Does intelligence correlate with your musical ability?

I have always sensed a link between high IQ and musical ability. The choir director under which I sing right now says that, were he given the option to audition an entire choir based on either the sole criteria of quality of voice versus the sole criteria of IQ, he would choose the latter. That is, he would audition an entire choir based only on IQ scores.

I think he went a little too far in that direction, though. Yes, obviously, it can only help to have a high IQ in whatever field you choose. Yet, what everyone else has said about the IQ test is true: it is, after all, a certain kind of test, administered by a proctor in a short time period on a given day. To allow a number, influenced by all these above factors and more, to influence your life decisions, is a bad idea.

After all, this is composition we're talking about. Composition requires a core of creativity, something that the IQ test does not (and cannot) even begin to address. If you asked this same question about conductors rather than composers, I would say, yes, a high IQ is a definite prerequisite to being a good conductor. But not so with composing. Often, an intuitive understanding (non-IQ-related) of music is enough to get you up and running.

I have always sensed a link between high IQ and musical ability

As we all know, an IQ test does not test musical ability.

However, as musicians, we can all attest to the value of a skill that music educators know of as steady beat - I.e., the ability to physically (via clapping or marching in time) keep time with the tempo of music. I'm not sure of the exact number of beats, but I think mastery for children is considered to be about 20 beats at quarter note =~ 108 .

Studies have been done that make a direct correlation between students that have achieved steady beat (say, by the age of 7) and their future performance in math (thru, say, 7th grade). Mind you I'm quoting these ages and grades from memory; they are approximations. Make of this what you will, but by and large, musicians are generally stronger math students.

This is just one reason that you should rock your children and expose them to music when they are young.

Now as it turns out, a certain portion of how someone's IQ is derived is based on their math ability. Does this mean that it takes someone who is strong at math to be a good musician? Of course not.

I teach both music and math to grades 5 thru 8, and I can tell you that the correllation between ability in one and the other seems strong from my experience. Are there exceptions? Absolutely.

Does it mean that a student who develops steady beat at an early age has a better chance at being good at math? Yet, We all know a number of great musicians and composers who stink at math. So what does that tell us?

I'll let you guys figure it out.

I think yes and no.

As in, most people who study music, or play an instrument, tend to be more intelligent- if only because the school systems selected them to play for that reason.

But no, because musical talent is an independant asset. There's a difference between thinking music and knowing music...