Does Baby Music Have to be Childish?

Should you only play baby music and lullabies like Twinkle Twinkle to your baby or should you play Tchaikovsky?

What is the best music to play for your baby?

Popular opinion states that babies brains can only process simple sounds and melodies, and if you listen to most of the baby music CDs that are out there you would probably believe the same thing. But new research shows that babies can recognize complex and unfamiliar musical rhythms and harmonies far more easily than adults can.

Infant brains are more flexible in processing sounds and musical structures than adults. But as they get older they settle on those that are most common and meaningful to their culture. This is the reason why children find it much easier to learn a foreign language than adults.

Studies at Cornell University and the University of Toronto show that six-month-old babies can detect subtle variations in complex rhythm patterns that their parents would find extremely difficult.

Beatriz Ilari at McGill University in Montreal gave two pieces of complex classical music to parents, the "Prelude" and "Forlane" from "Le Tombeau de Couperin" by Ravel and had them play one of the pieces to their baby 3 times a day for 10 days.

After 2 weeks of not hearing the music the babies were tested. Researchers found that babies listened 20-30 percent longer to the piece they had heard at home compared to the unfamiliar piece. The same test on babies who hadn't heard either piece of music showed they had no preference for either selection.

The results were compared to an earlier study where infants were played a simple piece of music by Mozart. The comparison showed that the preference effect (the difference in listening time to the familiar versus the unfamiliar) was stronger for the simpler piece of music. So, simple music may be easier for babies to process than complex music. But they can learn and remember both simple and complex pieces.

Playing all kinds of music is important. Many studies have shown that music is a crucial part of an enriched environment. Babies take in information even while in the womb, and can perceive music and rhythm up to 3 months before they are born.

Exposure to complex sound patterns develops an important part of the brain. The more complex the sound, the more brain ability is developed. And the more the environment is enriched, the more developed the brain becomes.

So if you are wondering, should you play baby music like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star or should you play Tchaikovsky...

The answer is both!