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"To Sing Or Not To Sing?"
Feature article in the April 2006 edition
of the Los Angeles Family magazine
by Joy Sikorski
What if you could start from Day One to teach your baby to sing while you’re calming and soothing her?
I was a private voice teacher with over 60 students aged 4-70, and dealt with every kind of voice, the good, the bad, the ugly. As I dug deeply into neuroscience data from around the world, I realized that few people know much about the voice or its importance in a baby’s brain development. To change this and provide simple singing techniques that can powerfully impact crucial language development, I founded SingBabySing™ and coined the phrase, Puccini EffectTM, using the great composer's name to increase awareness.
Research shows that babies can match musical pitches as early as 3-6 months and that they imitate what they hear. The singsong way you “talk” to your baby, closely resembles singing and acts like a tutorial, so the more song-like sounds you make, the more song-like sounds your baby will make. Most of “baby babble” is actually the vocal exploration of melodic contours that shape musical development, good singing and good speech. Making these sounds is crucial for the important neurological coding that takes place in the brain. The same are of the brain controls speech and singing, so the better your baby’s ears are trained (musically), the better the connections will develop.
Experts who research this subject say that most anyone can develop good singing skills and that it's best to start early because of what’s going on in a baby’s brain. Sure it takes talent to become a great singer, but does that mean someone who is not talented can’t or shouldn’t learn to sing? That would be like saying you have to have talent to learn to speak, read, write or do math, and that’s just plain silly. Why wait to find out if your baby has “talent” or not? Start shaping her brain connections now!
Your baby can pick out your voice in a room full of mothers. It’s the one she’ll hear and imitate more than any other during this formative time. So toss aside your feelings of inadequacy and give her the best you can. The suggestions below don’t take talent or a great voice, only a willing mind.
10 easy minutes a day is all it takes to give your baby a start in the right direction. Even if you do the following games only once or twice a day you’ll create a calm atmosphere while giving her an edge up in brain development. Easy and fun, these voice games can calm you and your baby quickly because they release endorphins. Enjoy and do them anytime, anywhere.
“Silly Spinning Siren” – Smile and keep your lips closed and relaxed as you pretend you’re a “silly spinning siren” by gently making your voice go up and down softly with an “em” sound. Go as high and low with your voice as you comfortably can. Repeat several times. There are no rules, so just play!
“LongLegged Mommy”– Same as above, but with an elongated “mommy” instead of “em.” Stretch the first consonant and vowel sounds as you spin your voice up and down. Repeat several times.
“MawJaw” - Pick a note and softly sing “Maaaw-maaaw-maaaw.” Keep a steady beat and gently touch your baby’s nose, chin or hand while singing. Repeat several times or use a familiar nursery song and substitute “maw” for all the words. Just play!
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