New Delhi, May 23 -- When her daughter was born sixteen years ago, Anushka Govias-Smith, 46, sang "heart songs" to her, and continued through her childhood. "I would make up my own lyrics to the tunes of popular nursery rhymes," she says. Her daughter, Eliana Talise, would respond with her own invented songs. "The songs were spontaneous, from the heart, meant to be enjoyed in the moment," says Govias-Smith, who shifted from Bengaluru to Linlithgow, Scotland some years ago, and works as a sustainability manager with a healthcare provider.

The impact of these heart songs, however, was lasting. Now a high school student, Talise credits these early musical exchanges-along with time spent in the studio with her musician father-as foundational...