Teaching an ukulele class...

So I will be teaching an ukulele class for kids between 7-17 next month and my question is this:

If you were in that age group, what song(s) would you want to learn?

That's a really good question. That's a pretty big age gap, so it's hard to tell what they're going to like. I've been teaching a couple of classes right in that range, a group of 8-10 year olds and another of 14-17 year olds, for the past few months and I've hit up everything from the standard Ka'au Crater Boys and Iz to Nickelback, Matchbox 20, and Natasha Bedingfield.

But I think the best thing you can do is ask the kids. It's really important for them to be able to play songs that they know and normally listen to, or else they might not see the point in learning and will lose interest pretty quickly.

As a first day starter, you could always bring in a song with the old reliable C, Am, F, and G7 progression with the down down up up down strum to get them acquainted, and throughout the class always sprinkle the music theory and scales and stuff they need to know; but after (or even before) the first day, it's good to take their temperatures to see where they're at and more importantly what they want. But yeah, that's about it.

Take charge and have fun!!

good advice Puremark. ("everybody go surf.....")

Since you have some experience, can I PM you and pick your brain when I have questions?

Sure! Anytime you need to.

i think they might want to learn somwhere over the rainbow

why not turn up with a couple of songs u can show them, and first class teach them basic chords, scales etc.

then ask them what they want to learn, they'll be more keen if they can pick the song and im sure some of the songs they suggest can be easily trancribed

I think you should see what they're into first. It's much easier learning through a genre you know so try working through that, unless your working with a group who has diverse music preferences. If that happens, try showing them the first song you learned cuz it's something your familiar with that you've known for a while.

deadeye said:

why not turn up with a couple of songs u can show them, and first class teach them basic chords, scales etc.

then ask them what they want to learn, they'll be more keen if they can pick the song and im sure some of the songs they suggest can be easily trancribed

Click to expand...

Haha watch they ask for something like "While My guitar Gently weeps" or "Touch".

Thanks for the advice guys. I did intend to ask what songs they would want to learn, but I do have to have something worked out initially to get their attention.

Anyone else have suggestions? I don't really listen to the radio much when I don't have to, so I might be a little out of touch with what is popular. Hmmm... maybe I should force myself to listen to some 100.3 or 98.5. Are kids even into that kind of stuff anymore though?

Misguided Musician said:

Haha watch they ask for something like "While My guitar Gently weeps" or "Touch".

Click to expand...

If they did that would be awesome. That would be fun to learn and teach. A lot better than "hey there Dalila" or something.

thats great! my boss wants me to teach an uke class but i dont know where to start either. you could also watch aldrine's first IAH video and get some pointers from that too.

ask them, after the first lesson on something simple just ask them ^^

Teach them their own song...

AdamTheHobo said:

i think they might want to learn somwhere over the rainbow

Click to expand...

I think this is a beautiful song but there is no repedativeness (probably not spelled right), It would be to hard to learn. sure the song has pretty simple chords but hard to remember. I remember when i took a classical guitar class the teacher taught us a bunch of chords and a few songs and then for our final we had to write our own 3 chord song. any 3 chords and strum we wanted, it kinda help people to express them selves... this may also be a fun thing to do....