Lesser knock-off of TOCA Band – Melody Jams Review

An obvious copy of TOCA band, with less freedom and creativity. Comparing features: TB has a four-bar loop, MJ has a two-bar loop (on the free song). TB has more musicians. TB has the ability to place musicians at 3 levels which relate to prominence of their parts, greatly multiplying the complexity and playability. In TB you can "solo" with any musician. In MJ you can solo with 3 instruments. The freedom with those instruments is better, but it's disappointing that the keyboard and glock are pentatonic when the song is diatonic. kid's ears can handle a little dissonance and that's how they learn melodic tension. Also, what's with the fake "black key" in between every key? If it's pentatonic anyway just leave those out instead of teaching something wrong. Suggestion for making this a great feature, and an easy change to program: create a "difficulty" setting with 3 levels: pentatonic,diatonic, and chromatic, with appropriate changes to the look of the interface instruments. 3 hours of development work maybe. The option to expand with other songs is the only thing that Melody Jams has over TOCA Band at this point. But having each song offer more freedom to create is what would make that advantage meaningful.
Review by Session47 on Melody Jams.