joeybug
Well-known member
Hi everyone,
It's Joey again. Now, as you all know, I'm a beginner, getting there with my own playing but still got a lot to work on. Now, for my God daughter (who lives with my and her mum, who is my carer - just some backstory for you there!) Darla was six on the 21st Oct, I gave her her first Ukulele, a lovely blue one same as Astrid my purple on, who she has named "Mei". Now, she asked me today if she could have lessons so she could "play songs like you Aunty Joey", which just melts my heart!
We decided that every Saturday we'd do like a 30-60 mins lesson so she can learn the basics. I'm planning to set her up with a notebook like mine with all the chord formations in it the front and then songs she knows written out in another section and a final section for any songs she writes/can play/whatever she chooses. It's worked for me and I think it'll work for her too.
My questions are as follows:
Should I try to teach her two chords for the first lesson and just strumming? Or add a simple song in there too? She's just learning to read and write, so I'd write the songs out for her, but the chord names would be easy for her to read because mostly their letters which she already knows.
What are some simple one/two/three chord songs that you think might appeal to a six year old tom boy - she likes Ben 10, dinosaurs, pirates, that kind of thing, so any songs on those subjects that are easy would be great!
How do I keep this "fun" for her? My worry is she'll get bored with just practising the same stuff, and lose interest and the Ukulele SHOULD be fun. I also don't want to give her too much to practise and have her overwhelmed and think it's too much work, again, taking away the fun of the Ukulele! What kind of balance is there? Two songs? Three? Four? More than that?
How much emphasis should I put on strumming up and down with her hand, or should I just let her get the feel of whatever direction is comfortable for her and then slowly introduce the second one?
I did have a website of "Madeline's Ukulele class for children" which I would love to use, but seemed to have lost along the way! I was thinking about us watching one of those together and trying it out together and going slow, but not too slow because she'll get bored. Does anyone have the link to that website? If you know what I'm talking about of course!
Basically, I want her to love it as much as I do, but learn it as well, I want it to be fun and not seem like work, because although she loves school, she doesn't want that at home too. I think I'll probably approach it from a "if you want to do it this Saturday we can, if next Saturday you don't want to, that's fine.." not gonna to force her, the love of it will make her want to play it one day!
Thanks for your help and advice, sorry this is a bit long!
Joey
It's Joey again. Now, as you all know, I'm a beginner, getting there with my own playing but still got a lot to work on. Now, for my God daughter (who lives with my and her mum, who is my carer - just some backstory for you there!) Darla was six on the 21st Oct, I gave her her first Ukulele, a lovely blue one same as Astrid my purple on, who she has named "Mei". Now, she asked me today if she could have lessons so she could "play songs like you Aunty Joey", which just melts my heart!
We decided that every Saturday we'd do like a 30-60 mins lesson so she can learn the basics. I'm planning to set her up with a notebook like mine with all the chord formations in it the front and then songs she knows written out in another section and a final section for any songs she writes/can play/whatever she chooses. It's worked for me and I think it'll work for her too.
My questions are as follows:
Should I try to teach her two chords for the first lesson and just strumming? Or add a simple song in there too? She's just learning to read and write, so I'd write the songs out for her, but the chord names would be easy for her to read because mostly their letters which she already knows.
What are some simple one/two/three chord songs that you think might appeal to a six year old tom boy - she likes Ben 10, dinosaurs, pirates, that kind of thing, so any songs on those subjects that are easy would be great!
How do I keep this "fun" for her? My worry is she'll get bored with just practising the same stuff, and lose interest and the Ukulele SHOULD be fun. I also don't want to give her too much to practise and have her overwhelmed and think it's too much work, again, taking away the fun of the Ukulele! What kind of balance is there? Two songs? Three? Four? More than that?
How much emphasis should I put on strumming up and down with her hand, or should I just let her get the feel of whatever direction is comfortable for her and then slowly introduce the second one?
I did have a website of "Madeline's Ukulele class for children" which I would love to use, but seemed to have lost along the way! I was thinking about us watching one of those together and trying it out together and going slow, but not too slow because she'll get bored. Does anyone have the link to that website? If you know what I'm talking about of course!
Basically, I want her to love it as much as I do, but learn it as well, I want it to be fun and not seem like work, because although she loves school, she doesn't want that at home too. I think I'll probably approach it from a "if you want to do it this Saturday we can, if next Saturday you don't want to, that's fine.." not gonna to force her, the love of it will make her want to play it one day!
Thanks for your help and advice, sorry this is a bit long!
Joey