We’ve seen some marvellous musical apps on iPad recently: Cat Doorman’s Little Red Wagon, The Nutcracker by Timbuktu and Toca Band, to name but three. Now you can add Mibblio to the list.

Described as “the first interactive musical/storybook app of its kind”, it contains a series of what its developer is calling mibblets: “illustrated story-songs that invite children to read an adorable illustrated story, listen to a catchy song, and jam along on a variety of instruments, all at once”.

We’ve been playing with the app tonight, and it’s excellent. You can choose one mibblet for free, but the rest cost £1.99 each, meaning you can unlock them at your leisure (although make sure you’ve sorted your in-app purchase settings so your kids can’t buy the lot!)

Once you play one, the screen is divided into several areas. Top-middle are illustrated scenes with the words of the current song, which is sung and played by musicians.

At the bottom, there are buttons for different instruments and a piano-style keyboard for your child to play along (or make whatever sounds they want, of course). On the left there’s a column of buttons to turn on and off different instruments in the band’s song, and on the right there are shakers and other one-tap instruments.

In short, there’s lots of fun to be had experimenting, for parents as well as children. Some of the songs you’ll know – The Wheels on the Bus and Old MacDonald are good places to start – while others are brand new songs.

It’s innovative, creative and has bags of depth. If your kids love music and apps, they’ll certainly love this. Mibblio costs £2.99 on the App Store for the initial download, and is iPad-only.