real, Professional Xylophone, Glockenspiel 3D
(all links are for Android)

At Open School this year, Green, Red, and Silver clusters are learning the keyboard percussion!

Learning any instrument takes hard work. And, I would love for all of my students to have the opportunity to practice at home.

While there are several great glockenspiels that are available for just $25-$40, even the cheapest keyboard percussion instrument is not a reasonable purchase for all families.

To accommodate all students, I have created worksheets which allow students to practice at home. Students can practice placing their fingers on keys of the instrument in the order to learn the song.

But, there is also another option:

A FREE Xylophone / Glockenspiel App!

If you have an iPad or Android tablet, this is a great way to at least get started practicing without actually purchasing a real ukulele.

The Xylophone app by Gismart is a truly well designed app. It uses sounds recorded from a live xylophone, as well as other keyboard percussion instruments such as a glockenspiel, a vibraphone, and a marimba.

It is really almost like using an real keyboard percussion instrument without having the actual instrument.

The Catch

The only catch is that the free version is ad-supported. The ads are quite annoying, 30-second videos that cannot be canceled or avoided. And, it seems that there is currently no paid version to get rid of the ads.

There are currently ad-free versions of similar apps by the same creators for just $1.99. So, I suggest writing to creators and asking that they publish an ad-free version of this app as well.

In the meantime, if the ads bother you, try turning of your wifi and data connections while using this app. The ads need the internet to run.

Download it Now!

This app is available for iOS (iPad/iPhone) and Android.