FEMALE STUDENTS’ DISINTEREST IN LEARNING MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS: THE NNAMDI AZIKIWE UNIVERSITY EXPERIENCE

Abstract

Undergraduate students of music are required to master one orchestral musical instrument as a prerequisite for graduating irrespective of gender, culture, orientation, or personal conviction but engaging majority of the female students to learn or master any musical instrument has remained a persistent problem. The lecturers and several students of the Department were interviewed over the span of four academic sessions (2015-2019) with the aim of soliciting for their responses regarding the problem. Findings traced the root of the disinterest to the prevalent ‘active/dominant’ and ‘passive/submissive’ roles assigned to the males and females respectively by the society; women as the ‘weaker sex syndrome’, forced admission, lack of motivation from instrument tutors, female gender idiosyncrasies, social media addiction, lack of role modelling from the female lecturers, etc. These ‘assigned roles’ and ‘weaker sex syndrome’ with the concomitant bias are manifest in career choices, commerce, business, marriage, and also music where the womenfolk easily accept docile roles. In most ensembles, females are predominantly the dancers while the males take up instrumentation. This paper therefore has sought for the solution to the indifference as it affects female students in learning and mastering musical instruments. Giving the female students orientation towards unlearning this disinterest and motivating them towards a fulfilling instrumental musical experience in the University are amongst the recommendations of the paper.