MUSICAL INTELLIGENCE: CHARACTERISTICS AND HOW TO DEVELOP IT - ARTE - 2025

The musical intelligence is the ability we have to capture sounds and imitate them, be sensitive to the pace, discriminating qualities of sounds, listen, sing and perform songs and works, as well as a willingness to play instruments.

It corresponds to one of the intelligences proposed by the psychologist Howard Gardner in his model of multiple intelligences. This intelligence does not only mean having a good ear for music but also thanks to it, there is the possibility of developing ourselves culturally, spiritually and emotionally.

It is very likely that a person who already has this intelligence more developed, is interested in music and excels in it.

In addition, all intelligence needs others and in turn all areas of life need a series of intelligences. In other words, this intelligence requires other intelligences such as body-kinesthetic intelligence to be able to perform in arts such as dance.

Characteristics of musical intelligence

It is one of the intelligences proposed by Gardner, which is associated with a taste for music, as well as for singing, interpreting, composing and playing instruments, thanks to its ability to distinguish sounds, listen to rhythm, tone or chords.

These people have a sensitivity to sounds and rhythm, they imitate sounds and melodies, they transmit and capture emotions through music.

The development of musical intelligence implies the development of intelligences such as:

• the kinesthetic intelligence necessary for motor coordination when playing an instrument
• the logical-mathematical intelligence for the unity and harmony of the notes
• the linguistic intelligence necessary for musical language
• the spatial intelligence required for the temporal-spatial nature of music
• interpersonal intelligence to understand the emotions that are transmitted through music
• intrapersonal intelligence to understand our own emotions and be able to express them
• and naturalistic intelligence for the knowledge and understanding of the most relevant events in the life of a composer.

There are people who show a special interest in music, as well as a facility for learning and playing instruments, suggesting that in some way these people have a biological predisposition for music.

Thus, certain parts of the brain located in the right hemisphere play a fundamental role in musical perception and production, but this capacity is not located in a specific area as we can locate language, for example.

It is a fundamental ability when it comes to making sound patterns that can be associated later, being independent of hearing ability. It is a facility for the processing of sound information, as well as a characteristic ability to create, appreciate and associate music.

Despite what has been said, without the biological processes of auditory perception and without the contribution of the cultural, music could not exist. The musical experience is given thanks to the integration of tone, timbre, sounds and their intensity.

"Music can express social attitudes and cognitive processes, but it is useful and effective only when it is heard by the prepared and receptive ears of people who have shared, or can share in some way, the cultural and individual experiences of its creators" John Blacking, 1973.

Among some people who are indicated to reflect a musical intelligence we find Mozart, Beethoven or Freddie Mercury.

Musical intelligence and education

As mentioned previously, musical intelligence involves an ability to compose, function, and consider musical patterns, encompassing the ability to recognize and compose musical tones and rhythms.

According to its author, Gardner, it runs practically at the same time as linguistic intelligence. Through music we can improve our attention and concentration, the people who develop it have skills to quickly discriminate sounds and melodies, being able to reproduce them and form new musical combinations, among others.

Stimulation to enhance this area should be carried out from gestation at an early age, this stage being the most suitable. For this, it is important to provide them with a good musical environment, facilitating musical elements in their daily contexts and giving the child direct experiences with music.

Almost all children in early development have both a musical ability and an interest in it in general. They have various musical qualities that, if not developed enough, will lead to stagnation. For this reason, the empowerment of this area is necessary to go further from that basic level.

The relationship between musical intelligence and intelligence is not causal, but they do share approaches and strategies for information processing. Therefore, understanding, recording or coding the musical symbol system makes it easier for this skill to generalize to other areas, facilitating learning, since both music and linguistics or mathematics have a highly articulated system of signs and keys.

The teaching of musical intelligence should be extended, as it offers wide learning opportunities for children, enriching their development and enhancing skills such as seeing, hearing and representing melodic patterns, providing musical memory and perceptual components.

For this reason, schools must provide opportunities for students to explore and develop different intelligences, designing a comprehensive educational program in which music also plays an important role. In addition, the perception that currently has towards music has already changed, gaining more importance and considering it as an art.

Thus, music must be present in the educational program because it is part of our lives and our culture, and because programs that focus on music make students more satisfied.

Music, dance and the arts should not be treated together, that is, this theory focuses on separating the arts for the purpose of the instruction of each of them independently and sequentially but should be stimulated at all levels and in all disciplines.

