Musical Intelligence or Music Smart

If you like to listen to music, to create music, to critique music,

If you like rhythm and rhyme and learning about instruments and how to use them

If you like to sing and can recognize when people and instruments are not in tune

If you understand musical notation, feel the emotion in music or nature sounds, like different genres of music and like to talk about music

You are music smart.

People who are music smart live and breathe music. This may happen in many different ways. Some people enjoy many different types of music, can understand musical notation, can critique types of music and talk about music in an in-depth manner. Some like to create new instruments or learn to play a variety of instruments. Some create their own lyrics and sing solos or sing in choirs. Like all of the intelligences, there are many different ways to be music smart and someone who may not be a good singer might be a great composer. Someone who loves music, may like to dance to express the feelings that music cause but might not be able to play an instrument.

Kids who are music smart might grow up to be musicians, music critics, composers, singers, sound engineers, producers, instrument makers, conductors, band or choir teachers, storytellers, poets, song or jingle writers, radio d.j.

Programming for Music Smart Learners

Music is very easy to incorporate in library programs even if the leader isn't musically inclined. You don't have to sing in-tune or play an instrument to incorporate music into programs (although it can help!). It can be as simple as having music in the background of a program.

Here is a list of potential program ideas:

• Teach kids songs (especially interactive songs that have motions or repetition)
• Bring in instruments from around the world for kids to learn about and play with
• Invite musicians to the library to talk about their favorite type of music or instrument
• Play music in the background
• Help kids learn facts by putting them to music (for example, in a dinosaur program you might want to play some music that helps kids learn the names of dinosaurs or dinosaur facts)
• Tell stories or read picture books that include songs or have a musical plot
• If you are doing a book program on a title that has been made into a movie, play the soundtrack during the program.
• Teach kids different dances (this is fun in BookTrek)
• Play a game like musical chairs or musical freeze
• Play games that have rhythm to them or rhymes associated with them
• Do a program on writing music lyrics or have kids write raps in a program

Additional Resources