When you have a fussy baby on your hands (or in your arms), you probably have a few go-to tactics that you try, especially once you've found out what works best for your little one. Shushing and talking are common approaches, but a new study finds something parents have been doing for generations may actually be twice as effective. It's singing.

Researchers at the University of Montreal compared soothing tactics on 30 healthy babies between 6 and 9 months old to see how they affected each infant's emotional self-control. To do so, they played recordings of Turkish songs and someone speaking Turkish and observed which kept baby calm for longer. (They chose Turkish to ensure the words and tune of the music would be unfamiliar to the babies.)

When listening to music, the babies were calm for about nine minutes on average, compared to three and a half to four minutes of calm when listening to speech.

What's so effective about music? The study found babies can be carried away and entranced by music similarly to adults. But because infants can't dance or move to the music, they don't show it in the same way.

So when you're next struggling to quiet your baby, try playing a song or, better yet,  singing. It's a free and effective way to calm your child, not to mention an excellent bonding experience regardless of your background or musical prowess.

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