Connecting the community and the school via music documentation and archiving: Music educators

Abstract

Nigerian music education has been criticised on diverse points amongst which are the divorce of the school from the community; the lack of instructional materials from the community or the environment of the school which has made many teachers depend on the music scores from outside the school environment, hence a gap between the community and the schools. This study intends to documment oru owere music in the community and archiving it for classroom instruction. Archiving is sequel to documented music for preservation and easy assessibility and most importantly is the use in school. The study adopted a qualitative research design. Data were collected through interview and secondary sources. The researchers conclude that music educators should document music from community and archive them as a means of preserving and advancing community music on the one hand; on the other hand, this process will furnish the classroom with music excerpts as instructional materials for the students to learn and perform them. As a national body, Association of Nigerian Musicologists should build music archive for documented music.