Learning the Bass Clef with the Bass Cat App

After my first cello lesson yesterday, my instructor Ana Ospina sent me a PDF containing some exercises for learning the notes associated with the bass clef. I am working on those exercises, but I thought an alternative way to learn the notes would be to use an app.

After browsing apps in Apple’s App Store and looking at YouTube videos, I chose Bass Cat for my first app. This game cost $7.99.

Bass Cat app

The game, at least in the early levels, is simple. Notes float onto the staff from the right, and the player touches the requested notes (such as the A and C notes), with penalties for touching the wrong notes or missing the correct notes. Early on, the notes have labels, but in later levels the labels are absent for notes that have already been introduced. There are two speeds for gameplay, and each level can be repeated. By default, levels must be unlocked by finishing the lower levels, but the player can optionally unlock the higher levels.

I have Bass Cat installed on my iPhone and my iPad, and I play it for a few minutes when I have a spare moment. I also installed Bass Cat onto my M4 Pro MacBook Pro, and the game runs perfectly well there, too.

With spaced learning, I am confident that in the two weeks before my next lesson, I will have learned the notes associated with the bass clef.

I already know the notes associated with the treble clef from playing guitar. Eventually, I will have to learn the notes associated with the tenor clef. Cello music is sometimes written using the tenor clef or the treble clef to avoid an excessive number of ledger lines.