Music profoundly affects both adults and children, and it can be a powerful tool for enhancing a child’s learning experience. Teachers can use music to keep students focused, elevate moods, improve brain-body connection, and even help them memorize challenging concepts — all without causing distractions during lessons. Choosing the right music for your classroom can make learning more engaging and enjoyable for students of all ages.
From improving memory and cognition to fostering social development, music enriches the classroom environment in countless ways. To help you get started, we’ve outlined how to effectively use music in your teaching, provided tips for selecting songs, and compiled a playlist of classroom favorites.
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What Is Classroom Music?
Classroom music helps to set an atmosphere, reinforce learning, or promote relaxation in a classroom environment.
Whether you play music at the very start of the day as students arrive at school, during study periods, or to mark the beginning of break time, music can be a valuable tool in your classroom. Music can help to set a mood for your students. Here's how:
- Study music promotes relaxation and allows students to overcome stress and anxiety while studying.
- Background music could help students to improve their focus while working through long study sessions.
- Relaxing music can help to ease study nerves and beat pre-exam anxiety.
- Music can help your students to absorb and retain more knowledge.
How Does Music Help Us Learn?
Music helps with the retrieval of information and memory retention.
When we listen to music, our brains light up like a Christmas tree as the sound stimulates multiple parts of the brain. Think about it: The more lights on your tree, the brighter your living room will be.
Consider your students’ brains like the Christmas tree. Music can activate parts of the brain that help students shine brighter and become more successful in their learning endeavors.
Encourages Active Participation
Classroom music can be a powerful tool for student engagement. Although there could be a student or two in your class who doesn’t want to sing, most children love music.When compiling your classroom playlist, ask each student to name two or three songs they like. Then, try to incorporate some of these tracks into your classroom music playlist.
Promotes Kinesthetic Learning
As a teacher, your goal for every lesson is student success. And music can help you incorporate kinesthetic learning. When you combine movement and motions with music, you help transfer information into your students’ long-term memories.
Improves Focus
If you take information from your educational syllabus and create a song with your students, you synthesize and summarize key information. This information will be much easier to remember once it’s been incorporated into song.
Creates a Positive Classroom Environment
This is especially true for elementary classes. For example, if you create a “good morning song” with your students and sing it together at the start of every day, you create a positive and fun start to everyone’s morning.
Benefits of Using Songs for the Classroom
Classroom songs bring a wealth of benefits to the overall learning experience.
Balance Energy Levels
Some children come to the classroom bursting with energy, while others can be very reserved. When you start the morning with an active song, it allows high-energy students to let off some steam while helping students with less energy to pep up a little.
Create a Fantastic Atmosphere
Many teachers spend hours decorating their classrooms and making them warm and conducive to learning. However, not as many educators spend time enhancing their classrooms with audio. Young learners can reap immense benefits from exposure to songs and singing at school.
Help Signal Transitions
Students are easily distracted and often lose concentration, especially during transitions from one activity to another. However, if you use songs to signal changes in learning activities, it’s a great way to help students understand what’s going on (and it can give your voice a rest). Try incorporating different songs for different activities such as “cleaning up,” “making a circle,” and “getting out your books.
Promote Participation
In any classroom, you’ll find students with varying levels of intelligence. However, singing is an activity that children of all ability levels can enjoy equally. While less advanced students can bob along and dance to the music, more advanced students will learn the lyrics and sing along. At the same time, this type of inclusion reinforces a positive atmosphere throughout the learning environment.
Songs Are “Sticky” and Help with Retention
When you incorporate songs into your teaching, you can rest assured these songs will get stuck in your students’ heads long after the end-of-class bell rings. This is one reason they’re such a great teaching tool. They make information easier to retain and recall at a later date.
Types of Music for Classroom Settings
These genres and artists can work in any classroom setting without developing a specific playlist:
Classical Music
With many studies linked to improvements in intelligence associated with listening to classical tunes, it is no wonder this is the go-to choice. Playing classical music can reduce stress, improve cognition, and increase attention without diverting attention due to lyrics.
Guitar Tribute Players
Often instrumental music without lyrics, these artists can improve the attention of children in your classroom, as they play cover songs children might recognize. Songs tend to be slightly more upbeat or faster-paced, and this could be a good addition to intensive studying or test-taking.
They Might Be Giants
Although this band has many adult-focused albums, Tiny Toons used many of their popular songs in the 1990s to create animated short music videos, developing their first children’s audience. In 2009, TMBG released Science is Real, an album of educational songs geared toward kids.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
More familiar to adults than children these days, CCR still holds strong appeal thanks to their emotional, instrument-heavy, and consistently rhythmic songs. With many songs on the longer side, they are good background music as there are fewer distracting breaks between experiences.
Disney Music
The Walt Disney Company is the leading producer of musicals for children of all ages. Even the older songs from their first animated musicals remain favorites among children.
Dance Music for Breaks
Just as it is important to have songs to help kids focus, it can be equally important to offer songs that give kids a break from their classwork. As you shift between subjects or periods, or even find that your classroom is more agitated than normal, consider putting one of these songs on and encouraging your students to dance around the room:
- “Footloose” by Kenny Loggins
- “Get Back Up Again” by Anna Kendrick
- “Applause” by Lady Gaga
- “Roar” by Katy Perry
- “What Do I Know?” by Ed Sheeran
Elementary Classroom Playlist: Ideas and Suggestions
Now that we’ve shared some classroom music appropriate for older children, we’re going to share some ideas for elementary classroom playlists.First, here are some tips for choosing appropriate music:
Opt for Quiet Songs
Find songs that remain quiet throughout the entire song. Many songs fool teachers by starting quiet, but soon, you are faced with a loud clatter, which can be disruptive and distracting for students. Always listen to the whole song first.
