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Musical-Rhythmical Intelligence"The ability to perceive (e.g., as a music aficionado), discriminate (e.g., as a music critic), transform (e.g., as a composer), and express (e.g., as a performer) musical forms. This intelligence includes sensitivity to the rhythm, pitch or melody, and timbre or tone color of a musical piece. One can have a figural or "top-down" understanding of music (global, intuitive), a formal or "bottom-up" understanding (analytic, technical), or both." (Armstrong 3) DEVELOPMENT - Musical intelligence is the earliest intelligence to develop. Musical prodigies often go through a developmental crisis at some stage. POTENTIAL - Students should be encouraged to explore becoming composers, musicians, conductors, studio technicians, recording artists, recording engineers, etc. COMMON STATEMENTS - "I have a good singing voice," "I know when I hear a note that is off-key," "I listen to music a lot," "I play a musical instrument," "I can sing or play a song with some accuracy if I hear it just once," "I often make tapping sounds or sing while I work or study." Teaching Strategies
Use different selections of music for calming students down, for introducing new units, to celebrate a different culture, or just to set a mood. Have students write songs about the content in a specific lesson or unit. To make it easier for some, use the melody from a familiar song. Students may work alone or in groups, and can perform their songs. Similar to Lyrical Lessons, students work in teams to come up with chants based on content. Clapping, snapping, or other percussion may be added. Bibliographies of musical selections to accompany units or projects. Teacher tries to convey an image or a word using non-verbal musical selections. Students make guesses while listening. Ways to help Musically Intelligent Students Excel: **Make an easily accessible music lab, with cassettes, earphones, CD's.**Have a music performance center, with recording equipment, instruments, a metronome. **Create a general "listening lab," where students listen to sounds other than music with stethoscopes, walkie-talkies, sound bottles. Classroom Environment Techniques **Set classroom rules to a song or songs.**Assign each student a common song to sing without the rest of the class hearing what each others' songs are. Then have them sing the song and find others who are singing the same song to group with. **For discipline problems, find musical selections that deal with the problem(s) the student is having. **Provide music that conveys the desired behaviors of all students. **When a student feels angry, talk to them about "playing" his/her favorite song in their head to avoid rash decisions. |