Live music

The main recommendation is that, if you have access to any live musicians, let them perform, whatever the music and whatever the instrument. The impact of live music, especially in the relatively confined space of a hospital school room, is such that it will amaze many of the children that have the opportunity to listen. The higher quality the musician, the greater the impact will be. Style is not really a consideration as children seem to have an inbuilt sense of when music is good, regardless of whether it is a style they are familiar with or not.

Recorded music

If you are dealing with recorded music, again style should not be a consideration. Ways to select music include:

• Children bring music they like.
• Very productive sessions can be had when each child who wants to introduces the others to their favourite piece of music.
• Music which is less familiar to the children will often stimulate strong reactions.
• The European classical tradition gives you over five centuries of great material.
• Then there is the entire world of jazz, folk music and film scores.
• Leave the West behind and the array of music seems endless with particularly rich traditions from China, India, South Asia, Africa and South America.

With all this music to choose from, don't restrict the experience to music that you are sure your pupils will like. A negative response, if well framed, can be just as interesting, informative and productive as a positive one. The only real restriction I would impose is length. To start off with, a piece lasting between 3 and 5 minutes should be ideal - that is the length most people are used to from popular music.