What is Musical Intelligence and how to enhance it?

Musical Intelligence is a sensitive territory in which the creative and artistic essence of the human being is represented. An area that also has its own and universal language that we should all enhance, that every child should have within their reach. At the same time, few abilities require such sensitivity and such subtle mastery of rhythm, timing, timbres and tones…

Until now, no one has been able to locate in history the specific moment in which the first musical expression emerged. Anthropology, in fact, has argued that music has always been there, forming part of our evolutionary history, imprinted in a very special corner of our brain. In fact, it is known that 40 thousand years ago there were already flutes with several holes, like those found in excavations in Germany.

Likewise, and as a curiosity, there are works that already venture to talk about this symbolic capacity of the Neanderthals, where they were able to pierce animal phalanges with an unforeseen purpose: to use them as flutes to create music. It is as if somehow the power of sound, music and chants – whether for ceremonial, magical or recreational purposes – was always something specific to our species and our first cousins. Something that in essence seemed to have an exclusive purpose: to unite us in social groups.

We cannot forget that, as neurologists inform us, music is one of the areas that gives us the most pleasure, just like food or sex. Every musical expression is a channel for our emotional language and furthermore, as a study carried out by Gottfried Schlaug, a German neurologist, revealed to us, Music promotes structural changes in our brain, enhancing the development of gray matter.

Working on our musical intelligence is therefore an exceptional way to enhance many other areas of our life.

Musical Intelligence and Howard Gardner

More than thirty years have passed since Howard Gardner published his reference work: “ Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences.” Today We have all heard of the theory of multiple intelligences and of those 9 human capacities where Musical Intelligence, of course, has always had a special position for being in itself its own language and a corner for the expression of sensibilities.

We are not going to go into the validity or otherwise of this classification here. Something we all already know is that Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences theme is an aspect that is as praised as it is criticized. by those who defend a single intelligence factor (Spearman’s G factor). Be that as it may, something that this approach has allowed us to do is see the intellect in a much broader way, to the point of revolutionizing– for good– the world of pedagogy and education.

Regarding Musical Intelligence, Howard Gardner states in his books that in reality We are facing a separate intellectual competition, whose function can be located in a particular area of ​​the brain. Thus, while linguistic abilities are lateralized “almost” exclusively in the left hemisphere, most musical abilities are concentrated in the right hemisphere in most people.

On the other hand, something that Noam Chomsky himself has always suggested to us is that people are genetically predisposed to communication and learning articulate language. Howard Gardner is not far behind and tells us something that many experts also agree on: Newborn children are also naturally predisposed to music and those elements that define it, such as tone, melody, rhythm…

However, Gardner cites Jeanne Bamberger, a musician and psychologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an expert who insists that “Musical thinking implies its own rules and limitations and cannot be assimilated to simple linguistic or logical-mathematical thinking.”. We would therefore be faced with a type of capacity, of intelligence that should be enhanced from very early on in the human being.

How can we enhance Musical Intelligence?

We know that There are people who are born with a natural ability for music. In fact, we have amazing examples, such as the case of Anthony Thomas “Tony” DeBlois, a young man who is blind and has Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), who masters more than 20 musical instruments and plays more than 8,000 compositions from memory.

Now, the fact of coming into the world without having that early and amazing interest in the world of music does not mean in any way that we cannot have good Musical Intelligence. What is needed is a family and educational environment that facilitates a natural approach to this discipline, there where to develop the creative aspects of music, where to work on this type of language where the emotional world, curiosity, rhythmic patterns, songs are combined…

The Liverpool Academy of Performing Arts, created by Paul McCartney, for example, upholds this same philosophy.

Skills to work on to enhance Musical Intelligence

There are many musicians, psychologists and educators who affirm something really positive and that we should take into account: music is a factor of well-being and a channel to improve children’s self-esteem. Not only does it encourage creativity, but improves attention, reduces anxiety, promotes reflection and improves social relationships.

Therefore, it never hurts to introduce the little ones early to that musical universe where they can work on the following skills:

Identify the rhythm, tone, melody of a piece of music.Develop the ability to play a song or even modify it.Enhance the ability to connect emotionally with a melody, a piece of music or a song. Know various musical genres. Know how to identify instruments.Enhance the ability to improvise sounds with rhythm using any type of object.Ability to compose music and songs.

To conclude, musical expression is a natural form of human communication, it’s a rhythmic flow that has captivated us since the beginning of time and that, in turn, has the ability to improve us as a person, to promote our brain development. Let us then provide adequate means and resources so that the little ones have this power within their reach, this mode of expression with which to enrich their lives much more.

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Bibliographic references

Pirfano, Iñigo (2009) “Musical Intelligence”. Platform: Madrid

Gardner, Howard (2011) “Multiple Intelligences: theory in practice”, Paidós Ibérica