Wow, it feels amazing to finally have this project completed. It’s hard to believe it was 3 years ago, but it started back in 2008 as a school assignment. My goal was to use research in the fields of music therapy, neonatology, and developmental psychology to guide me in the creation of an ideal lullaby recording.
I initially thought it would be an instrumental type of thing, but I learned that infants really prefer their mother’s voice. I wrote a very long and thorough paper on the subject, but ultimately, the album can be loosely described as a lullaby “karaoke” cd. It’s designed to encourage mothers (or any caregiver) to sing to their babies, and provides musical support for them to do so. Elisabeth Tinnes, the singer on the record and fellow MT-BC, sings each song a time or two, and then hums the melody with the accompaniment. The humming provides melodic and stylistic support to the caregiver who is actually with the baby.
From several sources, I learned that people are tentative about singing, even to babies. In part, this is because singing in general has become so professionalized. With shows like American Idol and America’s Got Talent ruling the televisions, it’s easy to see why someone might believe they should only sing if they are able to sing as well as, say, Kelly Clarkson. Luckily, babies have much different standards than the judging crew at Idol. They care more about the emotional content behind singing – not how many notes you can squeeze into one phrase. They want to hear mom’s voice more than anyone else’s. They want to know their needs are being acknowledged and attended to.
The goal of this album is to get as many moms and dads singing as possible. My hope is that many will use it to learn new songs, as well as to learn an approach to singing lullabies that is ideal for soothing a baby and building the infant/caregiver relationship.
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