Few musical genres possess the repetition, simplicity and contours necessary to lull infants to sleep. Music boxes, mobiles and untrained singing parents may help put children off to dreamland but few other genres possess these features.
Eggs exposed to 24-hour techno beats have shown improved development, likely as their agitation simulates womb movements that would mix their static fluids and dilute potentially hazardous chemicals.
1. It’s fun
If your children enjoy playing video games on an iPad, chances are they’ll love the idea of making music themselves. If you want to help your children learn how to produce, getting acquainted with a digital audio workstation (DAW) may help them learn production basics quickly and affordably. DAW software programs offer easy ways for anyone – both experienced musicians as well as amateurs – to produce songs or entire albums quickly and collaboratively – an incredible way for children to build creative skills while understanding collaboration!
If you’re interested in helping your kids start off right, here are a few things to keep in mind.
One of the early electronic music pioneers was Raymond Scott. While Bob Moog had yet to create the first playable musical vocoder, Scott’s studio was already producing recordings specifically intended for children’s ears – such as Soothing Sounds for Babies which included three volumes designed to comfort and educate infants from birth through six months old.
Though determining whether the music actually helped lull babies to sleep may be challenging, Scott’s use of repetitive loops and soothing tones undoubtedly foreshadowed later forms of ambient music – many have even likened his record to Kraftwerk or Brian Eno’s works although it predated both artists by over 10 years!
Soothing Sounds for Baby may have been designed to lull infants to sleep, but its innovative composition embodies some of experimental music’s core concerns. By emphasizing movement and acting before listening, Soothing Sounds for Baby disproved traditional musical education paradigms while showing us that our bodies are much more than passive receivers of sound waves.
Comforting, texturized sound can be seen as an attempt to ease an infant back into dependence on its surroundings by simplifying musical space’s organizational tensions into a minimalist network of needs and fulfillments. This precursored the cybernetic sustenance that would later be rhythmically developed through electronic dance music to alleviate the confusion created by its increasingly complex work-pleasure/oppression-freedom system.
2. It’s educational
Music can be an amazing source of stimulation and enjoyment for kids of all ages; not only does it bring enjoyment, but listening can also benefit their emotional, social, intellectual, physical, linguistic and motor skill development – not to mention coordination! That is why parents should encourage their children’s participation early on – it provides a wonderful outlet for exploring creativity while teaching how to express themselves freely.
Are you searching for new activities for your children to do together? When considering electronic music production as a form of activity, consider enrolling them. It will teach them to pay close attention and listen closely as they grow older, helping to foster creativity and use of imagination that are essential components of healthy development. It also gives children experience working collaboratively – an important life lesson.
Electronic music for infants dates back to the early 1960s when composer Raymond Scott released three-album collection Soothing Sounds For Baby. Composed by employing electronic devices like an Ondioline, homemade rhythm and tone generators and tape echo, Scott’s goal was to help calm infants to sleep using electronic instruments like the Ondioline, homemade rhythm generators and tone generators as well as tape echo. Although his album never became a hit during its initial release, later generations of electronic music fans have found value in its minimalist aspects similar to works by artists such as Brian Eno and Kraftwerk.
Modern electronic musical gadgets designed specifically for babies allow you to control volume and mix of songs. Some are educational while others might be too loud for use when trying to put your baby to bed.
If you don’t wish to invest in special devices, teaching your children digital audio workspaces (DAWs) will still get them involved with music production. These programs are intuitive enough for children and will give them a solid understanding of how music is made; then they can apply what they’ve learned in creating songs of their own choice!
3. It’s a sandbox
Playtime Engineering’s Blipblox modular electronic music exploration toy features one low-pass filter, two envelope generators, eight oscillator modulation schemes and more – as well as MIDI output so kids can connect it with their DAW. It could help introduce young children as young as three years old to synthesizer beats without causing major meltdowns!
This toy has been heralded as an ideal way for children to become interested in synths and other electronic music instruments, featuring a microphone with built-in sensors enabling children to record their own sounds and create original beats. Furthermore, there’s even an “off” switch so users can shut the instrument off when necessary – it’s even available for pre-order now with its release expected in August!
Though the toy will no doubt bring joy to parents, many are questioning whether electronic music should be suitable for kids at all. Studies have suggested that those exposed to EDM in utero take longer to reach basic developmental milestones like walking, talking and potty training; young kids exposed to techno have greater difficulty learning languages.
Studies involving techno music suggest that its constant exposure can make babies less receptive to other genres of music, inhibiting cognitive development. Other research indicates that children exposed to loud and high-energy electronic music tend to experience mood swings more readily and have trouble focusing on schoolwork.
Electronic music remains controversial when it comes to child development, with its electronic bleeps and weird machine noises often distancing notes, instruments, users and content from each other – an engaging aspect for kids but potentially disorienting ones who prefer more conventional forms of the genre.
4. It’s a game
Electronic music has long been an intriguing hobby. Raymond Scott pioneered ambient soundscapes during his experiments in the 1960s using various devices and sound generating equipment, creating three volume Soothing Sounds for Baby1 sets designed to lull infants to sleep through repetitive rhythms and melodies that gradually increased complexity as their baby grew.2 This work served as an antecedent to minimalist composers such as Brian Eno and Kraftwerk while predating electronic dance music by several decades.
Aphex Twin was among a growing trend of artists who experimented with synthetic drones and ambient noise during the late ’80s, creating works that didn’t resemble music but instead served as digital soundscapes that often contained specific imagery or narrative that should be listened to with closed eyes3.3
IDIOT of Brighton has recently made waves by creating subversive children’s music suitable for online listening. Digital soundtracks have now taken center stage.
Playtime Engineering’s Blipblox Audio Exploration Module gives kids as young as three the chance to explore synthesizer beatboxing and the audio spectrum, creating their own custom waveforms, manipulating frequency of soundwaves and playing with various oscillator modulation schemes.
There’s also an expanding selection of free and paid electronic music production apps designed specifically for kids, designed to get them involved with music creation and the creative process. They can experiment with sounds ranging from bleeps and weird machine noises all the way through to full-on synth beats.
Haack and Nelson’s collaborations were not simply responses to changing musical trends; rather they represented part of an ethos of collaborative creation within electronic music itself. Their efforts provided an alternative viewpoint against the widely held perception that electronic music was an isolated artform created on an individual basis; an idea which only gained more support after bedroom studios became ubiquitous with downloadable synthesizers.
Studies on how children’s music and video games intersect with electronic music production are worthy of further exploration, as these traces of agency might otherwise go uncollected, unanalyzed or missing. Haack and Nelson created children’s music that wasn’t inferior versions of what they produced for adults but instead offered unique and wonderful interpretations.