Sharing the gift of music

She came from a modest background in Timaru, where playing the guitar was a privilege.

Now she teaches more than 500 kids in the Manawatu how to pick and strum. MICHELLE DUFF asked Jeanette McGrath about her musical journey.

Ten pairs of little hands strum an E minor chord, tongues poking out in concentration for the switch to the more difficult G. One tiny girl with a jet black guitar looks extra perplexed at the change, sneaking a glance to her right before chiming in with the right chord. Her mother nods in encouragement.

At the front, Jeanette McGrath taps a toe to the song – for this group of kids, it's Coldplay's Viva La Vida.

"Right, guys," she says, as the last note fades into the recesses of Freyberg High School's music department.

"When you're playing, I want you to eyeball me. No looking at your guitars, OK?"

It's the last week before a concert by the students of Manawatu Music Makers, the guitar tutoring company McGrath and husband Alan run together.

Rehearsals have been increasingly hectic, with more than 200 students – the youngest aged six – performing tomorrow.

With kids of different ages, personalities and even disabilities learning rhythm and classical guitar and bass, teaching can't be an easy job.

But McGrath has loved it ever since age 12, when she first picked up an acoustic guitar in Timaru – and she's been teaching Manawatu schoolkids to pick and strum for more than 30 years.

A warm, curly-haired, motherly figure, McGrath has eyes that smile long before her mouth does. From a modest background, she felt privileged to be able to learn the guitar.

"I started learning at 10. I was actually from a family who couldn't afford much, so being able to do guitar was a big thing. [My parents] paid for one year of tuition, then I had to hold down three jobs to pay for myself."

By the time she was 12, she had her own students.

She also held down a 5.30am cleaning job, attended school, and played whenever she could.

"Every day I would practice, at minimum two or three hours. Something in me just had the passion to do it. I strove for excellence.

"I love classical, I love strumming, and I loved playing all the popular songs."

Along with her teacher David Loomes, a young McGrath began to develop a teaching programme. She still uses a revised version of it.

Though she became an accomplished performer – winning a national competition at 15 – she wanted to focus on teaching.

"I decided my passion was more about imparting and encouraging then it is about me being up there performing as a guitarist myself."

Moving to Palmerston North, she attended teachers' college and majored in music, taking Saturday morning music lessons before falling in love with accountant Alan.

She began teaching at high schools, and taking a few private lessons. As the years went by, the number of students she taught ballooned into the hundreds.

McGrath now employs 13 tutors – who must first prove their devotion to music – to help her out at nights, when she hires Freyberg High School's music block for lessons.

Though her main interest is classical guitar, she also plays the bass, and electric and acoustic styles.

Most kids nowadays aren't so keen on the older classical guitar, but she manages to catch the interest of a few, she says. "I do have my young followers."

Teaching has changed with the generations, with YouTube and other websites now making it easier to learn and find guitar songs online. This can make her job more difficult, she says.

"It's harder because they all think they know how to do it, and they learn bad techniques.

"You've got a lot more kids now who learn by ear and don't want the formal training."

That's where being surrounded by other young tutors can help – it means there is no danger of inadvertently trying to teach the kids music that is out of date, McGrath says. So, instead of playing tunes that she started with, like The Lion Sleeps Tonight, it's Coldplay's Clocks or Green Day's Time of Your Life.

Some songs can even be used as an incentive to learn – if students at Palmerston North Boys' High School haven't done their practice, McGrath might make them play a song by American pop star Taylor Swift. "She is their punishment."

Each child is matched to the best tutor for their ability, and a close eye is kept on their progress.

If a child is just not interested, McGrath will take the parents aside and suggest that it might be time for another instrument or hobby. She has a soft spot for special needs kids, who she says often excel at guitar.

"Every one of them is important – they are not just a big group of numbers to me."

Her eventual vision is to set up a performing arts centre in the city, covering a wide range of instruments – and continuing to bring music into young people's lives.

"I love giving kids a purpose in life, finding their passion, because in music, you unravel ... what makes them individuals. Music is the vehicle to the soul."

- © Fairfax NZ News