Commentary

Even if you didn’t make the honor roll, listen up: Chances are pretty good that you’re probably still a smartie, especially if you have an innate ability to respond to or create music.

Dr. Howard Gardner is the father of the “Multiple Intelligences” theory, which states that academic success is only one of many ways to measure mental ability. According to Gardner, if you show a special flair in any of seven categories you could be just as smart as the valedictorian—it’s just that society doesn’t traditionally recognize these gifts as “intelligence.” For example, a person might have a mystical ability to work with animals, like Steve Irwin, the “Crocodile Hunter;” or execute a jump with perfect timing as an Olympic figure skater might; or immediately understand a group’s dynamics and broker peace and efficient communication. All these people are smart… it’s just that society doesn’t traditionally recognize these gifts as “intelligence.”

He isolates one of those forms of intelligence as “musical,” and he’s not just referring to perfect pitch or making first violin of the National Symphony Orchestra. You don’t have to be a guitar hero or a graduate of Julliard to demonstrate musical intelligence. If you can find the beat when everyone around you is flailing, if people turn around in church to see who’s singing so beautifully, if you’re able to sit down at an instrument and make it sing without a single lesson, if you play with expression that supersedes your technical ability, then guess what… you just might be a musical genius.

Of course, given the advent of digital music, Dr. Gardner just might have to create a new category of intelligence: Master of the Playlist.