New Project- Music in the Nursery

Following some wise advice from Ben, I had decided to switch gears entirely and scrap the organ music project in favor of a more flexible topic, especially in light of my difficulty in balancing my workload with family.  My new topic is music in the nursery; specifically, the level of activity and intent in including or excluding music in their baby's environment.

I recollected the music that I shared with my two-year-old son when he was an infant, and also what I've shared with my three-week-old daughter.  I had remembered my father telling me that he had put headphones on my mother's belly when I was in the womb, and thought about what I might do.  After researching the subject a bit on the net, I came to the conclusion that headphones weren't necessary in order for an unborn child to experience music, especially considering the dynamic capabilities of my own monitor speakers that I use for music production in my home studio.

Not with the intent of forcing my children's tastes to conform to my own, I played a fairly wide variety of musical styles (or at least as wide of variety that my own music library could afford).  I had also heard of some neurological research studies in which it was found that infants who were exposed to Baroque and Classical music performed better in school, drawing a connection between certain aspects of music (like a steady tempo, even rhythm, and fluid consonance) and neurological development.

I considered some more common trends in music and parenting, and created a survey by which to establish a base of information.  Here is the survey that I developed:

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Hi!  I'm researching music in the nursery (and/or music and babies in general), and I put together a questionnaire that will be fun to answer for you, and really useful for my research purposes.  Your responses will always be anonymous, and I will share with you the collected information that I put together for my presentation to my class.

Some questions are Yes/No, and some are fill-in-the-blank. If you have more that one child, answer each question for one child's experience. Here goes!

1. Before your baby was born, did you use headphones on your (or your partner's) belly or use other deliberate amplification in order to share music with your unborn child? (Y/N):

2. If Yes, what kind of music did you play?  (If No, skip to question #3):

2a.  Was this music that you normally listen to on your own? (Y/N):

2b.  Was this music that you bought from a baby section of a retail store or music store? (Y/N):

2c.  If Yes, from what store did you primarily purchase your music that you shared?

2d.  Do you think that your sharing this music has contributed to or will contribute to your child's aptitude for or enjoyment of music? (Y/N):

2e:  Do you think that your sharing this music has contributed to or will contribute to your child's overall intelligence?  (Y/N):

2f:  Were there other reasons why you shared music with your unborn child?  (Y/N):

2g:  If Yes, what were your other reasons?

3.  After your child was born, did you deliberately share music with your child? (Y/N):

4.  If Yes, what kind of music did you play?  (If No, skip to question #5)

4a.  Was this music that you normally listen to on your own?  (Y/N):

4b.  Was this music that you bought from a baby section of a retail store or music store?  (Y/N):

4c:  If Yes, from what store did you primarily purchase your music that you shared?

4d.  Do you think that your sharing this music has contributed to or will contribute to your child's aptitude for or enjoyment of music? (Y/N):

4e.  Do you think that your sharing this music has contributed to or will contribute to your child's overall intelligence?  (Y/N):

4f.  Were there other reasons why you shared music with your child?  (Y/N):

4g:  If Yes, what were your other reasons?

5.  Do you consider yourself to be a musician?  (Y/N):

6.  Do you wish your child to become a musician?  (Y/N):

Please provide any comments you may have not addressed in the questions above:

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I thought this survey to have enough depth by which I could distill some interesting and useful information, without bombarding my interlocutors with too many questions.