Music Seal

The Music Seal is our way of setting the rules for how the music boxes sound. Not all of them sound the same, but all of them sound like a music box.

Many of the pieces in a La Capseta app weren't written specifically for the audience they're meant for. A schoolyard song wasn't written to work as a lullaby. And the other way round: a lullaby can hardly be danced to, or sung in a ring with a few little friends. To make it work, each piece has to be arranged, and for the arrangements to always be right we need rules: the Music Seal.

The songs

They're the fundamental part of every La Capseta app. In dark mode, any app can work without pictures or animations, just with songs. But without songs, there's simply no app. For us, a song is a score specially adapted for an audience, played on a "Music Box" instrument that imitates the sound of a metal cylinder with pins plucking the teeth of the comb. All this is what the Music Seal sets out.

Folk, traditional songs and lullabies in the public domain.
They sound like a music box, the kind with a metal cylinder, and nothing else.
The melody is always recognisable: the first time it plays as it is, and when it changes, it is still itself.
Every song has a clear ending.
Nothing is added unless it can be heard: everything is checked by listening, not on paper.

For each age

	Baby (0–18 months)	Toddler (18–36 months)	Child (3+ years)
Pace	Slow or moderate	Moderate	Livelier
Notes	Few and long	A few more	As many as needed
Changes	Simple: mostly repetition	Few and clear	Freer
Aim	Calm and predictability	Recognising it	Interest and variety

The sound

It has a maximum volume that is never exceeded.
It doesn't play with headphones: the sound would be too close to the ears.
At the end, a goodbye song closes the session: never a sudden stop.

Where the songs come from and how they are made: The music.