Music is a universal phenomenon and present in all cultures. Musical abilities have been considered musical intelligence since Howard Gardner expanded the concept of intelligence in 1983, identifying different types of intelligence, present in all people. Despite this, musical intelligence continues to be forgotten and undervalued in our culture and education.
If you want to know more about musical intelligence, its characteristics, some examples of it and how you can develop it, continue reading our Psychology-Online article: What is musical intelligence and examples.
What is rhythmic musical intelligence
The psychologist Howard Gardner, in the 1980s, developed his . In it, he rejects the unitary conception of intelligence and identifies and defines even eight types of intelligence that we have as people. These capacities are present in all human beings in greater or lesser development, depending on the person. One of the intelligences that is part of this theory is musical intelligence.
Musical intelligence: definition
What is musical intelligence? The definition of musical intelligence states that it is one of the eight intelligences identified by Gardner. This intelligence is the ability related to capture, assimilation, discrimination, transformation and expression of forms related to music. This intelligence includes sensitivity to rhythm as well as tone and timbre.
Musical intelligence: Howard Gardner
Howard Gardner’s musical intelligence is related to the abilities one possesses regarding music and any other form of rhythmic expression. Understand the abilities to sing, listen to music, play instruments, analyze sounds and create music in general.
Musical intelligence is one of the first to develop from the birth of the person. From babies, there is the ability to babble and imitate tones and volume of other people’s sounds. From the age of two, different tones are voluntarily emitted and their own sounds are explored. Between the fourth and sixth year of life, the critical period of sensitivity in terms of tones and sounds is identified. Regarding the cerebral location of musical intelligence, the areas involved are mainly located in the right cerebral hemisphere, specifically, in the frontal and temporal lobes. In the following article you will find more information about .
Characteristics of musical intelligence
The characteristics of musical intelligence are the following:
- Ability to perceive musical forms and recognize different rhythmic patterns.
- Ease of learning of songs and their rhythms. Normally, people with this intelligence enjoy whistling, humming, or singing.
- Capacity for imitation in singing, melody and its rhythms. Capture musical nuances and voice quickly and easily.
- Ability to recognize and distinguish different instruments, the tones and notes they produce, as well as to identify if they are out of tune.
- Inclination to play one or more instruments musicals. Also included is the ease of playing an instrument without having done so before and of composing, due to the capacity for musical understanding.
- Sensitivity to appreciate any sound in the environment, so people are able to capture and distinguish various sounds in the environment, as well as their rhythms and patterns.
- Talent to recognize songs with just having heard a few notes and also to remember and memorize them.
- Preference for carrying out activities and tasks with music background.
- ability to express emotions and feelings through music, as well as sensitivity to capture and understand the emotions that are manifested through the musical medium.
- Ability to improvise through the voice or different musical instruments.
- Interest in different musical styles and its evolution, musical culture and the history of music.
Musical intelligence: examples
The following personalities constitute some examples of musical intelligence:
- Ludwig van Beethoven: composer, conductor and pianist of German origin from the 18th century. He is considered one of the great composers of music, having a great influence on the subsequent development of the musical panorama and evolution. He is an example of the independence of musical intelligence with hearing ability, since after becoming deaf at the age of 30 he continued composing.
- Anthony Thomas “Tony” DeBlois: is a blind and disabled American jazz musician. He began playing the piano at the age of two and currently plays 20 musical instruments and is able to memorize more than eight thousand different compositions.
- Nina Simone: was an African-American blues and jazz singer, songwriter, and pianist. She learned to play the piano at the age of three without having received lessons, just by observing and listening. From this age she began to stand out for her exceptional talent, until she became one of the great singers and pianists in the history of music.
However, there are also other examples of musical intelligence that we can find in everyday life. Some of them would be a teenage person who improvise rap lyrics and rhythmsa boy or girl who since childhood with everyday elements and spontaneously rhythmically hits different kitchen elements such as a pot with kitchen sticks or people who associate moments and aspects of their life with different songs or melodies.
Musical intelligence: activities
The different multiple intelligences, including musical intelligence, are not fixed and immovable abilities, but can be developed through stimulation and practice of different activities. According to Gardner, in our culture there is little musical development from childhood, unless one has exceptional talent or great opportunities. Likewise, musical creative development is not encouraged in the school years. The promotion of musical intelligence has been related to the development of Gardner’s other types of intelligence. In addition, it stimulates cognitive abilities such as memory and attention and is a positive element in the development of the person’s emotional, individual and relationship aspects with the environment. That is why it is important to stimulate it, but How to develop musical intelligence?
Activities to develop musical intelligence
Below, we show you 11 games and activities to develop musical intelligence that will help you work on musical intelligence in children and adults:
- Listen with attention and involvement to different musical compositions and try to identify the instruments that appear, the emotions they produce in you and try to reproduce the rhythms.
- Whistle, hum and sing different songs. It can also be done in the form of a game with more people, where different songs are performed by whistling, humming, voice or playing rhythm in the form of tapping and people have to guess which one it is. This activity encourages both the reproduction and imitation as well as the identification of musical pieces.
- Perform different daily activities with musicas well as adapting and choosing music according to the tasks being performed, the moment and the emotional state is another activity to develop musical intelligence.
- Dance following the rhythm of the music with musical compositions of different genres. Through dance, sensitivity to musical rhythm is also developed.
- Create and imitate rhythms. Play with people around you where one person makes a rhythm, the next person imitates it and adds one and so on. It can also be done with sounds instead of rhythms. In addition to musical intelligence, this game promotes memory.
- Pay attention to everyday sounds and the environment, looking for rhythms in them. You can also play with more people to imitate environmental sounds and guess them, such as the sound of a siren, a car engine, a dog barking, etc.
- Find words in songs. Another game that can be played is to divide into groups and look for songs that contain a certain word. Once you have found the song, you have to sing the fragment that contains it. This game is popularly known as “furor”.
- Create a song individually or in a group, to do this it is necessary to write a lyric and define the rhythm based on what you are trying to express.
- Go to different activities such as concerts, improvisation sessions and recitals is another activity to develop musical intelligence. This encourages the expansion of musical knowledge, as well as the exploration of new rhythms and melodies.
- Explore instruments and music from other cultures that are unknown to you.
- Sign up for a choirto classes to learn a musical instrument, to dance, to batucada, etc.
Musical intelligence test
You will be able to know if your musical intelligence stands out with this one. With the result, you will be able to know which of the 8 intelligences, according to Howard Gardner’s theory, is the intelligence that predominates in you:
This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
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Bibliography
- Concepción, MMM (2009). Psychology and Music: musical intelligence and aesthetic development. University Digital Magazine10(11), 1-13.
- Plaza, JLA (2012). Creative development in Musical Education: from artistic genius to collaborative work. Education37(1), 31-44.
- Snyder, S. (1997). Developing musical intelligence: Why and how. Early Childhood Education Journal24(3), 165-171.