Barbara Whitnell – Musician, Music & Dance Tutor, Performer – and now Author!
Barbara has been involved with music all throughout her life. Initially learning tap and ballet dance, followed by classical piano lessons, she followed the footsteps of her parents who were both musically talented.
Barbara’s achievements include numerous exams in classical piano, jazz piano, modern piano, electronic keyboard, electronic organ, piano accordion and theory of music and has also taught various instruments including guitar, drums and recorder.
Whilst in New Zealand, with a peak of 86 private music pupils, many successfully passed piano and guitar exams, some competed in the local music competitions and others simply learnt to play for pleasure.
Over the years, Barbara’s love of music filtered into other areas including duo/band work and teaching music appreciation to over 600 school children in New Zealand primary schools. Teaching included a mix of choir, recorder, dance items, skits, music groups, musical plays and end of year school concerts. Other involvements included producing old time music hall concerts preparing and coaching 20 adult cast members in their performances. She has generated chord charts for NZ country music award contestants and been involved in voluntary music activities.
Barbara is also very proud of her two sons who both learnt to play a range of instruments, perform in bands and successfully compete as vocalists in various NZ Country Music Awards.
“I am so thankful I was given the opportunity to learn music. Without it, my life wouldn’t be as I know it now. I have met some brilliant people on my travels. As a music tutor, I want to pass on to future pupils the knowledge and skills of playing music so they too can emerge and become fulfilled in this magical musical journey. I hope they gain as much through learning music as I have”.
In the future, Barbara is hoping to record tutor videos for her YouTube Channel, so those who are interested can learn the very basics of playing music
Alongside music, Barbara has also achieved well in the field of tap and jazz dancing, through competitions, performances, judging and teaching a vast number of pupils including adults. Her highlight was when one of her senior pupils won the NZ Nationals in Tap back in 1986!
Where to now?
Since having learnt about web design and digital design back in 2014, Barbara’s interest of writing children’s stories has come to the fore. Throughout her life she has always enjoyed creating poetry and writing songs, with some of her children’s songs even being performed at Primary School Concerts.
One of her desires is to create some fun stories, not only for children to enjoy and have a good laugh, but also to create some stories with learning aspects as well. Barbara loves maths, spelling, reading and writing and feels she can encompass some of these areas of learning in her stories.
The challenge of designing and illustrating her own books has been quite time consuming and such a learning curve. She continues to learn new skills after having started these stories back in 2018.
With more time on her hands she is now looking forward to being able to fine-tune her craft and is working to have her books up on Print on Demand sites and an ebook presence in the future. She is also very keen to work on her Storybook YouTube channel in hope of being able to create insane clips of her stories with musical backings. You never know, her puppet “Stan” may also be involved as well! Rome wasn’t built in a week, let alone a day…. so do watch this space!
Music Teaching in Cessnock!
Great news! I have commenced teaching music at Wild Learning (111 Wollombi Road) in Cessnock on Tuesdays and am now taking bookings for Wednesday afternoons. I will also consider doing home visits within the Bellbird/Millfield area if there are suitable persons interested.
Piano can be taught to children as young as 5 years of age, although at this young age, it is recommended that a parent or caregiver attend the lesson. Pupils will learn to read right and left hand (treble and bass clef notes) for classical styles. Other styles include chord based accompaniments (used for both piano and keyboard), blues, jazz, and rock.
Guitar is recommended to be taught from the age of 9 – 10 years of age as their finger dexterity and fine motor skills will be more developed at this age. Whilst, I have taught children as young as 6 – 7 years of age, practise is required on a regular basis so they can master these skills. Pupils will learn to read the treble clef notes so they can pick melodies encompassing a variety of styles. They will also learn to strum a number of chords and play a variety of rhythmical strumming patterns.
Drums are suitable for children from 6 years of age. A drum kit is not necessary to start with, as drummming uses coordination between each hand and initially their right foot. Drummers are time keepers, so it requires the ability to master a variety of rhythms (eg: waltz, rock, foxtrot, quickstep/march) as well as keeping in time to backing music. Eventually a pupil will be able to hear a song and recognise a suitable rhythm to be used.
“As a music tutor, I want to pass on to future pupils the knowledge and skills of playing music and performing so they too can emerge and become fulfilled in this magical musical journey. I am sure they will gain as much through learning music as I have.”
It is encouraged for new pupils to bring along an exercise book to their lesson so I can write their lesson notes for them so they can refer to them, when they are practising at home.
Ideally, music pupils should have access to practise on an instrument at home (piano/keyboard/guitar).