Introducing music to children, especially unborn and newborn
children, has been a hotly debated cultural subject. Some experts assert that exposure to music
aids in the development of the neurological system, while others argue that
even at low volumes, uninterrupted music does not allow the body to fully be at
rest.
For me, not enough data has emerged that concludes that negative effects outweigh positive effects, especially when music is presented in a responsible way. The fact that newborn babies respond positively to voice suggests that loudly amplified music played back through headphones placed on a mother's abdomen is unnecessary; however, the practice continues. I suppose it is all about volume control, and balancing music intended for baby with other considerations of the baby's surroundings (i.e., using headphones lets baby experience music, while mom sleeps).
Even hospitals are beginning to use music therapeutically, especially in circumstances where baby and mother are separated for treatment. Here's an article:
Semiautoethnographically, I decided to compare how I've introduced music as an element of my children's lives with others' endeavors of sharing music with their children.
Being a frequenter of baby goods retail stores, I noticed that what used to be a couple of novelty CDs of music for children has emerged into an entire cottage industry of creating and distributing music for children. I therefore created a survey to collect data on how parents share music with their infants.
Survey facts:
1. Almost no one (at least of those parents I surveyed) bought or shared music specifically created for the baby retail market.
2. Nearly all parents surveyed reported that they shared music with their unborn children; however, only two responders reported using headphones on mother's abdomen.
3. The reasons for sharing music varied widely from establishing a sense of rhythm to specifically encouraging musicianship. The most reported single reason was to calm baby.
Samples of retail baby music:
I shared music by playing the piano around my wife before and after my children were born. Here's my son, Jack, at 11 months:
I like to think that my inclusion of music in his life has sparked his own creativity:
I also shared other music with my children, but music like this:
And this:
Which brings me to another realm of music and children: musical toys. They range from good to bad to insanely terrible. What is so bad about the "bad" toys is the quality of music coming out of them.
After emailing my survey to all of the parents that I could, I began to get some data back. Here are some completed surveys: ======== 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): no
> > 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): yes > > 4. If Yes, what kind of music did you play? (If No, skip to question #5) oldies > > 4a. Was this music that you normally listen to on your own? (Y/N): yes > > 4b. Was this music that you bought from a baby section of a retail store or music store? (Y/N): no
> > 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): yea > > 4e. Do you think that your sharing this music has contributed to or will contribute to your child's overall intelligence? (Y/N): yes > > 4f. Were there other reasons why you shared music with your child? (Y/N): yes > > 4g: If Yes, what were your other reasons? Learn to dance and enjoyment > > 5. Do you consider yourself to be a musician? (Y/N): no > > 6. Do you wish your child to become a musician? (Y/N): no ========
Learning to dance; interesting! Here's another:
========
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):
Y ( I think what I did counts)
2. If Yes, what kind of music did you play? (If No, skip to question #3):
I played guitar and keyboard frequently at work, and the guitar/keyboard was against/near my belly. I sang and played rock, 50's popular, folk, jazz and country music. I also sang in the car with the radio turned up on the drive home from work, aware that the baby could hear it
2a. Was this music that you normally listen to on your own? (Y/N):
Y, some of it
2b. Was this music that you bought from a baby section of a retail store or music store? (Y/N):
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):
Y
2e: Do you think that your sharing this music has contributed to or will contribute to your child's overall intelligence? (Y/N):
Y
2f: Were there other reasons why you shared music with your unborn child? (Y/N):
Y
2g: If Yes, what were your other reasons?
Bonding, and I want my child to have an appreciation for music and to start her early in her journey toward being a musician, if she chooses to do so, by developing a musical ear.
