Grade School Ukulele Club Songs

PTOEguy

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As we're heading back into the school year, I'm looking at what we're going to play in the uke club I help with at my kids grade school, and I'd like some suggestions.

We are a Christian school, and have done both sacred and secular music. The students range from 3rd to 8th grade and have a wide range of musical talent.

Last year we played "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" and the Ukulele Underground version of "Stand by Me". For Stand by Me, we also had a student uke-bass player, one of our students doing the uke solo and a student violinist taking a solo as well.

I'm looking to identify a couple of uke-friendly sacred songs, one sacred and one secular christmas song, and for our spring concert I'd like to do something fun and kind of classic for uke.

What should I be looking at both in songs and arrangements?
 
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Do Lord is a good one. I like it and kids like it. Basic open chords. That's a good one, because you can skip a few chords and still get through the song, then add them later to spice it up a little.
 
I am also a music educator using ukulele, in the context of choir. I don't want to be negative here, but a simple Google Search of "two chord songs" "one chord songs" and "ukulele songs for kids" will pull up hundreds of songs for you to work with. The good news is that most of the simple songs are based in the folk tradition, and are generally "clean," although some of the folk songs do have a very dark side.

Furthermore, a lot of traditional hymns have very basic chord structure and can be reduced to three or four chords.

Even a search on this website for "two chord songs" and "three chord songs" will be likely to generate content.

As for arrangements--meaning ensemble work for ukulele (and sometimes other instruments), that is a bit more rare and something you may have to create yourself to meet your needs. I'd recommend the work of Paul Marchese (http://www.ukuleleforteachers.com) who is also here on UU, and also the work of M. Ryan Taylor (http://ukuleleplay.com) in this area of work.
 
Please advise good online courses, ukulele school, is this an appropriate place?
Thanks in advance!
 
https://www.jwpepper.com is a good resource for chorale pieces, but it isn't cheap.

"Easy Ukulele Songs For Kids" is on Amazon. I has 40 songs. I have not read or used it though.

ChoirGuy has a lot of info and resources for music education on his site/blog. He posted #4 of this thread.
 
Originally Posted by ukuleleteacher
I'm a school's music mentor in the elementary classroom (have been forced by our headmaster, have 30 kids in class). Need help with ukulele songs and customwritingz with lyrics analysis tasks.

Yeah, when you have 30 kids in class, it's not that easy.
These resources can be useful for your ukulele club:

Ukulelego >> lessons
Uke of Carl
bernadetteteachesmusic.com
 
You have a great learning approach. It can be seen that you care because you are preparing for the beginning of the year and you are interested in the opinion of other professionals before embodying your plans with regard to the methods and form of training! I plan to start learning music, and I also got a ukulele for my birthday. At the beginning of the school year, I also want to start music lessons. Tell me, do you practice songwriting with your students? I would really like to try myself as a songwriter, and I also found such a resource https://uk.edubirdie.com/plagiarism-checker which I used in college. Do you think this plagiarism checker can be used for such purposes, and not just for academic texts? Thanks in advance for your answers!
 
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Maybe I'll teach someone to play the ukulele when I have kids. I got interested in this instrument when I went to college in Miami asa florida. I found online courses and made my first steps in music there. Of course, to learn to play more professionally, you have to find a full-time course. I hope I will be able to do it. I, like many people, believe that the ukulele was invented in Hawaii. It is not surprising because when you see or hear a ukulele, there are images of Pacific beaches, bright sunshine, and beautiful islanders with flower necklaces. It's all thanks to the movies and music videos that have instilled these associations in us. And it turns out the ukulele was brought to Hawaii from Portugal.
 
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There are many music books in the public domain that can be used to teach arrangements, rhythmic patterns, and notes. And I'm sure there are similar books even on a musical instrument like the ukulele. The main thing is to find it, and then everything will be written down, how to do this or that exercise. The most important thing is to practice the instrument regularly, at least a few hours a day. I will also be enrolling in one of the universities of Nigeria within a few days, and I want to find out which jamb cut-off marks are necessary for admission.
 
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I'll just throw out a suggestion from my days as both a youth minister and elementary school teacher: Yellow Submarine. I don't know if The Beatles are too secular for your community, but for ours, this was just about right. :) I found that everybody's face lit up for this one - parents, kids, the rest of the ministerial team. Didn't need to ask anyone to sing along, either, because everyone did spontaneously.

Five easy chords, but if you need to make it a little harder you can transpose accordingly. It also feels a little more advanced than it is because there are some gear changes for strumming (an easy way to level up for the kids who are ready for it - otherwise, all down strums sounds GREAT), but the kids will also dig the opportunity to improvise some ship noises and dialogue ("Full steam straight ahead!"). At least that was my experience!

Good luck with this!
 
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