‘Music helps you to relax and to learn. It soothes you so that you can use your brain and think deep thoughts.’ Paul, age10

‘Music can make me lively and full of beans!’  Darjit, age 6

Music has been shown in numerous studies around the world to have a remarkable impact upon learning. Studies have shown that music can significantly aid academic performance. Learning to play instruments, to recognise rhythm and to read music has been proved to enhance academic performance. Music can be used for specific purposes, such as Don Campbell describes in his book, ‘The Mozart Effect.’ He tells how children have overcome specific difficulties through practicing reading with a metronome on 60 beats per minute. More relevant, perhaps, to teachers in the classroom, is the fact that music can be used to alter or enhance mood, to demarcate time on task, to energise, to aid relaxation or visualisation, or to commit facts to memory.

Nicola recalls vividly her first experiment with music in the classroom. It still sends shivers down her spine! “I taught a nursery class in Inner London. The four-year-olds used to stay for lunch, which we ate together in the nursery,  next to the kitchens. After a few days, I hit upon the idea of using music to create a calmer mood. My nursery nurse was keen on the idea, and came into school the next day with a cassette that belonged to her husband. We put the cassette on and watched in amazement as the opening strains of music soothed our normally excitable nursery children. It was wonderful, for about five minutes.

Then the music started to pick up pace and volume. The children became more and more excited, and by the time dessert arrived, they were leaping around in their seats and the chocolate custard was flying! At that point, the Headteacher walked in. There I was, in my first week of teaching, almost losing control of twenty four-year-olds.  It was horrendous. Fortunately, the Headteacher was a musician, and supplied me the next day with several more suitable cassettes. I can look back on that incident now and know that at least my instinct was right, music can have an enormous impact upon children’s mood and behaviour.”

In The Thinking Child, guidance is given for how to use music in the foundation stage, and ‘The ALPS Approach,’ contains music selections under headings that will enable you to make the right choice for each occasion. There are further suggestions in 'The ALPS Approach Resource Book', and here are a few additional suggestions:

To energise:

To authenticate a mood:

To demarcate time on task:

To relax:

Recommended reading:

1. The Mozart Effect - Tapping the Power of Music to Heal the Body, Strengthen the Mind, and Unlock the Creative Spirit, Don Campbell, HarperCollins Publishers, 1997

2. The Mozart Effect for Children – Awakening Your Child’s Mind, Health and Creativity with Music, Don Campbell, HarperCollins Publishers Inc, 2000

3. Tune Your Brain, Elizabeth Miles, Berkley, New York, 1997

4. Music in the Early Years, Susan Young and Joanne Glover, Falmer Press, 1998 

5. Three Singing Pigs, Kay Umansky, A&C Black, 1994

To purchase these books, or see further lists of recommended reading, click here.