Equipment for Listening

Listening in groups

Most listening sessions in school will involve groups of pupils listening together. Your sound source, assuming that you are using recorded sound, will need to give as high a quality as possible. In the digital age we are very fortunate in having so many appliances that can reproduce sounds very well. Among the most suitable machines are:

• CD players
• computers
• iPads
• mp3 players
• digital televisions
• mobile phones (with headphones or bluetooth speakers)

What potentially lets these machines down is the quality of speakers you use. For example, a standard set of computer speakers will sound pretty awful. There are many speaker solutions available, but the most flexible and least expensive might be a pair of powered speakers. These will plug into a headphone socket of any device and have their own built-in amplifier. They are just high quality computer speakers.

Individual listening

If you want to do personalised work, with each child listening to their own music, this is very easy to arrange. The only limiting factor is the number of machines that you have available. Points to remember are:

• Headphones are cheap and give a very good listening experience.
• Headphone adaptors, which will enable any headphone socket to take 2 sets of headphones, are very cheap and easy to obtain.
• Consider how and where you sit. Your conventional layout may or may not give each child the best opportunity to concentrate and focus on the music.
• This, along with external noise intruding into the room, will be critical for children with a reduced attention span as they will need all available assistance to focus for the time required.