Creating Music For Babies
By Dorothy Lockhart Lawrence
Creating Music for Babies™ has been in the back of
our minds since the early beginnings of Advanced Brain Technologies,
LLC. Using music as a means to maximize human potential has been
a useful and powerful tool for our collaborators, the National Academy
for Child Development, for over 25 years. So it was natural for
both of us to want to develop a product that would promote neurological
development for the very young.
A primary objective for this project was to help prevent auditory-based
learning, attention, and developmental problems in young children.
Our development team included experts from the fields of neurodevelopment,
child development, education, music, music therapy, sound engineering,
and recording. Members of the team were already using, and some
had also helped to develop, Tomatis-based sound stimulation programs,
including The Listening Program™, and The Sound Health Series.
Our concept was to create a series of CDs for babies that would
provide natural, acoustic, full spectrum sound (20-20,000 Hz) to
provide quality auditory stimulation. As with The Sound Health Series,
we also wanted to provide a beautiful way to mask the "toxic
noise" that is present in nearly every home and childcare center
today, a very real threat to hearing health.
"The act of hearing itself influences the quality of auditory
development," says Lise Eliot, Ph.D. in What's Going On In
There? Her book explains how the brain and mind develop in the first
five years of life. All the listening babies do, including in the
womb, shapes the way their brains become wired to process and understand
different sounds. Eliot goes on to say that this development is
not just limited to the auditory system, but that "children's
early experience with speech and music are tremendously important
in shaping many higher aspects of brain function, including emotion,
language, and other cognitive abilities."
To start our process, we purchased and reviewed every CD released
for babies that could be found. Our team discussed the various approaches
that others had taken. It was determined that there was a gap in
the market that we could fill with our particular expertise and
approach.
At the same time, we reviewed books, articles and research studies
on music and babies, the influence of sound and music on prenatal
development, infant hearing, etc. Our Music Director, Richard Lawrence,
reviewed hundreds of compositions for babies and children. He wanted
to select musical compositions that were written for or would especially
appeal to very young ears. To further this appeal he would arrange
the music and select instruments to compliment the compositions,
provide a full sound spectrum, and be enjoyable for both babies
and parents.
Working with co-producer Alex Doman, selections were made in the
areas of classical, folk music, and nursery rhymes. Lullabies from
many cultures, including French, English and Welsh, were included
to help a child fall asleep. For playtime and creating a happy mood,
they selected a number of pieces that Mozart wrote when he was a
little boy. He began composing at the age of 4 and his compositions
as a child were simple, bright, and happy. Both producers agreed
that harp, celeste, violin, viola, cello, clarinet, and flute would
be good choices for the arrangements.
The celeste is not a common instrument but you might have heard
this charming sound at Christmas time listening to "Dance of
the Sugar Plum Fairies" from The Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky.
The celeste looks like a small piano and sounds like a glockenspiel
but the hammers have felt on them to soften the sound.
Award winning members of the Arcangelos Chamber Ensemble were called
on to play. A goal of the recording sessions would be to create
a low stress environment to produce the most expressive, gentle
and effective recordings possible for babies. A firm believer that
intention plays a crucial role in effectiveness, Richard Lawrence
asked all the musicians involved in the recording to bring along
a photograph of their own child or a child they felt close to. He
had gotten the idea from a research study that showed a listener
could tell from a recording if a mother was singing with their infant
present or was singing the same song without the infant in the room.
The researcher concluded that there is a distinctive style of singing
to infants. Richard wanted to reproduce this distinctive style instrumentally
in our recordings.
Since bringing babies to the recording sessions would not be feasible,
the photographs would provide a strong focus for lengthening the
notes, for making the music slow and sweet. During the recording
sessions, Richard reminded the musicians to look at the photographs
they brought and imagine that the child was there in the studio.
They were asked to play as gently as they would for their own babies.
Flutist Vivian Stanley was delighted
with this idea. Her second pregnancy had resulted in triplets -
three little boys who were in intensive care for many weeks. Vivian
had gone to the hospital and played her flute for them. She and
her husband also sang to them and when they weren't there, the tiny
boys heard a recording of flute and guitar music that Vivian had
made. With music, "the numbers on the apnea, bradycardia and
blood oxygen monitors would settle to normal," she said. "These
were some of the soothing sensations the boys longed for."
So Vivian knew from experience that music could be a powerful healing
force for children.
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Left to right: Alex, Evan, Nicholas and
Sebastian Stanley
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Violinist Ingrid Sweeney was pregnant
with her second child. She brought along a picture of her son Micah
as a toddler. As she played and looked at the picture she went back
to the time when he was starting to crawl and to walk. "My
playing definitely changed," she told us. "It also changed
when I felt the baby inside me move. When she woke up and kicked,
I felt I was interacting with her as I played." Ingrid told
us that now little Hannah Rose loves to listen to her play the violin.
Pianist Larry David who played the
celeste for the recordings, talked about how there is always a certain
amount of stress when you begin a recording session. When he started
to improvise with Richard, (violinist as well as Musical Director)
it started out slow. Then at one point Larry looked up at the picture
of himself holding his son Michael when he was just a few days old.
