Music that chills out your kids or puts them to sleep

[DrummerMan]

God bless Erykah Badu. Really.

My 11 month old son HATES riding in the car. Probably between the claustrophobic hatred of being strapped into anything he gets from me, and the motion sickness he gets from my wife, he's not doing so good during the half hour plus car ride from my in laws back home at night. He lets us know this by screaming himself into practical hyperventilation during the entire ride, like, from the second we snap in the seat strap. Tried so many things to help it. Rarely anything makes it any better.

Anyway, my wife had this mix cd on in the car the other day and this Erykah Badu track comes on. It's called "In Love with You" and it's a duet with Stephen Marley. It's quite mellow. Just Nylon string guitar, bass, some finger snaps on 2 and 4, the 2 singers and a subtle funky clav on the choruses. So, the boy all of a sudden stops crying. The tune ends and something else comes on, just as mellow, but different. he starts crying again. She backs the track up to the Badu song again and he chills out. amazing.

Last night we were on our way back from the in laws again. Just like clockwork, he starts screaming. She tells me to put on the track. I crank it. Boom! He's quiet. I put it on repeat and listen to the track like 7 times on the way home. He fell asleep after the 2nd time, but I didn't want to risk anything. Un freaking believable!

I'm going to have to pull out some Erykah Badu cd's and test how much of it is that track and how much is her voice.

[;ivlunsdystf]

I have a Wire bootleg - early BBC sessions or something like that, late 1970s. It has an ongoing tape phase problem and generally sounds like too many gens of tape dubbing in its past. This recording was just the ticket when my kid was younger than 6 months. At a moderate/soft volume it created a sound environment that totally mellowed her out. If any of you are coping with a sub-6-months child and you want to give this a try, pm me and I'll up a copy somewhere.

[Jay Reynolds]

God bless Erykah Badu. Really.

My 11 month old son HATES riding in the car. Probably between the claustrophobic hatred of being strapped into anything he gets from me, and the motion sickness he gets from my wife, he's not doing so good during the half hour plus car ride from my in laws back home at night. He lets us know this by screaming himself into practical hyperventilation during the entire ride, like, from the second we snap in the seat strap. Tried so many things to help it. Rarely anything makes it any better.

Anyway, my wife had this mix cd on in the car the other day and this Erykah Badu track comes on. It's called "In Love with You" and it's a duet with Stephen Marley. It's quite mellow. Just Nylon string guitar, bass, some finger snaps on 2 and 4, the 2 singers and a subtle funky clav on the choruses. So, the boy all of a sudden stops crying. The tune ends and something else comes on, just as mellow, but different. he starts crying again. She backs the track up to the Badu song again and he chills out. amazing.

Last night we were on our way back from the in laws again. Just like clockwork, he starts screaming. She tells me to put on the track. I crank it. Boom! He's quiet. I put it on repeat and listen to the track like 7 times on the way home. He fell asleep after the 2nd time, but I didn't want to risk anything. Un freaking believable!

I'm going to have to pull out some Erykah Badu cd's and test how much of it is that track and how much is her voice.

Count yourself lucky. Imagine if it had been Katy Perry.
Also, try Jill Scott.

[Babaluma]

raymond scott - soothing sounds for babies
any dub reggae
steve hillage - rainbow dome musick

[DrummerMan]

Count yourself lucky. Imagine if it had been Katy Perry.
Also, try Jill Scott.

If it had been New Kids On The Block, they would've become my new personal heroes. Seriously.

[douglas baldwin]

My son, God bless him, never had a problem with settling down or mellowing out. But the musical connection between a musical parent and their child is a special thing no matter what. For us, it was Donovan and the Beatles. One day I was singing "Wear Your Love Like Heaven" and Taylor asked, "What's that song, Daddy?" And we were off to the races - Donovan's Greatest Hits, Beatles like mad, U2 and Sarah McLaughlin from his Mom, rap and hip-hop from his friends, heavy metal from the video games, TV commercials, and he's playing oboe in the school band.

Can you tell I'm one proud Daddy?

[aaronaustin]

I've got a live recording of my band and there's one track that almost always calms my 11mo. old daughter down. We listened to it 10 times on the way home from grandma's last night. I figure she heard the song a lot in utero. Who knows. Sometimes I'm a little sick of the song, but it's flattering that she seems to like my songwriting. We'll see how long it continues. She also seems to like Wilco's Sky Blue Sky.

[Slider]

I sing the Spiderman theme but in Chet Baker style.
Always works to get her to sleep.

[DrummerMan]

Wilco's Sky Blue Sky.

That was working well for the first 5 months for bath time, but kind of wore out it's effectiveness.

[dr.ona]

Brian Eno...Music for Airport I-IV.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz"Huh What?"zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..........

[junomat]

raymond scott - soothing sounds for babies

heh. i thought that was my secret


also:
Brian Eno - Apollo
Brian Eno - Music For Airports
Luna - Rendezvous
The Beach Boys - SMiLE

[ashcat_lt]

The eno stuff is too sparse. As was mentioned above, when something does happen it's kind of jarring.

My wife wanted to get the kid used to sleeping to Enya. More as a cue that it's sleepy time, and also just to block out our household noise during naptime (no door between LR and BR). I can't have Enya.

Sigur Ros worked out to be a good comprimise. When I get sick of them (not a whole lot of their stuff on the old jukebox) I pull up Cocteau Twins.

To actually get the kid to sleep it really doesn't matter what's playing. I just load up "Not Played Recently" on the old Media Player, flip to the frequency analyser visuals and dance with him a little. I've seen him fall asleep to Dead Kennedys, Ministry, Lorenzo's Tractor, and all kinds of horrible noises. His mom insists on "Redemption Song" over and over and over...

[kraigmason]

Just worked 2 nights in a row.
Thanksgiving night driving from Newport, RI to Providence, RI. (50 minute drive).
And last night.
Same trip. same music. same result.
both kids.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[AstroDan]

This thread is wide.

[ashcat_lt]

Just today he started to fall asleep to Ministry. Mazzy Star came on and he sort of woke up and started to get pissed off. Then the Misfits came on and he was OUT.