Music for Infants

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... various volumes

Rolling Children's Music Thread

This thread is maybe for older chidren, but you might be interested.

A friend of mine told me a story that some atonal composer believed that people only tended to dislike atonal music because we were raised on tonal music. Supposedly he decided to play atonal music for his baby while the baby ate, so as to make him associate it with good things. The baby stopped eating.

This might be an academic urban legend - can anyone confirm this?

Anyway, to play it safe, don't play Schoenberg for your infant.

I played Monty reggae, Erik Satie and the Michael Mayer Fabric mix when he was really little, all of which he seemed to like.* I think anything without too big a dynamic range is cool, though.

* by which I mean he fell asleep.

In other news, I have to put together some music for musical statues or whatever at my nephew's 5th birthday. And now I'm worried all the five-year olds will think I'm square.

Are kids into pop by then?

many xposts - My kids hated the Raymond Scott CDs. Unless your baby is a robot he is unlikely to be soothed. For lulling try Iron & Wine.

my 8 month old lady seems to like alice coltrane, steve reich, david behrman, gentle droney stuff (particularly early on up to 4 months)the clientele, and magnetic fields, the muppet album for dancin' plone for bath time . she didn't like raymond scott one bit.

I remember playing "Windowlicker" to Amber when she was little. She smiled.

here's a pressing question, is it creepy playing boards of canada to babies / small children?

the above soothing sounds for baby is where the egg card hamster music comes from. they played a track from each of the three volumes during the recent freak zone and i found it anything but soothing.

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it can be, depending on the song. Avoid "Aquarius" at all costs.

i played a lot of john fahey when my kid was a newborn, also some spacey mellow dub shit and for some reason a lot of kante manfila (african blues guitar). basically whatever relaxes you will relax the kid, I think.

this one worked for me apparently

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"The Mozart Effect" may have some suspect underpinnings (it's presumed to achieve heightened leaning capacities in those exposed to it), but it sounds just fine to these ears on its musicality alone. It's hard to go wrong with any of the classical guys; Chopin, Debussy, Rachmaninoff, etc. One of the theories i've heard about kid’s music is that one of the key things to consider is the sonic diversity. Supposedly, they benefit most from experiencing the widest frequency range possible - so once again, it leads one towards the classical and orchestral pieces.

I know you mention that you're ...looking to steer clear of explicitly children's music.., and it something i agree with 100% (in fact, the first time my boy danced was when he about 10 months old and I was jamming the Wedding Present’s “Watusi”). But I've tried a number of different approaches and i can't deny the specific and elevated response that some of these “kid-specific” titles deliver.

My son, my baby's mommy, and myself all enjoy Jerry Garcia & David Grisman's "Not For Kids Only" and just about anything from Scott Walker. There's also a neat studio comp called "Baby Loves Jazz" that is nearly bearable. My wife likes to play Laurie Berkner (Buzz Buzz Buzz) for my son, but it gets WAY TOO TAXING for my ears. She also used to play Mickey Hart's "Music To Be Born By" for the first 6 months-or-so to help sleep (heartbeat sounds, etc).

Congrats, and good luck!

"The Mozart Effect" may have some suspect underpinnings (it's presumed to achieve heightened leaning capacities in those exposed to it)

By the terms of the original study, it's only presumed to help college kids study well. You'd think you could extrapolate from "college kids" to "babies," but not really.

when i used to babysit a couple of two & three year olds, they really liked the reggae music for dancin. "the sinking of the titanic" was good for napping.

(P.S. I suspect -- for no good reason except intuition -- that the effect has a lot to do with, umm, acquired cultural cues.)

Thanks, nabisco, I didn't know that. But, hell, i never really believed the claims that it could help ANYTHING, so, i guess i also have no problem if it actually helps NOTHING.

And as far as acquired cultural cues go, i quess that means i should stop buning his momma with blunt butts.

Konki Duet have been invaluable for the last 6 months: simultaneous adult and infant appeal. I think Momus plugged them in some old thread (though not for this purpose). Minimalist chamber music with electronics and girl vocals in English, French and/or Japanese. Lots of bell tones, which babies really do seem to love.

When my ex was a little one, his parents used to play him Jean Michelle Jarre's Zoolook to fall asleep to (of all things).

Even now, when he listens to it, it makes him sleepy.

music for airports

My son seems to like everything he hears, or at least not dislike it. Fritz above is OTM - they're taking their cues from your mood more than from the music, so when we play "King Kong Song" by ABBA and he sees his Mum and me grinning and singing along ourselves, he enjoys it.

I can see a lot of 60s/70s psych folk and sunshine pop going down well with babies. That shit always kicks off weird evocations of being a toddler for me.

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More seriously, infants are tolerant towards most music, but you should avoid music with screaming singers, such as Black Metal, Marilyn Manson etc. Their music may sound like grownups fighting to young children.

You don't know the pleasure of having two young daughters headbanging to "breaking the law" then.

I could imagine Laurie Anderson working well.

X-Post: Rob Halford doesn't scream all that much. It's mainly the grinding vocal style that may scare very young kids.

There was a study on what kinda music causes cows to make more milk. Classical was the clear winner. Punk and metal caused the cows to produce less milk.

I suggest that you stick to classical or happy music. But beware, what you consider nice might be a little to heavy for a child.

would producing more or less milk be considered a good thing in this instance?