By Monster Music

11/14/2012 For most of “modern” education, it has been accepted that there are three basic learning styles: audio, visual, and tactile. Recently, though, a paradigm that appears to be “new” but was actually spawned in 1983 by Howard Gardner has become more popular as the years keep proving it correct. It is called the “theory of multiple intelligences.”



According to the theory, there are nine basic intelligences: logical-mathematical, spatial, linguistic, bodily-kinaesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalistic, and existential. Those who have tried to further this theory have been fought tooth and nail at every opportunity by “old school” educators who probably just don’t want to work that hard, but there is plenty of anecdotal evidence that the model is valid.



Since Monster Music is made up of guitar, piano, singing and other music teachers from Perth to Melbourne, we find the musical learning mode to be the most relevant and helpful, and would like to tell you more about it.



Basically, musical learners are sensitive to music, tones, sounds, and rhythms. People who have musical intelligence usually have great pitch, and sometimes have perfect pitch. If, for example, you can hear that a note is a little bit off, while everyone else thinks it’s fine, you probably have high musical intelligence.



As you may have guessed, those with high musical intelligence are usually well-suited for careers in music. You can probably learn a musical instrument more easily than your friends, because you hear what they don’t hear, and “get” what they don’t “get.” If you can hear a song in your head, complete with drums, bass, piano, and guitar, and even orchestra, you are probably a musical learner.



In school, you probably learn best by being lumped in as an “auditory learner,” because there is a large auditory element to the musical style of learning. You also might have a lot easier time learning a second language, or more easily distinguish dialectic differences between regions. You might be able to mimic the voices of others perfectly.



If you are a musical learner, the only thing that can hold you back is a total lack of coordination, but that can usually be overcome with patience and constant practice. You will be the person who practices much more than your teacher tells you to.



If this sounds like you, you should definitely be playing an instrument. It will be a lot easier than you think, and you will have a huge mental advantage over many of your mates who are learning to play.