Ella Mae sings “An American Trilogy” by Elvis Presley
– YOUTUBE video
Summary:
This is a five-and-a-half minute YouTube video posted on July 2013, with more than 7 million views. The clip shows Ella Mae, a 20
month-old girl, singing
Elvis Presley's version of 'An American Trilogy' in the back seat of her dad's car.
To capture the performance, Ella´s father set
up a camera on the back seat and focused it on the toddler's rear-facing car
seat. Throughout the
video Ella tries to keep the interaction with her father, calling “daddy” before and during her cover song, while
enthusiastically raising her both arms, as he frequently answers her back.
During her rendition, Ella tries to sing, mimicking the pitch and
melodic contour of the song, even though she is not old enough to pronounce some of
the words. She also bobs her head and hand to the exact beat, demonstrating
great timing. At minute 4:20 to 4:37 Ella surprisingly
reveals herself as an orchestra conductor.
Nevertheless, the most interesting scene is the way she conveys emotions
while singing the song´s chorus, through stirring facial
expressions and movements. In those moments she is totally absorbed by music,
truly enjoying and feeling it, without any need to interact with her daddy. This
is Ella Mae entertaining us and capturing our attention and admiration!
Reflections:
The first fact that I noticed is how happy Ella feels in her father´s car.
It seems to be an intimate father-daughter relationship, favoring a caring and
encouraging context for learning and development. And listening is learning! When
children are exposed to music, even passive listening to music (like in the
car), they incorporate an implicit knowledge of tonality, rhythmic form and
musical structure of their own culture. As
we can see in the video, when the music starts to play, it appears to be that
Ella is already familiar with Elvis´ repertoire, as a result of being exposed
to her father´s musical selection and preferences. It is noteworthy that music
has an impact even before the child is born. Some studies indicate that fetuses
can hear and react to sound by moving (1, 2).
Ella is a 20 month old toddler who is developing in a
variety of domains, including music. While listening to Elvis’ song, she uses
her singing voice, elongating vowels in a musical way, and moves her hand
rhythmically as a conductor. Sometimes, when the music is more arousing and
emotional, Ella shows facial expression of pure enjoyment and pleasure.
According to Robert Jourdain (3), melodic contour is child´s first musical
competence. The author further outlines that “the child will repeat the same
melodic figure again and again, holding its overall contour, but distorting the
intervals between tones by stretching them wide during one repetition, then
flattening them the next”. In the second year of life, infants´ melodies are
unstable as toddlers lack strong understanding of the individual tones that
constitute melodies. Consequently, they have difficulties in reproducing
melodies. First children need to learn how to isolate sounds, make
categorizations and perceive distinct pitches.
At the perception level, Gestalt principles
determine that music´s features are
analyzed and grouped according to their similarity, proximity, good
continuation, and common fate, in order to create a coherent and meaningful
“sound object” (i.e., a mental representation of physical sound). On the other
hand, there is also a Top-down processing in which the perception can be
modulated by listener´s experience, knowledge, intentions and selective
attention in interaction with the listening context (4).
How can we explain Ella´s facial expressions of musical enjoyment while
singing?
First, we can ponder that those behaviors could have been learned previously
by watching and imitating Elvis. Second, this song
was familiar to Ella; and studies suggest that
familiarity with a particular piece of music increases
subject´s liking for it (5). By actively listening to familiar songs, episodic
memory evokes what has been storage and expectation rises. As mentioned by Robert Jourdain, the listener “awaits the exact
replication of the song, its exact notes and exact beats. Music generates
emotion by setting up anticipations and then fulfilling them. Pleasure is the fulfillment
of anticipation”. Ella Mae knew the song and could predict what followed in the
music, resulting in anticipatory arousal.
In conclusion, children are born with innate musical abilities (6, 7), but infant
musicality will be further developed through parental musical involvement and
encouragement. Music activities in infancy are very important to baby´s brain
as it will develop other domains as language, abstract thought and working
memory system.
References:
(1)
S. N. Graven and J.V. Browne, Sensory
development in the fetus, neonate and infant: introduction and overview. Newborn
and Infant Nursing Reviews, 8 (2008) 169-172
(2)
http://www.babycenter.com/0_music-and-your-unborn-child_6547.bc
(3) R. Jourdain, “Music, The Brain, And Ecstacy: How Music
Captures Our Imagination”, Harper Perennial, New York, NY, (1997)
(4) C. Alain and L. J. Bernstein, From sounds to meaning:
the role of attention during auditory scene analysis, Current Opinion in
Otolaryngology & Head & Neck Surgery, 16 (2008) 485-489
(5) I. Peretz, D. Gaudreau, A.M. Bonnel, Exposure effects
on music preference and recognition, Memory and Cognition, 26 (1998) 884-902
(6)
S. E. Trehub, Musical predispositions in infancy. Annals of the New York
Academy of Sciences, 930 (2001) 1-16.
(7)
L. Gooding, and J.M. Standley, Musical Development and Learning Characteristics
of Students: A Compilation of Key Points From the Research Literature Organized
by Age, Applications of Research in Music Education, 30 (2011) 32-45
