Musical development is part and parcel of the total mental and material growth of human society.
The importance of music has been recognized in various settings in Nigeria such as in the home, school and various cultures. In the Nigerian context, the rapidly changing physical environment has important implications in overall development of society. National development in the 1950(s) and 60(s) means the capacity of a nation whose economic condition has been static to achieve an annual increase in its Gross National Product (GNP). The rate is about 5 to 7 percent and the ability to expand the output faster than the rate of population growth is a great advantage (Tedoar, 1981).
Today the concept of National development has gone beyond just the achievement of the economy,
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but the total welfare of the people in the country. This is why when we talk of National development, a lot of questions are asked in terms of poverty level, employment, the exercise of human right, patriotism of citizens etc. that is to say that National Development covers both economic and non-economic aspects of the country.
Music plays a very important role in National Development. Individuals, society and even the government of this country use certain aspects of music to achieve their aims and objectives. For example, music is used in the mass media to educate the people, information are disseminated to citizens by government agencies through the avenue of music. Besides people can criticize or praise the policies of government and its implementation through it. Fela Kuti with songs like
“Zombi”, “suffering and smiling” criticized the brutality of the then military government in 1986 and Idris Abdulkareem with his “Nigeria Jaga- Jaga” revealed the happens in Nigeria, while Timi Dakolo used his song “Great Nation” to talk about unity and belief in our county Nigeria as well as “the land is green” and “the land of my dreams” by T. Y. Bello. Thus music is seen as a very important medium for expressing public opinion which is an important tool in National development.
2.3. 9. The role of music teacher
Teachers generally always see learners as sensitive fragile beings that need facts and ideas, this is because teachers are embodiment of knowledge ready to impact to the students. Music teacher then must endeavour to avoid presenting learners with complication or no explanation for a way out. Music programmes that bear no connection whatsoever to out of school life of a learner should be scrapped and replaced with new ones structured around career opportunities that will help
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learners to make meaning out of life when they leave school. To this end music is a practical subject and in music is demonstration of what has been learnt.
The music teacher outside his teaching role should function also as an influential counsellor unto the students. This belief is predicated on the fact that such act could draw the students to the teacher and by so doing may begin to appreciate music which the teacher teaches. The music teacher should function as community relation personnel. In doing this, the teacher should endeavour always to keep the school administration, students, parents and the community informed about the objective activities and the scope of the music programme. This could take the form of preparing newsletters, subject pictures, articles to the newspapers or making appearances as guest speakers at Parents Teacher Association (PTA) or school club meeting. The music teacher should bear in mind that it is the subject music and not the teacher per se that is the subject of presentation.
Furthermore, Egbiri (2002) opines that another essential role of the music teacher should be that of being a musician among musicians and an educator among educators. This implies that the music teacher should extensively devoted to research and must kept abreast with the trends development as well as changes in his field, taking adequate part in curriculum communities involved in music organization. The role of music teacher as primarily and essentially to teach music, and the music teacher must concentrate on these five issues:
Developing goal and objective of music- The music teacher must decide which of the school’s goals that is in relation to music and set up subsequent music objectives that will facilitate the attainment of these goals theory the curriculum;
Motivation- As a music teacher approaches the teaching situation, he will discover that it is necessary to inspire (motive) students so that they will want to learn and develop their
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musical potentials. The teacher will have to provide moral support to the child who is frustrated by the demands of the school music;
Selection and organization of material- The complete structure and organization of the music curriculum will influence the teacher selection of what is considered important to teach and what is important will be influenced by the teacher’s knowledge of the subject.
The music teacher must be certain that the organization and planning are in line with reality.
In addition to organizing the selected material to meet his student’s needs, the teacher must also furnish them with a sense of security by establishing a classroom atmosphere that is warm, creative, business like and democratic;
Presentation of material - In music class, teaching must be vivid to attract, to interest, and to hold the students attention, material must be relevant or it should not be presented, and must be memorable or learning will fade in students mind and be for gotten. Patience and understanding in regard to the rate of students’ progress, comprehension and achievement are also significant considerations related to presentation of music cession; and
Evaluation – when the teacher is done with what is worth teaching and has presented his materials to the learner, he needs to carry through by determining exactly what the students has learnt. Evaluation is not only a means to determine what students have accomplish but also. To provide the teacher with information on the effectiveness of his role in the teaching learning process.