Essential Elements Interactive 4+

It only worked once for me…

I literally just downloaded the app to help me by playing some songs in my book. Apparently it worked really way for the first day. There were no bugs or crashes like everyone was talking about. Now it’s not even working. I tried to get back on but my screen is just plain white the next day. There’s actually so many bugs in this app so now I can’t even get back on. It seriously needs an update. Now I know what everyone is talking about. There are other people that need help understanding music and learning about it. So please consider making this better.

Badly in need of an update

As a public high school strings teacher, I really want to like and use this app, but as it stands now I just can't and don't. The last update to it was almost two years ago, back when iOS 8.3 was out. As of this writing, we're at iOS 10.2, and as the others have mentioned, there are stability issues. All my students have school-issued iPads, and this app crashes at startup on an unacceptably large percentage of their devices. When trying to register, the app also more likely than not didn't recognize their book codes, and they all had to resort to entering their ISBN numbers instead (which added to the hassle of trying to get everyone set up). The recent updates to the Essential Elements Interactive website (like the All-Music option for recording music not found in the books, and the other updates to the assignments tab) haven't been rolled over into this app yet, which is truly a shame because they could really help me out with playing quizzes and other assessments (not all my students have access to a private internet-connected computer at home with a mic.)

Developer Response ,

Thank you for the well thought out review. You were correct on so many points. We have just released an update that addresses these concerns. Give it a try and if it works for you, would you consider revising your review and rating? Thanks!

Not as Functional as I'd Hoped

The sound from this app will not connect to my Bluetooth. It will only allow the sound to come out of my phone. All other apps are playing through my Bluetooth, so I know this is not a problem with my devices.

My Bluetooth devices allow me to hear things much better. It is less than ideal to have the sound only go through the phone.

Also, it is frustrating that everytime I play a new song, I have to readjust the app to play the melody. The app automatically goes to "metronome" for each new song. I already own a metronome; it is not helpful for the app to play the metronome. It is more helpful to hear the melody, especially on a fretless, stringed instrument where one is trying to train one's ears. Can you please allow us to change the default of our practice settings? I think it would be far more helpful if I could just play the next song in a functional way without having to change the settings each time.

Lastly, it would be great if there was a "next" button so that students could easily move on to practice the next song without having to scroll down each time.

Sometimes I feel I spend more time fighting with the app than I get to spend playing my instrument. I think this could be designed to be more seamless.