3. After your child was born, did you deliberately share music with your child? (Y/N):
Y
4. If Yes, what kind of music did you play? (If No, skip to question #5)
Soothing piano music, live and recorded: new age, classical, soft rock, jazz
4a. Was this music that you normally listen to on your own? (Y/N):
Y
4b. Was this music that you bought from a baby section of a retail store or music store? (Y/N):
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):
Y
4e. Do you think that your sharing this music has contributed to or will contribute to your child's overall intelligence? (Y/N):
Y
4f. Were there other reasons why you shared music with your child? (Y/N):
Y
4g: If Yes, what were your other reasons?
Enjoyment, soothing grumpy baby, bonding
5. Do you consider yourself to be a musician? (Y/N):
Y
6. Do you wish your child to become a musician? (Y/N):
Y
========
These survey responses have some similarities, but they are quite different. To me, this suggests a couple of pre-conclusions; most pointedly, that those who consider themselves to be musicians take a more active role in sharing music with their unborn children and infants. Also, I am starting to conclude that some of my survey was well thought-out, and some, not so much. Looks like no one deliberately goes to the baby store to buy music specifically created or compiled for the purpose of sharing with babies.
I must say that I find myself frequenting baby stores quite often as of late. Every time that I do, the impulse-buying section at the checkout lanes have some new music for babies, with the intent of taking this phenomenon to some new level. Check this out:
Every time I leave the store, I'm wondering what I'll see next. Here's what WAS next:
OK, so these Rockabye Baby people clearly were into rock. But what does this stuff sound like?
Those poor babies! What's with the damn vibraphone melody? And what about Led Zeppelin?
Ouch! And mind you, these compilations are front-and-center in giant baby retail outlets such as BuyBuy Baby, Babies R Us, Target, etc. And is rock the only genre besmirched? Of course not!
I'll stop myself here. Well maybe one more:
I especially enjoyed the frog sounds. I wonder why the melodies are almost exclusively played by bell-like instruments.
When my son was in the womb, I alternated between calm music like Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings:
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:
======== 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:
========
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.
I dragged my family to Balboa Park on Sunday, intending to catch the 2:00pm organ concert at the Spreckels Organ Pavillion, not realizing that the EarthFair was going on. It was well after 2pm before I even managed to find parking (a mile-and-a-half away), and the concert was over before I could wade through the 60,000-odd people to get to the pavillion. Poor planning on my part! I'm going to have to get more creative coming up with concerts to attend with audiences and performers whom I can interview.
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Getting sick and falling a week behind is catastrophic for a once-per-week class, but it has given me some time to ruminate over my research topic.
I'll be covering the role of the organ in culture. This "King of All Instruments" has had such a rich past that it blows my mind when I speak to people who have never actively listened to organ music. Many have thought it was merely a functional instrument for conducting church services, wedding services, and funeral services. We shall prove that the organ is a much more versatile instrument of immense character and of great importance.
I've had a number of different ideas brewing regarding the subject of my research for this quarter's class. My top consideration was the culture of the marching band, and the marching band's role in other cultures (sports); however, speaking from experience, most school bands' marching season is the Fall, and Spring is concert season. Concert season is its own thing, but during this time, bands don't have the same interaction with the public and with other cultures as they do during marching season. Even the drum and bugle corps are in recruitment and rehearsal mode this time of year. Too bad.
Another vastly different culture that might be interesting to study is that of the electronic music scene. It is certainly a culture unto itself, with myriad subcultures. From the mildest of clubs that occasionally feature a house DJ to illegal warehouse parties to full-blown raves with multiple rooms/genres/scenes/weird people and enormous festivals out in the desert; the scope of the electronic music scene is huge. The current soar in the popularity of Dubstep is certainly not harming the popularity of the scene, I'm sure.
I recently saw a great documentary from 2008: "Nerdcore Rising" which followed then up-and-coming hip-hop artist MC Frontalot, who helped spark a new subgenre of hip-hop that appealed to highly intellectual yet sometimes socially-challenged listeners. I know that Comic-Con is massively growing in audience and scope, and it would be interesting to see how music is intertwined into that scene.
