When jazz musician Michael Janisch had his first child, he put the theories to the test with a specially recorded album
I've been a musician since I was four. I've been lucky enough to play on five continents with some of the world's greatest jazz artists, as well as releasing three albums of my own. I'm a professor at both the Royal Academy of Music and Trinity Laban in London, and run my own record label Whirlwind Recordings. Music is my life, it's fair to say. A few years ago, as soon as my wife Sarah and I found out we were pregnant, I went searching for some baby music.
There's no doubt that music has a positive effect on our mind and body. Research suggests it can even improve intelligence. The so-called "Mozart effect" is well known – the idea that classical music makes us smarter. It has certainly been shown that listening to Mozart can help people perform better on tests in the short term. I've been around music my entire life and feel sure it inspires us and heightens creativity and consciousness, and therefore has a positive effect on our intelligence. And exposing a baby, from pre-birth even, to beautiful and creative music – at appropriate volumes in short spans – can be nothing but good. Studies have shown that when babies are exposed to music around six months after conception, they will remember it once they are born, bringing them back to the calm of the womb. I've seen music aid children in learning the foundations of languages (for example having children playing rhythms with drums and percussion instruments is a great way to introduce them to "call and response").
So I went in search of suitable music for my daughter. But what I found was depressing. Most of the albums on the market were soulless, computerised-sounding, mechanical noise recorded on fake instruments and synthesisers, which to me was the absolute worst thing I could ever play to my unborn child, and I can't stand listening to it either. I wanted my baby to hear real music, on real instruments, recorded to the highest possible standards. But the baby-music market across the board was riddled with poorly produced albums, and - as a record-label owner - I was also surprised by the low quality of packaging and overall presentation. And so I thought: why not record my own music for babies, but to the same quality that is produced for adults? And the idea for Jazz for Babies was born.
There's a lot of peppy baby music out there; I wanted to produce something relaxing that both parents and their babies could enjoy for night-time rituals, as a general sleep aid, or any time they wanted to listen to relaxing music. I thought about what calm and serene sounds my daughter might like to hear. And, since I am a jazz musician, I decided to make a jazz album. After all, for decades, jazz musicians have adapted and arranged popular songs into their own instrumental versions and used the structures of these songs to improvise. I decided to follow this formula but, at the same time, perform each song as a lullaby.
I started with a series of five albums of 15 tracks, each featuring a different lead instrument (piano, guitar, saxophone, trumpet, guitar). The songs that I chose are many of the world's favourites – Somewhere Over the Rainbow, My Favourite Things, Que Sera, Sera – and were all special to me; either I had been playing them for years, or they were songs my parents used to play me, or simply personal favourites. And the idea – quite a challenge – was to adapt these songs into lullaby interpretations, even though some were originally upbeat tracks.
Armed with our real acoustic instruments, a handpicked group of my favourite musicians and I went into the studio tasked with knocking out 75 lullabies in five days. We took the tempos much slower than the originals and played our instruments very simply and softly. Throughout the session, I kept reminding the musicians to visualise that our "audience" could be a sleeping baby. I wanted each track to have a dream-like vibe, but this was far from easy. To play so many songs so slow takes an alarming amount of control and concentration (some of the tracks clock in at 35 beats per minute, and, for any musicians out there, we didn't use click tracks). We kept the arrangements really simple and expressive, and on to each track we sprinkled a bit of improvisation, the jazz musicians' speciality.
Recent studies have shown that improvisation in music triggers areas of the brain to do with individuality and creativity, so not only can our music help in calming babies, but their minds are being gently stimulated by hearing truly creative music as well.
When Eliza was born, it was amazing to watch her react to the music that she'd heard in the womb. She's nearly three now, and we still play the albums every evening as part of the night-time ritual (she calls it her "pretty music") as well as on long drives. She can hum just about every song.
And it's been great to see such a positive wider response. Among other awards, we've won the 2013 National Parenting Publication awards 'Best Audio' for Children's Product in the US, and a leading UK provider of antenatal and baby massage classes has commissioned us to produce their relaxation music for their UK-wide classes. It's been a fun ride to say the least and I'm sure it's the "real" ingredient (real musicians, real instruments) that sets us apart from other baby music.
And me? I've learned firsthand that playing music to babies can have a positive effect on their mood, stimulate their minds, inspire them or even motivate children for learning new things. My wife and I have just had our second daughter, who's been listening to the music for months already. It instantly calms her, and it's just amazing to see her respond to these familiar sounds as soon as we push play.
** Jazz For Babies is launched as part of the Whirlwind Festival at Kings Place on 11 October.* Reported by guardian.co.uk 6 hours ago.
