Bluop! – a sonic experience for babies
Date: Saturdays
Time: Depending on age groups
Venue: Goodman Arts Centre
Programme Synopsis
Listening and sound making are key to our lil’ ones socio-emotional development. From infancy, our children interact and play with sounds through objects found in the environment. But more importantly, our babies naturally want to communicate with their adult counterparts. Psychologist Colwyn Trevarthen, in the theory of intersubjectivity, has argued from the 1970s and more recently in the millennium that babies are born with the capacity to seek social communion with others beyond responding to their fundamental needs.
Music is a key process in seeking this communion. Together with Stephen Malloch, a musician and researcher in psychoacoustics, the theory of communicative musicality was conceived where baby talk, or protoconversations, was observed to exhibit features of musicality. With these theories as bases, Natalie Alexandra Tse, the founder of LittleCr3atures designed a programme for babies where they can experience unadulterated free play while exploring sonic qualities of objects.
Key to this experience is the interaction between babies-adults, as intersubjectivity is only possible in relation to others. For babies, their primary caregivers are their main attached figures. Participating in sonic experiences with their adult allows comfort to be bred through familiarity. This familiarity translates into autonomous exploration for the babies over time.
As such, the programme has been developed in a way to allow for the following, through the impetus of sound:
- Free play and exploration
- Adult-child bonding and interaction
- Experience, exploration and eventual experimentation of sonic objects and ideas through the parameters of quality, pulse and narrative – key concepts of the theory of communicative musicality
Babies and their adults may expect:
- Consistent experiences in terms of programme structure
- Each session follows a similar structure and is based on improvisation, thus allowing for the flexibility to respond to babies’ nature and needs spontaneously
- Repetition is important for young children. Apart from the retention of the experience, familiarity breeds comfort, comfortable babies feel secure, and are
- more likely to move on from experiencing, to active exploration, and eventual creative experimentation
- Live music performance and interaction by acclaimed, touring musician (and some guests at times)
- To play with classroom instruments such as shakers, bells, tambourines etc.
- To sing together
- Doesn’t matter if you’re belting “oohs” and “aahs” or humming cosily to your lil’ one
- Sing, move, dance, jam and improvise with our hearts!
Sessions will be conducted by Natalie herself, who will be using her primary instrument, the guzheng to facilitate the experiences. From time to time, Natalie will also bring in other instruments as little surprises for babies and adults alike!
*Once classes are formed and filled, there may be further differentiation of age groups. In a nutshell, we aim to have children of similar ages and development in the same group.