My Very First Of Colors - A Proper Breakdown
My Very First Of Colors is a visual music creation tool where each color you place on the canvas corresponds to a specific musical note or chord. It is not particularly complex, but it does have a learning curve that most beginners underestimate. The basic premise is that you pick colors, the app converts them into audio, and you layer those tracks together to make something you can actually listen to. Download the app from your platform of choice and open it. You will be presented with a blank grid and a color palette. The interface is intentionally minimal, which means there is not much hand-holding. Select a color and tap a cell on the grid. That color will now play as a musical note. Add another color in a different cell and you will hear a second voice enter. Layer enough of these and you have a composition. The mapping between color and note is fixed within the app. Blue typically maps to lower register notes. Yellow and orange tend toward the mid-range. Reds and pinks generally sit higher. This is not arbitrary - the developers spent actual time calibrating this so that similar hues sound harmonically related. It helps beginners avoid clashing tones without really understanding music theory.
The Defaults Are Not Enough
Here is what nobody tells you upfront. The default settings in My Very First Of Colors produce something that sounds pleasant for about thirty seconds before it becomes monotonous. The app assumes you want simple loops. If you want anything that sounds like a full piece, you need to adjust the scale mode, the rhythm division, and the layer count manually. I spent about two weeks trying to understand why my compositions kept sounding like elevator music. The issue was that I was using the default pentatonic scale across every track. The fix was switching different color layers to different scale modes - one track on Dorian, another on a minor scale, and leaving the bass layer in major. Suddenly the arrangement had movement. It took me about four hours to figure out, which is longer than it should have taken.
Working Around The Grid Limitation
My biggest practical problem with My Very First Of Colors was the grid size. The free version limits you to an eight by eight grid. After placing six or seven color layers, you run out of space and you cannot extend it without upgrading. This is a deliberate constraint to push people toward purchasing the full version, and it is annoying if you are experimenting and want to test ideas freely. The workaround I used was to compose in segments. I would fill the grid, render the audio clip, delete the old colors, and compose the next section. Then I would import both audio files into a separate DAW like GarageBand or Audacity and stitch them together. This takes extra time but it completely removes the grid limitation. I ended up preferring this method because it forced me to plan my sections in advance rather than just letting colors stack indefinitely.
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Common Pitfalls You Should Avoid
Most people overload the grid with too many colors at once and end up with muddy audio. Each additional color layer adds volume and harmonic content. Beyond five or six simultaneous layers, the mix usually degrades noticeably unless you carefully lower the volume of individual tracks. I learned this the hard way after spending an afternoon rendering a piece that sounded like a crowd of people arguing. Another issue is ignoring the tempo. The app sets a default BPM that feels comfortable at first, but your compositions may fall apart if you keep that tempo for an entire track. I often change the tempo mid-composition by exporting a section, adjusting the BPM, and then building the next section at the new speed. It is not an elegant workflow, but it works and you do not need a professional production background to do it.
Advanced Techniques That Actually Matter
Once you get past the basics, the most useful feature is the layer opacity control. Lowering the opacity of a color layer does not just make it quieter - it changes how the note is processed. At lower opacity levels, the app applies a slight reverb and slows the attack time of the note. This creates ambient textures that are genuinely useful for building atmospheric passages without adding more instruments. Using multiple color gradients horizontally across the grid instead of solid blocks also produces more interesting melodic movement. Rather than filling an entire row with blue, I often fade from blue to teal to green across six cells. This creates a subtle descending melodic line that moves naturally through the scale. It is a small technique but it makes a noticeable difference in how composed the final output sounds.
When My Very First Of Colors Falls Short
This tool is not suitable for anyone who wants to produce radio-ready tracks or complex arrangements with percussion, bass lines, and distinct song structure. It is a sketching instrument, not a production suite. If your goal is to create something you can release on Spotify, you will need to export your compositions and process them further in a proper DAW. The audio quality from the built-in exporter is also adequate but not high-fidelity. At maximum quality settings, the export format is still limited compared to what professional music software can output. For casual use and hobby projects this is fine. If you need 24-bit WAV files or stems for mixing, look elsewhere. The app itself is free to download and use with core features accessible. A premium version unlocks larger grids, additional scale modes, and higher quality exports. I recommend sticking with the free version for at least a month before deciding if the upgrade is worth it. Most features you will actually use are available without paying, and the paid additions mostly address the constraints I mentioned rather than unlocking entirely new creative possibilities.
