Kids Games > Games for making things > How to play Dappled Music Box

How to play Dappled Music Box

Dappled Music Box is a free music-making game for children ages 5 to 15. It opens right in the browser, with nothing to install, no sign-up, no ads and no purchases.

Play Dappled Music Box (free)

A music-box sound maker: tap the 16 pads to choose a sound and how to place it, and stack 4 layers into a song. Every layer uses the same scale (do, re, mi, sol, la), so the notes you place never clash.

Kids Games card (the picture shared across the site)

Getting started

  1. Open itJust open it in the browser. Nothing to install and no account to create.
  2. Tap a padTapping a pad plays its sound; then choosing how to place it leaves it on the score.
  3. Stack layers, add barsPlace notes on the 4 layers - Earth, Moss, New leaf and Dappled light - and stack them. Add bars to make a song of 1 to 200 bars.

What is on the screen

The screen shows the score and the 16 pads. The pads are divided into 4 layers, and the bottom layer is the music box.

Screenshot of Dappled Music Box: the song-making screen, with bar numbers at the top, the score in the middle, and note-length buttons and do-re-mi pads below (the screen is shown in Japanese)
Song-making screen (shown in Japanese; you can switch the language in the game)

What fingers do

Tap a pad to choose a sound, then choose how to place it and it stays on the score. The music-box layer can play do-re-mi at 15 pitches, and a note can be held for 2 or 4 beats. There is no score, no failing and no game over.

What is inside

What this game does not have

Before you start

Other games for a similar age

Every game is on the Kids Games home page.