Wh y Ukulele? It's portable, inexpensive, and easy to play All students can be successful It sounds good Students can learn many musical elements through singing and strumming songs on the ukulele What is the most effective way to begin? Start with strumming patterns and one finger chords Use rounds with one chord for first songs Move gradually to two and then three chord songs Have students play together to develop rhythm skills Encourage students to listen to each other and play with a resonant sound Use visual aids to reinforce the learning Why strumming and singing instead of melodies first? Does not work in a large class situation because students without prior string experience find melody playing very difficult Strumming one chord levels the playing field; it is a new skill for all students (even guitarists are not used to strumming with their fingers rather than a pick) Performance Based Assessment Divide students into groups of four; grade them on their performance using a rubric Keep track with a sticker chart or grade book Classroom based assessment: Have a student video the class on your phone; post the video on a district-protected Y outube site; share with classroom teachers and parents; very motivational In elementary school, don't pass students unless they sing or speak the words In middle or high school, allow students to play either chords or melody tab Allow students to volunteer to play and sing in front of the class; they can create: Ensembles with some students strumming and some playing melody Arrangements with instrumental and vocal verses Parodies of songs they have studied in class New songs NN1612K
Written Assessment Use the "Test Your Knowledge" section at the end of each chapter of Ukulele Fundamentals Students can write using clipboards while other students are doing their performance-based assessment Teaching Materials Use a wide array of visual materials to help learning Students often have trouble understanding how to flip from vertical to horizontal in their minds, so consider presenting chord shapes three ways: Traditional chord stamp Chord stamp turned 90 degrees Picture of a hand making the chord shape Use videos in class so you can walk around and help struggling students; other students can follow the directions on the video and be learning to play the melody, strum, and sing together When you get to two chord songs, start with F to C7, so students can learn changing chords with easier chord shapes Teach the 12-Bar Blues The 12-bar blues are part ofnafme's Common Core standards for music for harmony instruments (piano, guitar, ukulele) The more difficult G 7 chord is used sparingly in the key of C Learning blues makes it easy for students to create their own songs Students can learn how to improvise using a simplified blues scale Students can learn about the history of American music and its connection to historical events Students love "the blues"! Move on to pop songs once the students can play three chord songs There are many video lessons on Y outube; you can also easily find lead sheets For older students, consider a Power Point, teaching the history of pop music from 1950 to the present day; choose one or two songs per decade for students to watch and respond to; teach students to cover these songs (very popular in my Junior High Ukulele classes) Consider watching the Axis of Awesome parody Four Chords ; teach students your own version of four chord songs; students could develop their own lists of our chord songs they want to learn NN1612K
Let's Play and Learn Just Like the Students Grab a ukulele and learn the beginning stages of this instrument with sample pages and videos from Ukulele Fundamentals FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) Why can't I use a pick? There is no pick guard on the ukulele; you might damage the instrument I'm left handed; can I hold it the other way? There are many schools of thought on this, but I prefer to teach my left-handed students to play the same way right-handed people do; it is less confusing for the class at large and learning to be ambidextrous is good for the brain What if students won't sing? One solution is to teach melody tab for the more accomplished players and chords for the less experienced students; this is a good way to differentiate for students with guitar background, and ukulele duets sound beautiful Q and A (Questions and Answers) NN1612K