Check All Lyrics
t’s not just swear words you’re looking out for. It’s inappropriate phrases that your kids could go home and sing. Always check the lyrics via a quick Google search to highlight anything you deem inappropriate.
Pick a Slow Tempo
The slower the tempo, the calmer the class will be.
Create a Nice Mix
Make sure you provide an eclectic mix of artists and genres for your kids. This helps to hold their attention and keep them on their toes as they listen.
Create Different Playlists for Different Times of Day
This helps to provide consistency for your students and control the classroom atmosphere.
How to Choose Classroom Music: A Guide
We’ve explained why music is important in a classroom. How can you put these ideas to use in your work? This guide can help.
Step 1: Consider the Age
Children have different musical preferences throughout different phases of their lives. While small children might love simple songs like the Hokey Pokey, older children might appreciate more complex tunes. Don’t make assumptions about children of all ages loving the same music.
Here are some of the best songs for young children:
- The Hokey Pokey
- The Itsy-Bitsy Spider
- Ring Around the Rosey
- London Bridge
- One, Two, Buckle My Shoe
- Old MacDonald
Here are some great songs to add to a classroom playlist for older children.
- “Three Little Birds” by Bob Marley
- “Happy” by Pharrell Williams
- “Roar” by Katy Perry
- “Count on Me” by Bruno Mars
- “Here Comes the Sun” by The Beatles
- “Signed, Sealed, Delivered” by Stevie Wonder
- “ABC” by Jackson Five
- “Clocks” by Coldplay
- “Best Day of my Life” by American Authors
- “Good Vibrations” by Beach Boys
- “You’re Welcome” by Dwayne Johnson
- “We’re Going to Be Friends” by Jack Johnson
- “Walking on Sunshine” by Katrina & The Waves
- "Learning to Fly” to Tom Petty
- “All Star” by Smash Mouth
Step 2: Consider the Task
Why are you incorporating music into your classroom? The songs you might consider should be closely related to the type of work your students will do.
Music with words children might enjoy for craft time or game time include the following:
- “Someone Like You” by Adele
- “Girl On Fire” by Alicia Keys
- “Halo” by Beyonce
- “Clocks” by Coldplay
- “Shape of You (Super Clean Version)” by Ed Sheeran
- “Can’t Stop the Feeling” by Justin Timberlake
- “Thriller” by Michael Jackson
- “Towards the Sun” by Rihanna
- “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)” by Shakira
- "You Need to Calm Down (Clean Lyrics)” by Taylor Swift
Songs kids might appreciate for concentrated work (such as math problems or reading) have no words. Background music for kids might include the following songs:
- “Drive” by Emmit Fenn
- “Sincere” by Moods
- “Lush” by Four Tet
- “Midnight” by Lane 8
- “Rain” by Julian Calor
- “Simplicity Is Bliss” by RUFUS
- “Cirrus” by Bonobo
- “Epoch” by Tycho
- “Snowcone” by deadmau5
- “Wen Uuu” by Shlohmo
Some students need music to help them settle into their desks after a break. These songs are good choices:
- "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" by The Beatles
- “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” by Bobby McFerrin
- “A Thousand Miles” by Vanessa Carlton
- “Poker Face” by Lady Gaga
- “Closer” by The Chainsmokers ft. Halsey
3. Consider the Time of Day
As the day goes on and children become restless, they may appreciate songs that encourage them to move and reduce restlessness. These are good choices:
- “Footloose” by Kenny Loggins
- “Get Back Up Again” by Anna Kendrick
- “Applause” by Lady Gaga
- “Roar” by Katy Perry
- “What Do I Know?” by Ed Sheeran
4. Be Open and Inclusive
We’ve listed several different types of songs you could play in your classroom. As you create your list, ensure that you’re playing songs from many different artists and cultures. Your students may appreciate hearing songs that represent who they are.
Key Takeaways
As children get older and are exposed to more advanced courses of study, retaining information is vital for success. Teachers spend more time introducing new subjects into the classroom, which can overwhelm some students.
Integrating music into education can help students to build powerful study habits. As they learn to concentrate and absorb information, music can promote discipline and enhance the overall learning experience.
Teachers want to challenge each student appropriately to meet state standards while encouraging higher thinking. Classroom music is a tool that can be used to engage each student and reinforce learning pathways for deeper understanding.
Background Music Providers Offer Classroom Music Options
We've discussed custom playlists to enhance the classroom experience, but we know many teachers just don't have time to craft a perfect soundscape for students. Background music providers can help.
Music streaming companies have talented staff with decades of experience in creating custom playlists. These professionals can find the perfect songs for your unique classroom and brand.
The ideal classroom music options change throughout the day. Companies offer dayparting schedules, so you can shift the sounds and serve your students. And while a company can set things up for you, the control stays in your hands. Change anything about your setup from one sophisticated dashboard.
Get Started With Pandora CloudCover
Are you ready to share a unique classroom music playlist to motivate and inspire your students? Do you want different morning, afternoon, and study playlists?
Try Pandora CloudCover FREE for 14-Days and see what incredible changes our music subscription services can bring to your classroom. Our licensed, clean, and ad-free streaming service will elevate your learning environment. Terms and conditions apply.
Resources
The Power of Music: Its Impact on the Intellectual, Social and Personal Development of Children and Young People. (August 2010). International Journal of Music Education.
Extended Music Education Enhances the Quality of School Life. (February 2013). Music Education Research.
How Does Music Benefit Your Classroom? National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments.
Integrating Music Into Social and Emotional Learning. (June 2021). Edutopia.