Tape and Magnet Chord Diagrams

My apologies for the delay in new posts…. too many school events going on, most of them non-ukulele related. Anyway, I wanted to share a quick idea I’ve been using in my classroom for the past year.

About a year ago, I purchased spike tape from Amazon, and used it to make six permanent chord diagrams on my whiteboard. Well, semi-permanent; I can always remove the tape if I need to. I also purchased a bunch of round whiteboard magnets in various colors. Now, to show the kids whatever chords I want them to see, I move the magnets to various places on the tape diagrams, and label them. When we change songs and need a different set of chords, I just erase the chord names, move the magnets around, and write new chord names.

Sometimes it’s cool to see if the kids notice when I put magnets in the wrong place. It’s also fun to ask different kids to come to the board and make the chords for us.

Anyway – just a really simple way to deal with the mundane chord diagram task. Have fun playing and teaching!

 

Teaching With Video

At my school, I see music classes for about a half hour at a time. If I’m teaching ukulele during that half hour, I’ll typically spend about 15 minutes going through the chords and rhythm for a particular song first (slowly), and then I’ll show a video of someone playing that song (Ukulele Underground, Ukulele Mike, or others). Of course, the chords used in the video match what I’ve just shown them.

I don’t always use video in ukulele class, but most of the time I do, for several reasons…

It gives the students a chance to listen to a different teacher (other than me, I mean). I’m thankful that for some unknown reason, the kids at my school seem to like me. But even on my best day, I now I’m capable of boring them. It seems to really maximize that half hour if the students are hearing the same information from a different voice.

While the students can learn from watching me play the chords, by letting them watch the video teacher, it frees me up to walk around the room and help individuals. It basically doubles my effectiveness as a teacher.

For students who have ukuleles at home and practice during the week, they can practice with the same video we used in class. It’s like taking a teacher home with them.

Of course, in some situations it might not be possible to use video – maybe in a location where the equipment or the internet connection isn’t available. But I’d guess that at least 75% of the time the equipment and connection are available, and I’ve found it to be an effective way to enhance ukulele teaching in the classroom. Sometimes when I’ve taught away from my classroom, I download the videos into my laptop first (so I don’t need an internet connection at the teaching location), and then take along a video projector.

My goal is to have my older students at school create teaching videos that I can use in the younger classes. We’ll see how that works out.

Let us know what you think. What videos have helped you? Or would you prefer to keep it simple and not use them?

Pick Your Chord And Wait For It

Last week I stumbled upon a way to help 3rd graders feel more confident in their playing. We were playing “You Are My Sunshine” in the key of C, using Ukulele Mike‘s great video. It’s not too difficult, with just three chords – C, F, & G7. Or four, if you want to use the C7.

The problem is that while most of the kids could play these chords, many of them had trouble changing from one chord to another, on time. Kind of like adult beginners. It’s just not that easy at first.

I decided to form the class into three groups – the C Team, the F Team, and the G7 Team. Then, all they had to do was wait for the right moment to play their chord, and they jumped in and played it right on time. Not unlike an orchestra player who has a bunch of rest measures, before finally jumping in and playing the right part at the right time.

After a few minutes of playing the song in the three groups, I told the kids they could play any or all the chords they wanted to, or they could just pick one and wait for the right moment.

That moment was a turning point for some of the players who are still struggling with the left hand coordination necessary to change chords on time. For those few minutes, they were part of the song, and it sounded good and they were ukulele players. At one point, many of them were lost; five minutes later, they owned that song.

I’ll probably be using that technique every time that group gets together for a while.

Welcome to Ukes With Class

Welcome! If you’re reading this site, chances are you have some sort of interest in ukuleles in schools. Maybe you’re a classroom teacher who happens to play ukulele, and finds ways to use it in your room once in a while. Maybe you’re a school music teacher, who has developed a ukulele program for your school (like me). Or maybe you think ukuleles may have a place at your school, but need inspiration and help getting started.

Whatever your school ukulele interest may be, welcome. My hope is to offer insights based on what we’ve learned at my school, and offer a place for other school ukulele people to share their experiences. I look forward to creating a School Ukulele Community here.

Our Ukulele Story:  I teach music at a small private school in the Los Angeles area. After years of being a K-5th school, we began to expand into older grades, first adding a 6th grade class. At that point, I wanted the new 6th graders doing something cooler than just playing recorders and other activities the younger grades did. So we tried guitars with them for a year, and that was OK, but then I got the idea to try ukuleles. From that point, things began to explode.

Now, almost four years later, we are a K-8th school and every student from 3rd grade and older has an opportunity to learn the ukulele. Our older students can borrow a ukulele for the school year and bring it in once a week for a ukulele class. Our younger students take advantage of our classroom set of ukuleles, and spend several days every six weeks or so learning chords and putting them into songs.

We still do things other schools do in music – play recorders, sing songs, choir, percussion instruments, watch videos, play electronic keyboards and study music history. But you can’t miss the ukuleles; even if that’s not what your class is doing at the moment, they’re always around, hanging on the wall or sitting on a shelf. We let kids borrow them. It’s not uncommon at lunch to see kids playing ukuleles outside with their friends.

Oh I should point out – in almost four years of putting ukuleles into kids’ hands, we haven’t lost one ukulele yet. We haven’t lost any kids either.

In the coming weeks and months, I look forward to learning and posting your ukulele school experiences, and learning together how to keep putting this crazy little instrument into our schools.