Key Critters

Players

Up to 4. After "Let's play!" each child taps their own animal. Tap an animal here to change it, or tap a row to choose whose progress is shown below.

Progress:

Copy Me moves up a step by itself after 8 right-first-time answers (the ★ row), and steps back quietly after 3 tricky rounds in a row. Steps add notes and take away help: glowing key → no glow → animal only → letter only → by ear. Notes they miss come up more often. Echo uses the same notes and hints, and its patterns grow from 2 to 4 notes.

Finger numbers

Right hand: thumb on C = 1, then D 2, E 3, F 4, G 5. A and B mean stretching or moving the hand.

Speaker volume

Turn the phone's own volume up too. If sounds get much quieter when the mic is on, that's iOS lowering playback while recording. Compare by switching the mic off below.

Microphone

Off stops the app listening completely (the orange mic dot goes away) and it won't ask again until you turn it back on. Tapping the on-screen keys still works. To remove the permission itself, use the iPhone's Settings.

Mic sensitivity

Use High in a quiet room or with a quiet keyboard, Low if background noise is triggering notes.

Setting up the keyboard

• Middle C on a 61-key keyboard is the 3rd C from the left. A C is the white key just left of each pair of black keys. Put the red 🐱 sticker there, then orange, yellow, green, cyan, indigo and pink on the next six white keys.
• Choose the Piano voice.
• Keep rhythm, accompaniment and chord mode off. They confuse the listening. Use the 🥁 button in Songs and Free Play for a beat instead.
• Use a medium volume, with the phone on the music stand.
• Any C counts as C (any octave), so playing the "wrong" C is still right.
• When they reach "letter only", writing the letters on the stickers helps.