Babies have built-in rhythm

Music is wonderfully human

I have two grandchildren, one age 9 months and the other 18 months. Both children, from the time they could hold their heads up, displayed an innate sense of music, particularly when the music being played had a certain beat.

Often, when looking after either child, the radio is playing in the background with a variety of talk and music interspersed. Now and then a music track is played that catches the attention of one of the children. He or she stops what they are doing and begin to jig or sway to the rhythm of the music. It does not happen with all the music tracks or with all the music tracks that have a beat, just an occasional track.

This music jigging caused me to do a bit of digging on the net and I was quite surprised by the amount of research carried out on the subject. It seems the ability to follow a beat is called beat induction. Neither bonobo monkeys or chimpanzees, our closest primate relatives, are capable of beat induction. It is considered both a uniquely human trait and a cognitive building block of music.

Research indicates newborn babies enter the world kicking, screaming and already able to feel the beat…