He suddenly caught the mood for the project and everything changed.
"I was amazed," he told us. "From that point on I
made a point of dwelling on the picture when I wasn't reading the
music." Larry told us it helped him to be in the right frame
of mind, to relax, and to connect with the intention and spirit
of the recording session.
Sarah Vornoy is a licensed Psychotherapist,
a new mom, and has often played her harp in hospital settings. She
told us, "I had my son Ben's picture in front of me while I
was playing. It can't help but affect you when that is your focus.
It's probably the most relaxed session I've ever participated in.
It's so fun and easy to get a great sound when playing in this realm.
Many thanks for allowing me to be a part of this project which is
meaningful and inspiring."
Our next step was to create segments of music that could be used
for a national field test. The purpose of the test was to evaluate
the effectiveness of our music produced with different concepts.
The evaluation would be based on behavioral and observational checklists
and data collection. In less than two weeks we had 150 families
and clinics who wanted to be part of our test.
While the music was being edited and the sample CDs produced, a
group of mothers were brought in with their babies as a focus group
for early feedback. One at a time, mothers and babies came in and
listened to two, five-minute samples of music. They then shared
their observations and rated the effectiveness of the music on their
child. One child fell asleep although it was far from her normal
nap time, another put her doll to bed on hearing the lullabies.
All mothers wanted the music as soon as possible!
Following the focus group, more decisions were made about options
in the field test. Music for going to sleep would be tested with
heartbeat added to the music, another with evening nature sounds
added, and another section with music alone. Data was collected
for a 14-day period. Music with or without heartbeat and nature
sounds was a highly personal choice, giving conflicting data for
and against. Our option to use music only was generally preferred
and test data showed that the music was not more effective with
heartbeat or nature sounds. Written feedback, data, and testimonials
all concluded that our music was very effective.
The music had been carefully selected and arranged so that it could
be divided into the categories of Sleepy, Peaceful, Cheerful, and
Playful. The desired effort for each album suggested further musical
treatment.
Sleepy Baby™ Four psychoacoustic
treatments were utilized in Sleepy Baby™. The volume softens
track by track from the beginning selection to the end. This helps
the child settle down and drift off to sleep. It also means a parent
can simply leave the music on and not be concerned about turning
off the CD player when the baby goes to sleep. The tempo gradually
slows from a range of 70-40 beats per minute to encourage the baby's
systems to slow down. Third, the frequency range of notes progressively
gets lower. For example, a clarinet and viola are used in the arrangements
for Sleepy Baby to enrich lower frequencies. And fourth, the music
sounds progressively farther away. Combining these mellow sounds
and treatments helps to produce a calming and restful feeling and
helps to induce sleep.
Peaceful Baby™ contains very
delicate and beautiful music to help calm and relax a little one,
creating an environment for a more peaceful mood. As with Sleepy
Baby, relaxing improvised melodies were used. Prior experience has
shown that improvised playing encourages a deeper brain wave state
in the performer that extends to the listener as well. Slower tempos
and rhythms of 50-90 beats per minute were selected to encourage
entrainment. Instruments on this album include harp, strings, flute
and celeste, all played gently to have a calming effect. Additionally,
a treatment called frequency equalization was used to remove any
high frequencies that might alert or startle a child. Pieces such
as Baa! Baa! Black Sheep, Lambs Are Sleeping, and the Gaelic Cradle
Song were arranged to engage a child's attention and gradually slow
down body rhythms to a peaceful state.
Cheerful Baby™ was produced
to help improve a baby's mood. This album has a more upbeat tempo
with 60-120 beats per minute to energize brain function. Instruments
were used and arrangements were created for their effect on alertness.
A rich spatial environment has been created not only to develop
listening abilities, but to encourage the development of other senses
as well. Subtle, unexpected arrangements and sound that moves from
side to side, stimulates active listening. Music selected for this
album has a rich, full spectrum sound, particularly in the higher
frequencies that are known to charge the brain.
Playful Baby™ became an opportunity
to stimulate listening in an expanded way, with a variety of sounds
that compliment the music. When you hear "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep"
you will also hear the sound of a lamb. On Bizet's Gallop, you will
also hear the sound of horses' hooves with the sound going from
one side of the room to the other as the horses gallop past. And
yes, that's a real Cukoo you are hearing in the Toy Symphony! The
variety of sounds woven in with the music, ranging from 80-140 beats
per minute, is designed to stimulate active listening. In addition
the sounds and instruments are continually moving from side to side
to develop spatial awareness.
Now that you know what went into creating the Music for Babies
series, you know why we say with confidence that this is more than
music. Just as food nourishes a baby's growing body, the elements
of music - melody, tone and harmony - foster the brain growth crucial
to healthy young minds. By playing Music for Babies, you as a parent
or caretaker can actively support optimum brain development. You
can build a strong foundation for later learning, language development,
and music ability to help each child achieve their extraordinary,
and unique potenial.
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