It is thought that intelligence is what develops first, so its learning should be encouraged at all levels and above all through educational practices.

An example could be the search for stimuli with which music and events can be related, the stimulation of creativity through the construction of instruments with their own materials, musical activities or competitions or initiatives that encourage students to transform texts or ideas in skits or theaters.

Some academic activities carried out by people with a more developed musical intelligence would be listening to music while studying to associate the topic with music and listening to the song before the exam to remember what was studied.

On the other hand, it should be mentioned that creativity plays a key role in this musical education, which is enhanced by the development of skills such as music.

The educational experience has to be important in the life of the students and above all that they perceive it as significant, as a value for their personal growth, that they feel collaborators and participants in this process, that their ideas are valued and that they see you the meaning and importance in all areas of his life and not only in school.

One way to achieve this is by bringing people's lives closer to music and developing that creativity through it. A comprehensive form of development of the person should include opportunities for him to think in different ways.

Gardner defines musical intelligence as "the sensitivity to the structure of music that allows an individual to make appropriate decisions about music according to his experience, which includes sensitivity to musical properties, to the interrelationships between musical ideas, and expectations about what makes music meaningful. '

Musical intelligence and neuroscience

Studies on this intelligence allow us to verify how some people have more developed musical capacity, depending on the activation of various areas of the brain.

In these investigations, real cases of people with some anomaly in musical competence or studies of the morphological and / or structural changes of the brain organization that people experience are used.

Anomalies in musical competence would be the presentation of a lower capacity with respect to the average population when it comes to perceiving, forming, integrating and representing music; It could be due to a hemispheric functional alteration or of interhemispheric systems.

People who are unable to differentiate sounds may have deep agnosia caused by injuries to the right temporal lobe.

They can also present a structural disorder with alterations in the perception of timbres or the duration and intensity of sounds, due to alterations in the right hemisphere. In turn, when the disability has to do with the rhythm, the anomaly is in the left hemisphere.

On the other hand, when people perceive and feel the emotions that a work transmits to them, but are unable to recognize the emotions as well as their name, we would be facing a semantic disorder. When this anomaly occurs, the lesions are in the temporal zone of the left cerebral hemisphere.

Regarding morphological changes and / or brain organization, the neurologist Schlaug, studying professional musicians, found that they had a thicker than normal corpus callosum. However, it was not clear if this had been due to musical ability or if these people before starting to play the instrument were already that particular size.

His current research allowed him to conclude that the 6-year-olds who continued to play instruments for three years, for at least two and a half hours a week, their corpus callosum grew 25% in relation to the overall size of the brain.

Other research pointed out that brain responses evolve as children have been trained in music and have experience in this area, being related to the best cognitive skills demonstrated in children who practice music. This is clear evidence that music learning has a positive effect on memory and attention.

Music, as well as its teaching, is essential both in the formation of the person both in the development of cognitive and emotional skills and for its important role in individual and social aspects.

“Possible genetic factors limit the degree to which an intelligence can be realized or modified in the course of a lifetime. From a practical point of view, however, this biological limit will probably never be reached. With sufficient exposure to the materials of an intelligence, practically anyone who does not have brain injuries can achieve results in that intellectual field ”Howard Gardner.

Theory of multiple intelligences

For Gardner, traditional tests focus exclusively on logical measures and language, ignoring and not analyzing other aspects that are also very important.

He thinks that each person has a specific intelligence formed based on the combination of different intelligences. Furthermore, such intelligence can be modified and developed based on learning and practice.

His model describes the following eight types of intelligences: linguistic intelligence, logical and mathematical intelligence, spatial intelligence, musical intelligence, bodily and kinesthetic intelligence, interpersonal intelligence, intrapersonal intelligence, and naturalistic intelligence.

References

1. Carrillo García, ME, López López, A. (2014). Theories of Multiple Intelligences in the teaching of languages. University of Murcia. Educational contexts, p. 79-89.
2. Morán Martínez, MC (2009). Psychology and music: musical intelligence and aesthetic development ”Revista Digital Universitaria.
3. Colwell R., Davidson L. (1996). Musical Intelligence and the Benefits of Music Education. Multiple Intelligence.
4. Aróstegui Plaza, JL (2012). Creative development in Music Education: from artistic genius to collaborative work.