Please do not use these ideas to restrict the instruments that you use with your pupils. The 3 instruments listed below are just some that seem to be particularly successful.

Double bass

Double basses seem to have special powers which extend even to a half size instrument. Their great assets are:

• Visually striking.
• Easily accessible sound through plucking the strings.
• Tactile reinforcement to the sound through bowing the strings.
• The low pitch makes them fascinating to children with hearing loss.

Bass guitar

Bass guitars are less impressive than double basses but can be very flexible. Plus points include:

• Age appropriate for adolescents.
• Using the open strings can be enough to form a simple band with very basic guitar playing.
• Amplification can help some children.

Harp

Harps can produce really wonderful sounds. A small Celtic harp, an auto-harp (this has buttons that stop some of the strings so you get a chord) - just about any kind of harp.

Best of all, persuade or even pay a professional harp player to visit your school with a full size concert harp. These instruments look and sound beautiful beyond belief and what is more, anyone can have a go and sound wonderful. They provide a very special stimulus indeed.