Why do babies love music so much?

Whether it'due south nursery rhymes, Mozart, Queen or Baby Shark, most babies are captivated by music. But what is information technology virtually these tunes that they're enjoying? Are all babies born musical? Where does their musicality come from (and when)? And tin music actually affect their development?

With a ba and a pa and a wheeeeeoooo, Tom Service is on a mission to find out. Here's some of the things we learned from this special edition of The Listening Service. Boop boop!

Our relationship with music starts long earlier we're born

Tom meets Dr Laurel Trainor, an expert on musical development in children and adults, who reveals how babies can start to hear the world around them months before birth. Nosotros larn not only that babies' auditory systems function from the sixth prenatal month, but babies actually start to course musical memories while still inside the womb. Hear more in this fact-packed clip.

Music is an agile feel for babies – and parents should get involved

"From their earliest days, infants are trying to engage actively in music," says Trainor. "As soon as they can start making responses, they do. Certainly towards the end of the first year, you can see overt signs that they are trying to engage in the music by singing forth, clapping, and moving their bodies."

Actively engaging with music helps children develop faster than but listening to it

So what can parents practise to help their children develop musically? They can start by getting stuck in. Trainor's research has revealed measurably dissimilar outcomes for children who engage with their parents in a music group, as opposed to those whose feel of music is merely passive.

"The infants in agile engagement music classes evidence superior early language learning," she says. "They're socially more than advanced, easier to soothe, and smile more than children [who are] only exposed to passive music listening."

However, the so-called 'Mozart upshot' probably doesn't exist

The idea that Mozart's music in particular is difficult-wired to make kids brainier is both popular and pervasive. But before you spend a fortune on downloads, listen to this.

"A number of years agone, in that location were some studies published that suggested that the music of Mozart was special and enhanced cognition, specially spatial cognition," says Trainor. "Unfortunately, at that place doesn't seem to be much evidence for this." The cognitive boost we get from music is much more likely to be to practice with mood, not genre. And it doesn't affair whether you're playing Mozart, Mahler or The Monkees.

"If yous play any music that people like and is happy, it gives an immediate boost to cognitive performance," says Trainor. "Probably what was measured in that initial report is that if you play something that's energetic and happy, nosotros basically get better immediately at everything we're doing."

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: babies are likely to prefer his jauntier numbers

So don't go hung upward on the soundtrack to playtime. Babies have neither the ability nor the motivation to differentiate between genres – unlike adults, who invariably insist on doing so, oft to their detriment.

Nosotros know quite a lot near the kind of music that babies prefer

Babies are stimulated nearly by music with a fast tempo that mimics their heart rates (which are much faster than those of adults). They also respond positively to rhythmic regularity and musical repetition. So while at that place's nothing special nearly Mozart, there'due south no doubt that some of his faster numbers would striking a junior audience'southward sugariness spot.

So, is there such a thing equally the perfect baby listening experience? In 2016, psychologists at Goldsmiths Higher teamed up with the singer-songwriter Imogen Heap to develop a mood-enhancing track for babies. They surveyed 2,300 parents and found that the sounds most likely to make infants happy included sneezing (51%), animal noises (23%) and baby laughter (28%).

The resulting track, The Happy Vocal, features all of these things – plus raspberries, rhythmic plosive sounds (like pa and ba) and that nippy tempo that babies love so much.

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The universal power of the lullaby

Not all baby music is about stimulation and happiness. In fact, in that location's a whole realm of music that'due south designed to destimulate babies. Going dorsum still further, we see that humans take been using this music to change children'southward moods and behaviours throughout history.

Lullabies have been used for thousands of years to soothe children to slumber. And, every bit far as we can tell, they're universal to all cultures. As Trainor explains: "Infants are really bad at controlling their state. They rely on caregivers to assistance them command their state, to at-home them down when they're tired and need to sleep." That'due south as true of infants at present every bit information technology was for those 5,000 years agone in Ancient Mesopotamia.

The science suggests that music of a slow tempo, with gratis motility and little change or surprise, turns off hurting receptors in our brains to ready us for sleep. "The lullaby is not usually just an auditory experience – it's actually a multi-sensory experience," adds Trainor. "Typically when you lot sing a lullaby... you're likewise holding and rocking the baby. The babe is getting simultaneous rhythmic information from the lullaby AND from the rocking."

Tom Service explores the fascinating art and science of writing music for tiny people in a special episode of The Listening Service. Subscribe now on BBC Sounds.

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