Thursday, October 16, 2014

Language as Singing

People are astonished that children of cultures where the spoken language is actually intoned -- China, most notably -- have a better sense of musical pitch than the children of "plain" spoken cultures.

Where is the surprise?  If you were the parent of a singing-culture baby that infant would have heard you singing to her from day one.  Thus the ear develops as a function of the everyday exchange with another human being.

Wow.  Are we getting far from that!

In my experience, by the time an infant is 3 months old it is already too easily distracted to pick up the auditory signal pure and simple.

It would be nice if more people believed me.  I can teach you how to teach your newborn to sing --  no kidding.