Uke book/lessons for a 6-year old?

igorthebarbarian

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Hi UU'ers,

My friend, who lives out of state, is buying his 6-year old son a ukulele for Christmas. I told him to go through MIM's and get something that he thinks will be visually appealing for the boy. Thinking that way he'll be more likely to pick it up. When he was at my house earlier this year, he enjoyed the Flea that I had left out. So I think it's a pretty good gift. (Also it gives me something to play if I go visit! ha!)

My question here to you folks - do you have any good beginner books, or online youtube lessons, that he should be getting? I mainly self taught myself, with a big shout out to Uncle Rod's Boot Camp, but I think that is probably much too far advanced/too much information for a 6-year old.

Any suggestions? (Thanks in advance as always.)
 
There are so many approaches to take; Heidi Swedberg has a ukulele play along/coloring book; Alfred has ukulele books for kids, and there are so many videos out there (from the play along videos we have been creating to individual song how to’s to step-by-step instructional videos). As you aren’t creating a reproducible curriculum, maybe the thing to do is to find out what the young man would like to play and work that direction?
 
Four grandkkids ages 7, 6, 6, & 4 are getting a thin binder with their name and a picture of their Christmas uke on the cover. Inside are printouts of some easy songs that I also play so we can play together such as Three Little Birds, Ring of Fire, & the ever popular Hokey Pokey. These are from Dr. Uke, Scorpex etc. so I just went through my saved files .

My oldest GK has always been fascinated by the circle of fifths mammoth, so I printed that out to include as well:
http://www.mammothgardens.com/uke/UkuleleCircleofFifths.jpg
 
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21 songs in 6 days is a great start for that age. I have taught this method to my grandkids and although these gals seem silly, they do have a background in teaching music. They do start with the basics in a great order for little people. They also have YT videos that go along with each lesson. Six days is too quick for a little one so I spread each lesson out weekly for that age.

Here are the YT channel https://www.youtube.com/user/UkuleleChord/featured
The book is available on Amazon and they have a kindle version

They start with three songs for each chord starting in this order C, Am, F, F&C, C&G7, C F&G7
 
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Wow, thank you all so much for these recommendations.
I'll send him the link for these recommendations. The Youtube channel is probably a good one too, since the boy is probably already a youtube user!
Also, it's good to hear that some of you have actual first-hand experience with teaching a 6-year old (I worried that it'd be a little too young initially).
I'm 900 miles away so there's not much I can do in terms of teaching him hands-on.
Thanks!
 
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UkeRepublic sells Dolphins and Sharks for about $65 set-up, new strings (of your choice) and shipped. Heidis book would probably be good, she's good with kids! http://sukeyjumpmusic.com/
 
Marcy Marxer's DVD "Ukulele for Kids" is a very good resource for youngsters. Ginger (a large, lovable dog puppet) plays a prominent role in the child-friendly lessons.
homespun.com/shop/product/ukulele-for-kids-dvd-one-play-in-ten-easy-lessons
 
I'm 900 miles away so there's not much I can do in terms of teaching him hands-on.

Heidi Swedberg, mentioned in the second post, is local to me and I've seen her in action with kids - they love her and I think she does a great job with them. She does offer Skype lessons, although I'm not sure how well that would work for someone so young. She's also got a few basic tutorials scattered around YouTube, which may be helpful.
 
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