Pregnancy tips Baby Hears the Beat

I've always been amazed how children love to move to music. There may be a reason they pick up the beat so easily. Here is an article about how we might be wired fo rhythm. Read more:



www.wired.com



From the article:



McMaster University auditory development specialist Laurel Trainor agreed with Honing that beat induction underlies musical rather than linguistic faculties, but cautioned that it could still be learned —

albeit much earlier than expected.



"Infants are hearing from the sixth prenatal month," she said. "They are certainly getting a lot of experience with rhythmic sounds before birth, such as the mother’s heartbeat," and even loud music.

But whether in our hearts or learned from a mother’s heart, beat induction’s musical essence raises questions about the purpose of music.



Perhaps, write Honing and colleagues, musical capacity provides some as-yet-unidentified evolutionary advantage, with the ability to process it a basic part of humanity’s biological heritage.



"I’d be very intrigued to go one step up and see if babies are also sensitive to meter, as opposed to only beat induction," he said. "I’d like to see if they can appreciate the difference between a 2/4 and 4/4

beat, or a march and a waltz."