Frequently Asked Questions

Playing with Spike is a music education app. It teaches the basic fundamentals of piano playing and music note-reading through attractive narratives featuring Spike and other characters. To reinforce the music content the child will learn, each of the 15 chapters presents a variety of music educational games such as playing tunes, drawing music symbols and notes, music quizzes, clapping or singing rhythms and fun improvisations.

Playing with Spike is intended for children aged from 6 to 11.

Playing with Spike's aim is to positively bring music to the lives of many children globally, and to inspire them to take up a musical instrument and learn music literacy.

The author of Playing with Spike is Marcelle Zahra, a professional pianist and a piano education specialist with wide-ranging experience in the music education sector. Marcelle is the CEO of Music Hands Ltd., a UK-based company registered in Malta, specializing in developing applications related to music education for children.

Playing with Spike is unique in today's app market. It is a collection of 15 Chapters aimed for the child beginner that offers detailed explanations of the basic music and piano fundamentals from scratch. Through a combination of written narratives, audio with lively sound effects, attractive illustrations and animations, and fun music-related mini-games, Playing with Spike offers a unique and positive experience to your child.

Playing with Spike is presented in 15 Chapters. Each chapter presents new musical material, the explanation of which is enhanced by different activities to nurture the child's learning process. e.g. playing tunes on a keyboard, drawing music symbols, clapping/singing rhythms, making up tunes, playing music quizzes.

Playing with Spike has been generously funded by The Malta Digital Games Fund, The Malta Arts Fund, The Good Causes Fund and The Janatha Stubbs Foundation.

Playing reflects the playful element continuously present in the content of the app. Spike is the name of the young protagonist of the narratives and features in all the chapters. Playing with Spike portrays the child’s continuous interactivity with the educational content Spike introduces.

Music instruction can provide many great opportunities for your children, such as ways of engaging with their education and with other people. Children learn in different ways and have different levels of intelligence in many different subjects. Music plays an important role with offering a well-rounded education, as do all the other core subjects. Music education creates goals and ambitions, and therefore helps your children be the best that they can be at whatever they choose to do. Music education is not about creating another crop of professional musicians, but rather contributing to the knowledge and being of who the children are as they grow into adulthood.

Technology has the ability to enhance children's educational outcomes in music because it utilizes a hands-on approach and can more readily reflect the individual needs and experiences. In addition, technology is an attractive medium for children and much of it used in the classroom setting can be purchased and utilized at home, which strengthens the link between home and school. Tablets and educative applications are a powerful tool for children to see themselves positively reflected in the media they use. The varied interactivity Playing with Spike offers takes learning to another level of interactivity. Furthermore, the use of technology in music education is efficient, effective and attractive - qualities which all contribute towards learning being a positive experience to your child.