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August 2005
MUSIC - An Intelligence All Its Own
Mrs. Donna - North Canton
 We’ve all known someone whose “brain-powers” went un-noticed in school. Maybe it’s the guy who built your house, who understood complex formulas and could read and execute blueprints, but who had little formal, mathematical training. Perhaps it’s your mechanic, or an entrepreneur; negotiator, or musician you once met. Yet the classroom did not identify the “smarts” of these highly successful individuals?
In his groundbreaking book Frames of Mind (1983), Howard Gardner proposed that individuals possess several different types of intelligence rather than one general level of intelligence. WeJoySing’s series on Multiple Intelligences discusses ways music enhances development.
"Parent-child interaction through singing can be a potent focus for stimulating activity in all the nervous system networks, for...growth and retention of neuron interconnections within and between the brain’s two hemispheres, and thus contributes to the acceleration of all the intelligences identified by Gardner."1
While music benefits the whole child, Gardner defines music as its own separate intelligence, “equally deserving of development”2 Three central elements represent the “core” of music: Pitch (melody), Rhythm ( “sounds emitted at certain auditory frequencies and grouped according to a prescribed system”) and Timbre (“the characteristic qualities of a tone”)3 Those who have a high level of musical intelligence “‘think music’ with greater clarity and are affected more deeply by music...than those with less musical intelligence.”4
Stages of musical development–
In Utero– Talk to Your Baby!
Learning to sing, like learning to speak, first begins with hearing and imitation. Since hearing is in place midway through the second trimester, we can begin to surround our babies with musical sound, singing, and talking expressively to our little ones. A drummer friend once told me that his mother had even tapped out rhythms on her tummy!
During infancy- Copy Cat!
Babies love musical sound play and pick up aspects of music before they tune in to properties of speech. Infants as young as two months are able to match the pitch, loudness, and melodic contour of their mother’s songs through babbling sounds. Infants at four months can match rhythmic structure.5
1 ½ -2 years– Sing-Song Speech
Children use singing and speaking interchangeably using small intervals. Their spontaneous songs-- “freesongs”– are a kind of “melodic speech, created to accompany play.”6
2-2 ½– Song Bites
Toddlers begin to produce small sections of familiar songs heard around them, such as “EI-EI-O” from “Old MacDonald.”7 Pitches are not always accurate.
3-4-- Song Fragments
Melodies of familiar songs take over and spontaneous songs begins to wane. Children sing songs with recognizable language, rhythmic and melodic patterns, though they may switch keys with new phrases.
5– Song Sensations
By age five, many children can sing whole songs accurately and in the same musical key all the way through. Often, little further musical development happens after the school years begin.
In our American culture, people typically talk more than they sing, so many children miss out on the early stimulation which is clearly paramount to the development of musical intelligence. When parents nurture the early years with traditional children’s songs and games, like those experienced at HeartStrings, they literally change a child’s life!
A Note from Mrs. Jo
Gardner's theory has been accepted by many in the field of education. However, if we wait for our schools to nurture a child’s musical development, we've missed the most important formative years, birth through age 3. Parents: you are not only your child’s favorite “toy,” you are also your baby’s best educational resource! Singing to your little one brings JOY to your everyday parenting and provides the crucial foundation for musical intelligence. Our teachers are very excited to sing, dance, and play with you and yours this fall at WeJoySing!
"Sing"cerely,
Mrs. Jo
Resources and Recommended Reading:
1. Thurman, Leon, HeartSongs: A Guide to Active Pre-Birth & Infant Parenting p. 16.
2. Fierabend, John. “Music and Intelligence in the Early Years” Early Childhood Connections, Summer 1995, p. 7.
3. Gardner, Howard. Frames of Mind Tenth Anniversary Edition, Harper-Collins Publishing, 1993, p. 104-105.
4. Fierabend, p. 7.
5. Research by Papousek and Papousek as presented in Frames of Mind.
6. Thurman, p. 18.
7. Gardner, p. 108-109.
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