What is MUSICAL INTELLIGENCE

  • Jul 26, 2021
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What is musical intelligence and examples

Music is a universal phenomenon and present in all cultures. The musical abilities are considered as musical intelligence since in 1983 Howard Gardner expand the concept of intelligence by identifying different types of intelligences, 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, keep reading our Psychology-Online article: What is musical intelligence and examples.

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Index

  1. What is rhythmic musical intelligence
  2. Characteristics of musical intelligence
  3. Musical intelligence: examples
  4. Musical intelligence: activities
  5. Musical intelligence test

What is rhythmic musical intelligence.

The psychologist Howard Gardner, in the 1980s, developed his Theory of multiple intelligences. In it, he rejects the unitary conception of intelligence and identifies and defines even

eight types of intelligences that we people possess. 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 for both rhythm and tone and timbre.

Musical Intelligence: Howard Gardner

Howard Gardner's musical intelligence is related to one's abilities with respect to music and any other form of rhythmic expression. Understand the skills 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. Since infants, there is the ability to babble and imitate tones and volume of sounds of other people. From the age of two, different tones are emitted voluntarily 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 lobe. In the following article you will find more information about Music and children's brain development.

What is musical intelligence and examples - What is rhythmic musical intelligence

Characteristics of musical intelligence.

The characteristics of musical intelligence are as follows:

  • Ability to perceive musical forms and recognize different rhythmic patterns.
  • Ease of learning of songs and rhythms of these. Normally, people with this intelligence enjoy, whistling, humming or singing.
  • Capacity for imitation in song, melody and its rhythms. Capture of musical nuances and voice quickly and easily.
  • Ability to recognize and distinguish different instruments, the pitches and notes they produce, as well as to identify if they are out of tune.
  • Inclination to play one or more instruments musicals. It also includes the facility to play an instrument without having done it before and to compose, due to the ability to understand music.
  • Sensitivity to appreciate any sound in the environment, so that 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 listened to some notes and also to remember and memorize them.
  • Preference for performing 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 music history.

Musical intelligence: examples.

The following personalities constitute some examples of musical intelligence:

  • Ludwig van Beethoven: 18th century German composer, conductor and pianist. He is considered one of the great composers of music, having a great influence on the later development of the musical scene 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 to compose.
  • Anthony Thomas "Tony" DeBlois: is a blind American jazz musician with autism spectrum disorder. 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: She was an African American blues and jazz singer, songwriter, and pianist. He learned to play the piano at the age of three without having received classes, only by observing and listening. From this age he already began to stand out for his exceptional talent, until he 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 from day to day. Some of them would be an adolescent person who improvise rap lyrics and rhythms, a boy or girl who from childhood with everyday elements and spontaneously rhythmically strikes different elements of the cooks like a pot with kitchen sticks or people who associate moments and aspects of their life with different songs or melodies.

What is musical intelligence and examples - Musical intelligence: examples

Musical intelligence: activities.

The different multiple intelligences, including musical intelligence, are not fixed and immovable, but can be developed by stimulating and practicing different activities. According to Gardner, in our culture there is little development of a musical type from childhood, unless you have exceptional talent or have 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 the rest of Gardner's types of intelligences. In addition, it stimulates cognitive capacities such as memory and attention and is a positive element in the development of emotional, individual and relationship aspects with the person's environment. That is why it is important to stimulate it, but How to develop musical intelligence?

Activities to develop musical intelligence

Next, 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 that 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 interpreted through whistles, hums, voice or beat playback 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.
  • Do different daily activities with musicAs well as adapting and choosing music according to the tasks that are carried out, the moment and the emotional state is another of the activities to develop musical intelligence.
  • Dance to the beat 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 in the environment where one person performs 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 sounds in the environment 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 the song is found, the fragment that contains it has to be sung. This game is popularly known as "rage".
  • Create a song individually or in a group, for this it is necessary to write a letter and define the rhythm based on what you want to express.
  • Go to different activities such as concerts, improvisation sessions and recitals is another of the activities 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 unfamiliar to you.
  • Sign up for a choir, to classes to learn a musical instrument, to dance, to batucada, etc.
What is musical intelligence and examples - Musical intelligence: activities

Musical intelligence test.

You will be able to know if your musical intelligence stands out with this multiple intelligences test. With the result, you will be able to know which of the 8 intelligences, according to the theory of Howard Gardner, is the intelligence that predominates in you:

  • Linguistic Intelligence
  • Logical Intelligence - Mathematics
  • Visual Intelligence - Spatial
  • Kinesthetic or Body-kinetic Intelligence
  • Musical intelligence
  • Interpersonal intelligence
  • Intrapersonal intelligence
  • Naturalistic Intelligence

This article is merely informative, in 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.

If you want to read more articles similar to What is musical intelligence and examples, we recommend that you enter our category of Cognitive psychology.

Bibliography

  • Concepción, M. M. M. (2009). Psychology and Music: musical intelligence and aesthetic development. University Digital Magazine, 10(11), 1-13.
  • Plaza, J. L. TO. (2012). Creative development in Music Education: from artistic genius to collaborative work. Education, 37(1), 31-44.
  • Snyder, S. (1997). Developing musical intelligence: Why and how. Early Childhood Education Journal, 24(3), 165-171.
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