Music is an art with its aesthetic beauty; pleasing to the soul,body and spirit. the truth is that without
appreciating aesthetics in the various aspects of our lives, life itself will not only be dull but rigid and
boring.
The purpose of this report is to look into ways of appreciating our rich cultural heritage including music
and also look into possible means of preserving this heritage. Some people tend to disregard music,
music making and music performance because they do not afford immediate means of livelihood but
nature has it that music in its entity is very relevant to all aspects of life.
The art called music is a specialized and systemic process of organizing sounds of various pitches; could
be high, medium and low pitches in specific rhythm pleasing to the ear and other sensory nerves.
The art requires skillful organization of sounds to produce pleasant music. Our forefathers exhibited
these skills in the numerous types of music they played for various purposes such as music for worship,
libations, social gathering, new yam festivals, weddings, tittle taking, and music for burials(dirge),
lullaby, and royal music.
The remarkable thing about these indigenous types of music is that each type was so arranged and
designed for a specific event or occasion that it can hardly be used for any other occasion, all this shows
that music occupies a major place in almost all aspect of our everyday life, be it political , social and
economic.
In carrying out our routine domestic chores, the house wife finds relief and comfort in singing her
favorite tunes. While engage in community work, members of the group sing in appropriate tunes to
raise the people’s morals and make them more committed to the task at hand.
In competitions, like wrestling contests, the sound of drums and the indigenous musical instruments,
inspires and spurs the combatants to furious aggressive actions.
During mourning, the burial songs joggle the minds and set a sorrowful mood.
Music is so important inour everyday lives, that the churches, organizations, development unions,
Ministries of Education and Information occasionally sponsor musical and dance troupes, coral
competitions and award prizes just to appreciate and promote talents and gifted artistes. This is usually
a means of reviving and promoting our dying culture.
Suffice it to say that one may have seen that music is culture and culture is music. In other words both
are inseparable. Therefore there is a great need to cherish and appreciate our music culture and guard
against its extinction by seriously documenting and preserving it in its original state and form because of
its valuable contributions to our way of life.