This paper presents music teaching in nineteenth-century Greece orphanages and schools of destitute children, which were the main schools for vocational training of the working class in that period. Five representative institutions were selected. Music education for young male workers in nineteenth-century Greece was both in accord with and satisfied basic aims of popular education, such as to shape the students' character and to provide the necessary qualifications, through vocational training that would allow low social strata to make a living. The aforementioned aims of people's education, which prevailed throughout Europe and was supported by an extended network of philanthropy, are described thoroughly. The aim of this paper is to show that the important role of music in the nineteenth-century Greece charitable institutions constitutes a Western European influence and is an aspect of the effort to Europeanise the Greek education system, which began to take a shape when the Greek state was established towards the end of the 1820s.