Anyone interested in free online lessons?

Hey all!

Long time lurker here at UU but just got around to posting and all that.

Quick introduction:

I'm an 18 year old who's currently studying in the states, but have lived in Hong Kong and Japan for most of my life. I'm minoring in business in college, and one certain professor challenged all of the students to start thinking seriously about careers that actually interest us, instead of ones that have fancy salaries or status attached to them--so, here I am.

However, I would like to believe that I am not so naive as to expect instant gratification through this one post--here's the good part for you--so I have decided to offer lessons for free to anyone interested (with certain restrictions, of course). The reasons for this are obvious: gain experience, educate myself of the variety of online channels, meet people, and possibly find connections.

I'm sorry if that sounded unapologetically honest, but I'm generally a really direct person so in full disclosure: the ultimate goal for this mini project is to network and eventually reach a stage where I can monetize my services.

My influences include a wide range of ukulele players including: Abe Lagrimas Jr, Kimo Husey, Kalei Gamiao, Jake Shimabukuro, Kris Fuchigami, Ryo Natoyama, Takahashi Nakamura and many more. The link below is my attempt at showing various styles that I have become familiar with.

https://youtu.be/UfNJPXnfL-c

I have never given online lessons before, but I have given quite a few real life lessons over the years. I taught mostly in the intermediate to advanced skill levels (but have taught plenty of beginner lessons to students as young as 4 year old!) and specialize in "Jake songs".

If anyone is interested, please PM me!

Thanks for reading a rambling newcomer. I'd love to answer any questions.

i have watched the video, i will be much interested

Great playing! I'm not up to your level of playing, though, so I'm not sure I'm at a point that I could benefit from your lessons. But I enjoyed the video!

Hi. I would be interested in getting some beginner uke lessons. I don't have a uke yet but I'm really hoping for one for the holidays. You play really well. I'm blind so you might have to be a little more detailed on what to do.

Thanks for all the responses!

i have watched the video, i will be much interested

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Hi! I've sent you a PM.

Great playing! I'm not up to your level of playing, though, so I'm not sure I'm at a point that I could benefit from your lessons. But I enjoyed the video!

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No worries at all. I just really enjoy teaching in general and also realize that there the vast majority of uke players need to find that bridge between beginner/intermediate and advanced levels. If you're still interested, I would love to arrange something.

Hi. I would be interested in getting some beginner uke lessons. I don't have a uke yet but I'm really hoping for one for the holidays. You play really well. I'm blind so you might have to be a little more detailed on what to do.

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Hi, I've sent you a PM as well.

Could you tell us a bit about your teaching style? The video demonstrates that you play very well, but doesn't give any idea about what your teaching style is like.

Absolutely. I've been playing for almost three years now, and have taught for the last year and half. When I first started playing, both online and physical resources for ukulele instruction were limited (especially as I sought harder techniques) and so I've learned almost exclusively by ear and watching others play. When I started teaching, I found I was teaching students who were either fairly proficient or complete beginners, with little in between. I attribute this phenomenon to the fact that while there are many websites and tutorials that teach the basics of the ukulele, there seems to be very little beyond. Therefore, the proficient players are usually ukulele fanatics, like me, who have both the will and free time to practice with extremely limited content and develop a strong ear for music. Given this disparity, it was necessary to teach the two groups in a completely different way:

Advanced Students:
These people were usually already familiar with chord shapes and were seeking to learn or perfect harder songs such as Jake Shimabukuro's "143", "while my guitar gently weeps" or Kris Fuchigami's "I can't take my eyes off of you". My role was mostly either to help them with finding/keeping rhythm, clarify chords that were unclear in videos or play specific parts of songs that are hard to discern simply by ear. Typically, these students catch on really quick, so most of the time is spent on showing what to do, rather than showing how to do things.

Beginner Students:
My beginner students have been comprised of both young children and adults. For them, I typically start from the basics, such as holding a ukulele, naming the strings, tuning the ukulele. Slowly, I will move on to the C-G-Am-F chords and teach additional chords through other common chord progressions such as C-F-G7, C-Cmaj7-C7-F and so on. At this point the strumming is all downstrokes. I personally have found that students learn more efficiently if they start developing the muscle memory for chords first, rather than going straight into down-down-up-up-downs. Whenever the student feels ready, I will begin teaching them the different ways of picking and allow them to choose for themselves what works best. From this point on, each student is different so I may steer lessons towards simple chord songs+ picking the melody or learning more advanced chords.

Intermediate Players:
I include this part because although I haven't encountered many players that fall into this category, I do indeed have experience in teaching in this range. I don't really have a set bread and butter lesson plan for intermediate players because each are so different. Many choose to stick to sing-alongs or developing more musicality but there are also some who wish to progress into advanced techniques and learn their first instrumental. For the former, I usually introduce alternative chords (such as multiple c chords along the fretboard) and teach them songs that are a little more difficult to play rhythm wise. For the latter, I'll usually start working through different strumming and plucking patterns.

I hope this helps.

How do you do the lessons over the internet? Does the student submit a video? Do you skype? Do you provide instructional videos? Or?

Thanks for all the information that you have provided already.

All lessons will be conducted through Skype or some quivalent.

I'm a bit confused as to your age/timeline... You posted in 2013 that you are an instructor at UkeHK... But you're only 18 now? You've been teaching since you were 15-16?

Hi! Yes, that's correct. I am very good friends with the owners of UkeHk and they were nice enough to offer me a job when I asked for it.

Moving this to Videos & Links, mostly because the OP admitted that the long-term aim is monetising services.

Although this isn't against the forum rules, I'm hoping you sought out approval from Aldrine before posting this. The UU guys have dedicated years of time and money to keep this site running and Aldrine teaches online lessons to help support himself and family. You wouldn't start a new restaurant and go give out free samples at a neighboring restaurant to promote yourself would you?

hoosierhiver said:

Although this isn't against the forum rules, I'm hoping you sought out approval from Aldrine before posting this. The UU guys have dedicated years of time and money to keep this site running and Aldrine teaches online lessons to help support himself and family. You wouldn't start a new restaurant and go give out free samples at a neighboring restaurant to promote yourself would you?

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+1

A very good analogy.

I have already responded to some members' concerns regarding my post. How can I contact Aldrine and the UU team? I would like to apologize.

powerpuffs said:

I have already responded to some members' concerns regarding my post. How can I contact Aldrine and the UU team? I would like to apologize.

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Thanks for the pm. Very thoughtful of you, good luck with the teaching.