I've been a musician since I was four. I've been lucky enough to play on five continents with some of the world's greatest jazz artists, as well as releasing three albums of my own. I'm a professor at both the Royal Academy of Music and Trinity Laban in London, and run my own record label Whirlwind Recordings. Music is my life, it's fair to say. A few years ago, as soon as my wife Sarah and I found out we were pregnant, I went searching for some baby music.
There's no doubt that music has a positive effect on our mind and body. Research suggests it can even improve intelligence. The so-called "Mozart effect" is well known – the idea that classical music makes us smarter. It has certainly been shown that listening to Mozart can help people perform better on tests in the short term. I've been around music my entire life and feel sure it inspires us and heightens creativity and consciousness, and therefore has a positive effect on our intelligence. And exposing a baby, from pre-birth even, to beautiful and creative music – at appropriate volumes in short spans – can be nothing but good. Studies have shown that when babies are exposed to music around six months after conception, they will remember it once they are born, bringing them back to the calm of the womb. I've seen music aid children in learning the foundations of languages (for example having children playing rhythms with drums and percussion instruments is a great way to introduce them to "call and response").
So I went in search of suitable music for my daughter. But what I found was depressing. Most of the albums on the market were soulless, computerised-sounding, mechanical noise recorded on fake instruments and synthesisers, which to me was the absolute worst thing I could ever play to my unborn child, and I can't stand listening to it either. I wanted my baby to hear real music, on real instruments, recorded to the highest possible standards. But the baby-music market across the board was riddled with poorly produced albums, and - as a record-label owner - I was also surprised by the low quality of packaging and overall presentation. And so I thought: why not record my own music for babies, but to the same quality that is produced for adults? And the idea for Jazz for Babies was born.
There's a lot of peppy baby music out there; I wanted to produce something relaxing that both parents and their babies could enjoy for night-time rituals, as a general sleep aid, or any time they wanted to listen to relaxing music. I thought about what calm and serene sounds my daughter might like to hear. And, since I am a jazz musician, I decided to make a jazz album. After all, for decades, jazz musicians have adapted and arranged popular songs into their own instrumental versions and used the structures of these songs to improvise. I decided to follow this formula but, at the same time, perform each song as a lullaby.
I started with a series of five albums of 15 tracks, each featuring a different lead instrument (piano, guitar, saxophone, trumpet, guitar). The songs that I chose are many of the world's favourites – Somewhere Over the Rainbow, My Favourite Things, Que Sera, Sera – and were all special to me; either I had been playing them for years, or they were songs my parents used to play me, or simply personal favourites. And the idea – quite a challenge – was to adapt these songs into lullaby interpretations, even though some were originally upbeat tracks.
Armed with our real acoustic instruments, a handpicked group of my favourite musicians and I went into the studio tasked with knocking out 75 lullabies in five days. We took the tempos much slower than the originals and played our instruments very simply and softly. Throughout the session, I kept reminding the musicians to visualise that our "audience" could be a sleeping baby. I wanted each track to have a dream-like vibe, but this was far from easy. To play so many songs so slow takes an alarming amount of control and concentration (some of the tracks clock in at 35 beats per minute, and, for any musicians out there, we didn't use click tracks). We kept the arrangements really simple and expressive, and on to each track we sprinkled a bit of improvisation, the jazz musicians' speciality.
Recent studies have shown that improvisation in music triggers areas of the brain to do with individuality and creativity, so not only can our music help in calming babies, but their minds are being gently stimulated by hearing truly creative music as well.
When Eliza was born, it was amazing to watch her react to the music that she'd heard in the womb. She's nearly three now, and we still play the albums every evening as part of the night-time ritual (she calls it her "pretty music") as well as on long drives. She can hum just about every song.
And it's been great to see such a positive wider response. Among other awards, we've won the 2013 National Parenting Publication awards 'Best Audio' for Children's Product in the US, and a leading UK provider of antenatal and baby massage classes has commissioned us to produce their relaxation music for their UK-wide classes. It's been a fun ride to say the least and I'm sure it's the "real" ingredient (real musicians, real instruments) that sets us apart from other baby music.
And me? I've learned firsthand that playing music to babies can have a positive effect on their mood, stimulate their minds, inspire them or even motivate children for learning new things. My wife and I have just had our second daughter, who's been listening to the music for months already. It instantly calms her, and it's just amazing to see her respond to these familiar sounds as soon as we push play.
** Jazz For Babies is launched as part of the Whirlwind Festival at Kings Place on 11 October.* Reported by guardian.co.uk 6 hours ago.