Teaching Ukulele?

Jimmy

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I've been playing the ukulele for a bit over a year now, and I would consider an amateur, seeing as I'm not bad but I have a long way to go.

I'm starting a club in school, though, and 2 of my 3 members (not including me) have just started playing. I think they want me to teach them some basics, which I was fine doing, until I couldn't think of anything to teach them. I was thinking of showing them a couple of songs and a couple of strum patterns, just vaguely what Dan Scanlan was teaching when I met him.

But can you give me some other tips?
 
I've been playing the ukulele for a bit over a year now, and I would consider an amateur, seeing as I'm not bad but I have a long way to go.

I'm starting a club in school, though, and 2 of my 3 members (not including me) have just started playing. I think they want me to teach them some basics, which I was fine doing, until I couldn't think of anything to teach them. I was thinking of showing them a couple of songs and a couple of strum patterns, just vaguely what Dan Scanlan was teaching when I met him.

But can you give me some other tips?

I've only been playing since last January and I going to be teaching kids uke come this January. My plan is to start off by teaching them three simple chords, so they go home the first day able to play several songs. Learning an instrument is traditionally really boring in the beginning until you get to play a song. With kids attention span being what it is, I feel if they can go home and sing and play "You are my Sunshine" there's a good chance they'll want to come back.

If you're teaching friends, pick a simple current song that you and your peers listen to and go for it. There's nothing better than being able to play a song with a group. Just have fun!
 
We have a lot of ukers at my school in Spanaway..
We also have a lot of people who want to learn because it's getting popular
I have people come to me EVERY DAY asking me to teach them

For the ones that learn fast it's easy!! Just show them something simple like "Drop baby drop" or "In The Jungle (The lion sleeps tonight)"

For the ones that are slow learners and can't even do a simple down strum.... i'm clueless on how to help them
Can somebody help ME to help THEM!?!
 
For the ones that are slow learners and can't even do a simple down strum.... i'm clueless on how to help them
Can somebody help ME to help THEM!?!

You might want to try and diagnose what's going on with that strumming hand when they try to strum. Maybe their fingers aren't used to pointing inwards and, as a result, their fingers might get caught in between the gaps of the strings. Might want to make sure the chord shape isn't that hard either while they're practicing. I know when I tried to teach my friend, he was more concerned about his fretting hand than his strumming hand. I was a pretty big victim to that myself when I started.

Or maybe you can try a basic, one string picking method to start the off so they'll build up some confidence to tackle on other things. As long as they're happy and know they can start off with something simple to get used to holding a uke, they'll naturally want to progress afterward. I'm shortchanged to offer suggestions on specific melodies because a song to recommend should be something in their typical style of music they listen to. They'll know when they're hitting some right notes when they can hear the difference themselves.

Hope that helps some :)
 
Do you know where to get book or spanish lessons of ukulele?

I want to teach to my son of 7 years old and i would like to find books or information in spanish to teach him with photos and info he can read.

Please tell me if you know any info about this.

THank you in advance.
 
Nukedoc: You mean this:
http://www.amazon.com/Fretboard-Roadmaps-Ukulele-Essential-Patterns/dp/1423400410

thank you

Ukulele JJ: thanks for your help. but i need tutorial

i cant believe ukulele still is not so known in the spanish world? in deed, no many knows in spain!!!

yep, thats the one. i was replying more to the first post in this thread to help the guy set up his tutorials. it will not only help the others, but the person leading will learn as they go too!

as far as teaching your son in spanish... the best i can do is advise you to use your skills in english and try to translate the material so that your son can understand. but just think how much better you will understand it when you have to teach it to someone else... and how much better you will become when you start to apply this knowledge to actual playing.
 
Read last comment at amazon about this book:
I've not had a lot of time to delve into this book, but it teaches moveable bar chords that can be utilized in a variety of ways. There is a lot of material in each chapter, and it assumes a lot, as in , that you'll practice A LOT, that you have A LOT of musical background, that you have A LOT of musical ability, etc. etc. etc. Not for the novice. I've been playing uke for several years and it's going to take a serious study of the book to get A LOT out of it, BUT, it could really "turn on the light bulb" for some people! If you're looking for beginning material, look elsewhere.

Can you tell me any more options to teach my son using an easy method?
 
Read last comment at amazon about this book:
I've not had a lot of time to delve into this book, but it teaches moveable bar chords that can be utilized in a variety of ways. There is a lot of material in each chapter, and it assumes a lot, as in , that you'll practice A LOT, that you have A LOT of musical background, that you have A LOT of musical ability, etc. etc. etc. Not for the novice. I've been playing uke for several years and it's going to take a serious study of the book to get A LOT out of it, BUT, it could really "turn on the light bulb" for some people! If you're looking for beginning material, look elsewhere.

Can you tell me any more options to teach my son using an easy method?

the only other option i can think of would be to look up familiar songs with chords. my go-to site is www.ultimate-guitar.com. you can search by artist or song name.

list down the chords in those songs and memorize the fingering according to an ukulele chord chart (you can google "ukulele chord chart"). strum through the song while trying to sing along. this will teach muscle memory, memorization, and rhythm.

when you are finished with that song, find another one with some of the same chords, but with one or two that are different. and keep going.
 
Yeah, all they need is some chords and some strum patterns. Just teach them a couple basic songs. For a beginner, this actually will be a lot, but it will also give them the tools to figure out a lot on their own too. And they'll enjoy playing a song or two together, even if it's really basic.

And if you have the skills, I would have really liked it if someone taught me how to read music and how to convert guitar music. I've mostly figured it out now, but it would have been nice to have someone sit me down and show me how to do it. So maybe you could do that? I still can't for the life of me figure out music when it's all those lines and stripes and plucking and whatnot. So you could teach that! Let me join your class!
 
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