Content area
Full Text
What consideration should school administrators give to the presence of musical intelligence? Education has a greater impact on one's musical perception than is generally believed, and we should expand instruction to include a wide range of musical experiences.
Americans joke about their weaknesses and poke fun at their incompetence. The inability to assemble toys, physical and mechanical clumsiness, inability to balance a checkbook, a tendency toward "nerdiness," and obvious incompetence at carrying a tune are socially acceptable personal failures. That we each have strengths and weaknesses across a wide variety of tasks is accepted, with the unspoken hope that improvement is possible with the right coach or teacher and sufficient time to practice.
These abilities, while believed by some to be God-given talents and by others to be accomplishments are to Howard Gardner related to seven fundamental intelligences (linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, bodily-kinesthetic, and spatial). The use of the term "intelligences" indicates certain defining similarities. Intelligences are evident through:
Special populations such as idiot savants and prodigies as well as in the breakdown of brain function
The developmental path that leads from the preschoolers' beginning expression to adult levels of expertise
The way we process information via selective computational systems that reflect genetic programs that respond differently in perception and memory
Specific symbol systems, such as written language, music and dance notations, and drawing.
The assumption that one can study or practice and improve in any field depends on the premise that everyone has varying amounts of these intelligences (Gardner, 1983).
Musical Intelligence Defined
The Organic Evidence: Talent. There is plenty of evidence that musical intelligence is organic, innate, or genetic. How else can we explain prodigies like Mozart; idiot savants whose development and social interaction consist only of musical expression; or injuries in the right frontal lobe of the brain that make it impossible for even a talented musician to carry a tune, although other capacities appear undiminished?
The accomplishments of talented composers and performers provide evidence that musical talent exists. The ability to perform is perceived as a demonstration of what musically talented individuals can do. Indeed, composers, conductors, musicologists, and music critics usually also have a foundation in musical performance.
Individuals who have played in the high school band recognize...