That’s teacher without the capital T
A friend recently became a grandmother and decided that she wanted to learn to play the uke that she had sitting around. We bought her a “learn to” book as congrats gift. During a fourth of July pig roast she convinced my wife and another friend that they should learn to play too. I said that I had a uke to lend the other friend if she wanted. The three of them said “Great and you can teach us!” Gulp.
My background is in physics not music and have only been playing for just over a year (after a 40 year sabbatical). I did have a couple copies of Daily Ukulele so paged through that to find easy songs in C. I then made up some big chord charts showing the fingering of C, Am, F, and G7.
Last night everyone shows up and after we all get in tune using Snarks I get out the chord charts. C is pretty easy as is Am. F is a bit harder and G7 tough for some. We rotated through those chord for a bit when one of them said “when are we going to play a song?”. I kept going through the chord progression and started singing Lollypop, Shaboom shaboom and You Send Me. They just looked at me sorta weird. Off to the Daily Uke book. We started out with Jambalaya. C and G7. We get done and they are all smiles. “We actually played a song”! We fumbled through some more then called it quits.
I guess the point I’m trying to make is don’t be shy to teach someone the basics. I probably wouldn’t have offered but am glad they insisted. If you keep it simple and focus on having fun you can get through it.
Hell, if I can do it anyone can
A friend recently became a grandmother and decided that she wanted to learn to play the uke that she had sitting around. We bought her a “learn to” book as congrats gift. During a fourth of July pig roast she convinced my wife and another friend that they should learn to play too. I said that I had a uke to lend the other friend if she wanted. The three of them said “Great and you can teach us!” Gulp.
My background is in physics not music and have only been playing for just over a year (after a 40 year sabbatical). I did have a couple copies of Daily Ukulele so paged through that to find easy songs in C. I then made up some big chord charts showing the fingering of C, Am, F, and G7.
Last night everyone shows up and after we all get in tune using Snarks I get out the chord charts. C is pretty easy as is Am. F is a bit harder and G7 tough for some. We rotated through those chord for a bit when one of them said “when are we going to play a song?”. I kept going through the chord progression and started singing Lollypop, Shaboom shaboom and You Send Me. They just looked at me sorta weird. Off to the Daily Uke book. We started out with Jambalaya. C and G7. We get done and they are all smiles. “We actually played a song”! We fumbled through some more then called it quits.
I guess the point I’m trying to make is don’t be shy to teach someone the basics. I probably wouldn’t have offered but am glad they insisted. If you keep it simple and focus on having fun you can get through it.
Hell, if I can do it anyone can