The third in a series of developmental videos for babies
and toddlers, Baby Bach succeeds at delighting and stimulating young children.
Designed for children aged 1 - 36 months, this video is filled with colorful "real"
toys, objects, and scenes that babies truly love to look at, all to the sounds
of selected works of Bach.
Research has shown that classical music has a gently stimulating effect on
listeners, leading to improved physical and mental health. Baby Bach is meant
to introduce babies and toddlers to classical music, as well as provide interesting
visual stimuli.
The audio soundtrack contains selected musical pieces of Bach played with
instruments like the vibraphone, celeste, glockenspiel, toy piano, music box,
flute, and more. The result is a very pleasing soundtrack. Silly sound effects
accompany many of the toys and scenes. Also
included are 3 sets of scales that
demonstrate a key musical concept — timbre — using 9 instruments.
In keeping with the idea that Baby Bach is meant as a "video board book",
there are video page turns between scenes. An example short scene is a mouse
popping out of the holes of swiss cheese. The scenes are very simple, but anyone
familiar with babies will quickly see that they are carefully selected to be
ones babies will respond to the most. Kids will delight as a real baby plays
peek-a-boo on-screen, a large friendly-faced sun rocks back and forth, a toy
bear blows soap bubbles, coins are placed in a toy truck bank, and more. This
video features lots of spinning lights, lava lamp scenes, and interweaving items
— all things that babies like to watch. In keeping with the musical theme,
many featured scenes are of musical instruments. Kids watch a spinning top,
and later that same top slows down, falls, and rocks to a standstill, perfectly
timed to the end of a musical piece.
We love the trademark beginning, with the letters of the "baby bach"
logo appearing one by one. Parents can watch the video with their young children
and are free to name the objects they see because there are few vocals in the
video. Our baby and toddler "testers" all thoroughly enjoyed the video
— it brought lots of giggles and inspired one child to dance along.
Also available is an audio CD and cassette counterpart, named Baby Bach (see
our review). The music is gently stimulating
and can be played throughout the day while children are at play. Children beyond
toddlerhood will enjoy listening to Baby Bach as well.
Baby Bach and other products in the series (Baby
Mozart, Baby Einstein, as well as CDs
and audio tapes of Baby Bach and Baby Mozart) are available by calling (800)
793-1454, or at the Baby
Einstein web site.
