Calm music for the classroom
Timer
10:00
Ends with a chime
Open in Spotify to follow the playlist. Not logged in? The player plays 30-second previews.
Nova Focus Plus: Nova Sounds' full catalogue inside the timer, no Spotify needed. Coming soon. Join the waitlist
The short version
Why 10 minutes, with rain
For teachers: calm classroom music should sit under the room, not over it. Choose instrumental music without lyrics, such as solo piano, soft guitar or rain, preview the playlist before class, and keep the volume low enough to talk over. Pair it with a big classroom timer so the chime, not you, ends the activity.
Ten minutes covers most short classroom tasks with music underneath: a warm-up, silent reading for younger pupils or a calm-down. The classroom timer has every other class length one tap away.
Open the 10 minute timer page About rain Classroom timer with class presets
What to play
Nova Sounds playlists on Spotify. The first one is also under the timer above.
-
First pick · about 25 min
Classical
Solo piano and guitar at a calm pace, with no lyrics to talk over. Please preview it: the playlist includes some hymns and seasonal pieces, which not every classroom wants.
Open in Spotify -
Also good · about 25 min
Lo-Fi
Relaxed beats many older students already study to; also contains a few seasonal tracks.
Open in Spotify
What to play for each part of a lesson
| Activity | Timer | Sound |
|---|---|---|
| Transition or tidy-up | 2 min or 5 min | Lo-Fi, a little louder |
| Warm-up or quick quiz | 10 min | Rain or silence |
| Silent reading | 15 min or 20 min | Rain or Classical, quiet |
| Independent work | 20 min | Classical, quiet |
| Calm-down after break | 5 min | Classical or rain |
| Test or full period | 45 min | Silence |
Set it up in 30 seconds
- Open the classroom timer on the classroom computer and press the fullscreen button.
- Turn on classroom mode for the largest digits and the gentle chime.
- Pick rain, or open the Classical playlist. Spotify plays full tracks only when you are logged in; logged out, you hear 30-second previews, so log in on the class computer or use rain.
- Set the volume from the back of the room.
- Press Space to start and pause. R resets.
Keep it quiet enough
Music should sit under the room, not over it. Keep speakers at a level where you can talk normally. A meta-analysis of reading studies (Vasilev and colleagues, 2018) found lyrics and speech the most distracting background, so use instrumental music or rain during reading and writing.
Preview before you press play
- Classical (about 24 minutes): calm piano and guitar, but it includes some hymns and seasonal pieces.
- Lo-Fi (about 25 minutes): relaxed beats with a steady pulse; a few seasonal tracks.
- Lullabies: music box and piano made for sleep. Use it only for a short calm-down with young children, not for work time.
- Covers: has vocals, so skip it during reading and writing.
What the research says
Evidence note: lyrics and intelligible speech are the most distracting background for reading (Vasilev et al. 2018). Sound at or below 70 dBA is unlikely to harm hearing (NIDCD).
Related
All activitiesQuestions
About focus for classroom. Missing something? Write to contact@novasouds.se.
Yes. The timer and the rain, café and noise sounds are free, with no ads and no sign-up. The playlists play on Spotify, which needs a login for full tracks.
Yes. On the classroom timer, classroom mode shows very large digits and works full screen on a projector or smartboard.
Instrumental music without lyrics: piano, soft guitar or lo-fi, or rain sounds. Preview any playlist first; ours list seasonal tracks and hymns where they contain them.
Yes. There are ready pages from 1 minute to 3 hours, including a 7 minute timer, and the timer hub takes any length you type.