Starting My First Uke Classes in China

Luke El U

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I've always wanted to start a uke club here in Xiamen, China but lacked a good venue until now. A local tea house/merchandise co-op has offered me space and has the perfect atmosphere. The music stores in our city have been selling cheap ukes for about 3 years, but there's been no one to teach it until now - me! So far, a group of 10 students has signed up for 5 lessons, and we meet on Sundays. Everyone is a beginner, but my hope is to take this further, not as a money making enterprise, but a as a social activity. And so I'm asking y'all for ideas.
 
I meet with a group twice a month in West Los Angeles that posts upcoming music on their web site so no one person has to take the time and expense to print songs. I also attend monthly meetings in the lounge of the Japanese American Cultural Center in downtown LA organized by the owners of a uke store. It's sort of an open mic play along, where attendees can get up and lead the group with something they've been working on.
 
Our group meets 2 times a month. We have 2 members who are around 7-8 years old. They consider snack time to be one of the most important parts of every rehearsal.
 
I'm currently teaching a 16-week ukulele 'course' ( 4 series of 4-weekly sessions: I=Basics [using my UkuleleBootCamp materials - link below] going through the Keys of C, F, and G, songs 'I Love the Mountains' and 'Lion Sleeps Tonight']; II = Chords & Strums [completing the BootCamp with the Keys of A & D and 'creating' a Class Songbook - asking students to look through the SUPA Songbooks and selecting 5 songs they'd like to learn to sing and play. I print out copies for everyone (up to 9 students = 45 songs each), then we have our own customised
song circle working at learning to sing and play those songs. I add a few of my favorites as well :)]; III = Transposing & Faster Songs [continuing to add to our Class Songbook]; IV = Finger-Picking & Inversions [moving from vocal melodies to instrumental (simple) melodies and chorded melodies].

In May/June I'm planning for a 6-week Course, but haven't yet worked out each lesson plan. I'll still base it on the Ukulele Boot Camp format. I won't be able to completely duplicate the 16-week series in just 6 weeks, so I'll probably leave out the Finger-Picking module and focus on the Keys of C, F, G, A & D.

Do you have a selection of popular Chinese or other songs your students will want to learn? Can you sing and play them confidently? Learning to play the uke is what it is, but playing the songs your students will want to learn is quite a different matter, esp if those songs are NOT in 'Western' music format.

Since UU is a world-wide phenomenon, I'm sure our international members will come to your aid whenever you make your needs known on this Forum :)

Good Luck, and keep uke'in',
 
Thanks for all the great suggestions! The Chinese are very familiar with their own versions of "Red River Valley", "Oh Susanna" etc. We've already started on "You Are My Sunshine" which was their suggestion. I will ask them for Chinese pop songs. Thanks again!
 
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