The Bad Way to Teach Music to Babies - Dubious YouTube Channels & Bleeping Toys

[Music] spare a thought for the poor babies of this world all they're trying to do is make sense of everything going on around them a never-ending barrage of words and sensations surrounded by a whole world of confusing stimuli yet somehow they managed to put it all together walking and talking within three years babies are learning machines yet judging from the majority of so-called developmental toys and videos they're only capable of understanding music if it's delivered in ludicrously simplified doses toy companies turn out bleeping junk shaped like musical instruments under the guise of making learning fun while TV and internet channels produce musical content that is sometimes of shockingly poor quality there's also a strange prejudice against sharp notes what's wrong with sharp notes where we expect babies to crack the incredibly complex nuances and semiotic of speech on the one hand on the other our musical expectations seem no higher than the ability to mimic doremi facility dough so in this video I'm calling out the assumptions I think are incorrect and who I think the worst offenders are so I should probably mention that my household has recently expanded to include twin boys who are now four months old so I have a horse in this race and I'm surprised at the lack of teaching literature relevant to this age group and don't worry I'm not gonna go crazy on you blasting all nursery rhymes and musical toys out there when well-crafted that can be educational and entertaining but I do find myself scratching my head when I'm unable to find a glockenspiel that has 12 notes to the scale and more than one octave I just want to play my babies too Back to the Future thing okay here I am in my studio back to the future let's do this [Music] so when sharp notes are removed the instrument is suddenly limited to one key C major and therefore it's not possible to play a wrong note if we're judging by early 19th century standards but why do this well there are a couple of reasons one is marketing adults who don't have any musical training will often think that a harmonious sounding toys are more appropriate because lord knows dissonance is bad for babies that they'd interpret this not for what it is an interesting noise but for something negative and frightening what so far for me the evidence for this is non-existent no matter what chords and melodies I play to my babies I've not yet managed to find a combination of notes that's upset them in any way whatsoever usually they just stare at me fascinated with their eyes wide open and for the skeptical I'd say this any baby that's ever heard a washing machine fine hairdryer Hoover or car engine has already been subjected to a level of dissonance far beyond the capabilities of any acoustic instrument and if you've ever driven with your baby in the car and he didn't totally lose his mind with fear then you're safe to blame some diminished fifths [Music] and it's not like you have much choice anyway I mean check out the dissonance of this piece of crap another more understandable assumption is that we should start babies off only by exposing them to very simple things that the introduction of musical complexity can happen as they grow older but this is a missed opportunity when we consider how babies learn spoken languages research in this area emphasizes the importance of parents speaking or reading directly to their children as much as possible this involves the use of complex sentences from day one and from this babies pick up a field for language gradually understanding its purpose and its rule sets they can discriminate all the sounds of all languages no matter what country we're testing and what language we're using and that's remarkable because you and I can't do that we're culture-bound listeners so the question arises when do those citizens of the world turn into the language bound listeners that we are and the answer before their first birthdays here's one study presented by dr. Anne Fernald the director of the language learning lab at the Stanford psychology department that shows different stages of a child's development from eighteen to thirty months this example is of a child whose parents regularly spoke to him from birth and you're gonna see how he picks up speed in understanding you'll see the stimulus underneath his picture when the dots are read he's on the wrong picture when the dots are blue he's moved to the right picture where's the doggy can you see it hey pretty good next step 30 months it's great he nails it and he knows it and gives this cocky little smile where's the doggy can you find in here we can see here that he's already begun to jump ahead of the request because he doesn't need to ponder the meaning of the first two words where's the he's gone as far as to deduce the direction of the sentence and has then combined it with a lightning-quick assessment of his surroundings I'm being told to look for something I bet it will pop up on this screen with the wider vocabulary he's able to dedicate his brain to new problems so with all this in mind are we really saying that children with this level of brain sophistication can't handle 5 extra notes should we not be exposing them as quickly as possible to all kinds of keys core combinations and patterns so that they develop the same level of musical intuition during this unique once-in-a-lifetime learning period in fact why even exposed them to only Western tonality why not Persian tonality the gamelan Vietnamese chamber music micro tonality etc etc well thankfully we don't have to leave that question unanswered it's with the similar frame of mind that the musician Rick Beato decided to document his experiments with his own children playing them an error of complex music a day from birth he found that doing this resulted in a dramatic improvement in his child's musical intuition he since released numerous videos where his son displays an astonishing level of tonal recognition and perfect pitch so moving on judging from a large portion of the products out there another assumption that seems to underpin commercial attitudes towards musical education is that quality doesn't really matter because babies don't know any better I've already mentioned those toys with cheep squawking speakers but what about Nursery Rhyme channels on YouTube again the quality here varies massively case in point hoopla kids a channel with millions of views and subscribers channels like these are a dime a dozen because the music is all public domain and all that's required is L grade animation to convince parents it's worth watching I mean look at the state of that belt hopefully babies can take this warped perspective with a grain of salt but there's loads of other lazy errors and problematic decision making going on here let's start with the minor one the wheels of the bus [Applause] [Music] so did you hear us well the first bit is fine but then they go rogue by shifting into what's called a relative minor key I don't really understand this when you repeat the phrase in minor it sounds pensive as if new information has just been delivered I mean our baby is meant to question whether the wheels are really turning round and round is this a dark reimagining for those thinking this is just pointless in the picking um how do I say this go to the back of the classroom I've ordered your dunce hat if the creators of children's programming don't understand basic harmonic grammar and how musical language is constructed then who knows what sort of bad lessons they're accidently passing on to highly attentive babies let's look at hoopla kids version of five little ducks a staple tune and teaching kids to count [Music] okay well zipping forward I hope I'm not spoiling the surprise when I tell you that this keeps happening each time the Ducks come back there's one less and eventually none come back then they get you with this creepy existential absurdity so I'm not really certain whether they've decided to do this normally the format of the rhyme changes here with the mother duck getting on for our stew find the babies herself it's not like they had to write anything new and then they went and altered the ending [Music] Oh fantastic and now we're enforcing gender stereotypes - it takes the authority of a daddy duck to keep everyone in line so in conclusion when babies are able to eat you don't start them off with fast food when teaching them to speak you don't teach them slang or garbled pronunciation and if you came across a YouTube channel that claimed to help babies speak and it pronounced things like Al Motta yawn or hungry then you think this isn't good enough so here are three rules of thumb I'm gonna be using from now on 1 be selective about the stuff that's branded for kids a lot of the time it's just incredibly low-quality garbage made by complacent amateurs looking to make a bit of money - don't be afraid to play music of all types - your kids they have learning genius before the age of 1 and 3 and I'm literally unable to find this contradicted anywhere interacting with your children by banging on a drum or playing an instrument or singing to them in person trumps everything else and if they display a love of music down the line you'll know that you gave them the best possible helping hand now I'm gonna go grab some hoisin sauce and a few spring onions and you can be assured that no matter how much you quack quack daddy ducks never coming back back if you like my diet drive subscribe [Music]

Channel: Tantacrul

Views: 433,162

Keywords: infant brain development, tantacrul, teaching music to babies, Rick Beato, music toys for kids, music toys for babies, teaching babies music, music for babies to learn, baby brain development music, baby brain development video, educational music for babies, music theory, infant brain development music, rick beato perfect pitch, perfect pitch

Id: 9DiHy5ZHzN0

Length: 9min 41sec (581 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 07 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/Armedes]

There's a form of irony present where the author criticizes repetitive simple melodies, yet blankets the entirety of a 10 minute video with the most bland lullaby ever composed on repeat.