This paper deals with the importance of music lessons in Bavarian special needs schools. It is based on three hypotheses and develops various possible reasons regarding the above-mentioned concern in relation to the focus on schools working with students' challenging behaviour. For this purpose, literature and an expert interview are used to derive special conditions of these schools. Moreover, this paper examines the circumstances of musical education and possible ways of dealing with them at schools. The aim of this paper is to derive general possibilities for teaching. The concept of 'music education units' (Musikvermittlungseinheiten) is used as a basis for suggesting a concrete way of integrating music education into everyday school life. These are short, approximately 10-minute units in which music is used and taught as part of structuring and rhythmising phases. Chances and limits of these music education units as well as recommendations for action and exemplary suggestions for their design are elaborated at the end of the paper.