Continuing the series I have been creating, musical intelligence also belongs to the multiple intelligences model popularized by American psychologist Howard Gardner. The concept refers to abilities and sensitivities related to musical sensitivity, when producing music and perceiving it as such with all its nuances.

It is entirely independent of hearing ability, and therefore concerns only the ability to process sound information from simple or highly complex musical pieces. It need not be expressed in specific musical genres either. What defines musical intelligence is complete freedom to create and appreciate music.

What are people with musical intelligence like?

Someone with musical intelligence is particularly skilled at detecting nuances in melodies, thinking in terms of rhythm, timbre, and pitch, and distinguishing similar sounds played separately or simultaneously. They will also find it easier to express themselves musically, whether composing pieces they perform themselves or directing a musical ensemble, which requires keeping many elements of the intended piece in mind.

  • Sensitivity in identifying a musical piece's rhythm, pitch, melody, and timbre.
  • Relative ease in composing or performing original musical pieces, and reproducing or adapting them with another piece as a reference.
  • Ease in finding resources to express emotional states or ideas through music.
  • Ease in recognizing masked musical pieces that seem to be mere noise.
  • Ability to recognize the different musical genres influencing a piece.
  • Ease in creating melodies by making sounds with various objects spontaneously.

Musical intelligence can be developed

According to Howard Gardner, musical intelligence is one of the first types of intelligence to appear during human development and growth, being present in the first months of life. Therefore, its existence does not depend on whether we have received formal music education, much less whether we can read music. However, if we want to improve musical intelligence significantly, there comes a point when we need to practice and spend hours each week training systematically.

This, together with the fact that musical intelligence may be closely linked to logical-mathematical intelligence and skills related to creative thinking, leads certain groups to advocate for schools to devote effort to improving this intelligence through musical intelligence stimulation programs. Efforts are also being made to share exercises parents can use to develop musical intelligence in young children from their first weeks, according to their stages of growth.

A final reflection

The idea of multiple intelligences popularized by Howard Gardner is as loved as it is hated. Its classification of different mental abilities has drawn criticism from those who believe intelligence can be explained by studying a single intelligence factor—Spearman's G factor. However, it also opens the door to understanding intellect as something broader than what conventional IQ tests measure.

Musical intelligence is one of the great counterpoints the multiple intelligences model puts forward: an intelligence legitimate simply because it belongs to the artistic and creative side of human beings, despite not being applicable to the machinery of work and production in the way logical-mathematical intelligence is.