C&G Baby Club's Sound of Happy

Advertorial brought to you by C&G baby club

When it comes to our babies, happiness is one thing we want them to feel. Smiles are one thing we want to see on their faces, and laughter is one thing we want to hear flooding through the household. 

There are so many things that can help make those smiles beam and help create laughter. From the wooshing of a toy plane, to a raspberry blown on the stomach, or the words "Peekaboo" shouted out as you peep out from your hands.

It has always been easy to make Lily smile. Blowing raspberries have always been a winner, and she just can't stop herself from giggling when she hears another baby laugh. 

C&G baby club have set out on a mission to help make our babies happy. Working alongside psychologists and scientists, mums and babies, and the high profile singer and songwriter Imogen Heap, they have come up with the perfect way to create those smiles. That is through the world's first ever Sound of Happy Song.

The song contains sounds and melodies that relate to children, making them want to smile and giggle and create a great feeling of happiness inside. 

The Sound of Happy Team started work on the song by asking parents to upload the sounds that made their children smile and laugh, onto the Cow and Gate baby club page . Some of the most popular sounds included sneezes, animal sounds and baby laughter. Imogen then incorporated these sounds into songs. They explored changes in tempo, rhythms, patterns, pitches, performance cues and musical devices.

The next step was to test the noises and songs on babies for a period of three months, to see which ones had the best reaction. They looked for reactions such as vocalisations, changes in heart rate, movements and facial expressions, to the see which parts of the songs worked and which didn't. It would be these results that would all be put together to create a final song, that was made up of the parts most favoured by babies.

I think to have a song that creates happiness is a great thing. There have been many times when Lily was a young baby and nothing would work when it came to making her happy. To have a song that I could put on, that would instantly cheer her up, and help with that happiness would have been great. Even now there are times when Lily is really tired, or having an off day, when having a fun, happy song for her to boogie to, is going to be fantastic!

A few weeks ago Lily and I attended an event in London where we got to hear the song. This was the final stage for testing. The song was definitely filled with sounds that Lily loves. The song included things that excite Lily such as trains and aeroplanes, and also has one of her favourite sounds, which is POP. Its a really clever song to include things that all children relate to, and get excited about. 

At the start of the event we listened to the song in groups of 4, then again in groups of 2, and then again as a large group. It took a few times for Lily to listen to it before she was loving the song and bopping up and down to it. I think mostly she was a little shy as when she was sat on my lap I could feel her little body thinking about moving to the music.

On the day I felt the song was very catchy and even I enjoyed it. It certainly made Lily happy and seeing her happy made me happy. So the Sound of Happy was definitely spreading. The event ended by popping a big canister of confetti all over everyone which all the children loved. Lily mostly loved picking it up and throwing it into the air. 

Overall the process of making the song took 8 months and you can see all of this in the making of the song on www.soundofhappy.com 

The song has now been released on Spotify and Soundcloud and since the song has been released we have been listening to it at home. As soon as Lily hears it come on she will run to my computer where it is being played. She then starts to bop up and down and then that turns into her moving around the room dancing. The song definitely makes her happy. 

Im so pleased that this song has been made and you can Listen to the song here: http://www.soundofhappy.com/

Advertorial brought to you by C&G baby club