About Us
Dan Whitley Music Studio is located in Draper, UT. We offer individual music lessons, group bands which include live shows at various venues throughout the Valley. We also offer a professional recording studio for all your recording needs. Dan has authored many method books to help young kids learn musical method. Please feel free to browse the site and be sure to come take a tour of the studio. You won't regret it!
To learn more about why Dan does what he does click to read more.
Dan and his wife, Bonnie, moved in 1979 from Southern California to Salt Lake City. Upon arrival, their 6-year old son, Danny, started having trouble seeing the chalkboard at school, so they took him to an optometrist to get fitted for glasses. The doctor took one look in his eyes and sent them to Primary Children's Medical center for X-rays and a scan. When Dr. Marion Walker looked at the pictures he called them in and told them their son had a mixed glioma brain tumor about the size of an orange that pushed his retina 1/4 inch out of alignment making it impossible for him to see the board. They were advised to check him in the hospital the following Monday. Dan was in shock and disbelief and asked why this could be happening to them. Then the doctor said "do you remember me, from the California mission? I married the secretary." Then, it became much more real, having a trusted friend tell him the severity of Danny's condition. The University of Utah medical center was at the leading edge of heart surgery with the development of the jarvic heart and in 1980, when this happened, they were also leaders in the nation with laser brain surgery which had just began. Dr Walker believed the laser surgery could offer Danny a much higher chance of survival. Following the operation and the news that Danny had only a year to live, Danny said, "Dad, I want to be a musician just like you. Will you teach me everything you know?" Suddenly Dan became a teacher of little children. They called around and found a keyboard player, some guitar players, a violin player. Danny would be the drummer. They began practice on Wednesday evenings. Their first gig was at his elementary school where he played his first drum solo with his little band. They were called the Foxes and the Hounds. What appeared a short-lived experience turned out to be, seven years and four surgeries later, Danny played a 6th grade all school concert with Danny playing a drum solo with one foot and one hand and singing his favorite song, "You Aint Nothing but a Hound Dog". Children new him as the boy with the red and white cap because he had no hair. Danny passed away in 1987 and Dan has continued to teach kids his age, between 6 and 13, the same songs and the same method. Dan has another son who is a professional drummer in L.A. and a son who is a manager at a major contact company. Their older two daughters Jill and Julie performed on a Christmas album that Jill composed. They all had the privilege of the doing the first performance of the play, A Christmas Stranger, before Danny passed away. It's been over 20 years since he passed and what he taught Dan about children and the power of music in their lives makes Dan the teacher he is today. God bless Danny Whitley.
