Betsy Stern Kids' Music: Blog

I work with and perform concerts for kids starting at around age 3 months. People often ask how a 3-month old can appreciate music, let alone learn it. I wish I could share with everyone the experience of seeing these babies respond with such animation to rhythm. They rock back and forth in perfect time. They shake shakers in perfect time. It's really amazing to observe how tuned in they are to sound and rhythm. They often start to sing before they talk. (I've had parents comment to me about this, wondering where their child learned a song that they've never played at home.)
Sometimes the babies crawl up to me while I'm playing the guitar and put their hand over mine as I strum and pick. Their eyes light up and I let them explore the guitar as I play. This is how I learned. Our instruments were out all over the house. There was music playing all the time, whether live or recorded. I heard music from the time I was born. Because both my parents were musicians, music was the most fundamental [...]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibWB_6m7M9k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGLSaXz2cL8

The following are links to the songs I've finished for my new kids' CD. All songs will be available for download from iTunes.
 
http://betsysternkidsmusic.com/audio/Au_clair_de_la_lune_hifi.mp3  (If you like French, you might like this one!)
 
http://betsysternkidsmusic.com/audio/Mary_Mack_M1b-f-Q6C4S1X-16_hifi.mp3

I'm able to get in 6-9 hours a week in at the studio (which, with my schedule, is amazing!), and just finished the roughs for the first song. Recording is very different than live performance, but I love both. I'm excited about the CD and will be back in the studio on Sunday for a long day session. There will be a mix of styles as well as instrumentation. For my mom I'm including (the piece I just finished) an arrangement that's influenced by Early Music for a traditional French piece. I had a lot of fun playing keyboards on it. I'm planning to release the songs in batches of 2 or 3 through iTunes and other distribution channels before releasing the whole CD. I'll post more details here.

I remain stunned at what I observe so often with kids 3 months to 5 years when they are exposed to music from all over the world. I played a song from Zimbabwe a couple weeks ago, a song I learned as a child, and the kids were up and dancing instantly. Grown-ups ask whether foreign language is a problem, [...]