Multimedia technology: a vital instrument for music composition

Abstract

Music composition over the years has continued to be a much dreaded course of study by so many Nigerian students of Music in tertiary institutions. Through the interview conducted in this study, it was discovered that the students’ fear of the course stems from its abstractness or rather as a result of the erroneous belief that it is a very complex area of specialization to venture into, in music pedagogy. This study is aimed at disabusing the minds of the students of music from this xenophobic wrong impression and by creating an enabling mind-set and interest in music composition through this expository study on the multimedia technology as a vital instrument in music composition. A simple observation and comparison of the old manual system of music composition/notation with the new computer-assisted multimedia system reveals that the computer-assisted multimedia method is much better in terms of facility as well as performing numerous tasks than the old system and it is therefore recommended for compositional and notational purposes. Participation, interview, observation and literature review were the research methods employed for this study.

Keywords: Multimedia, Technology, Music, Composition