Buying 30 ukuleles for junior high general music classroom

That Cordoba 15CM just might be the best sounding all laminate concert in it's price range, especially if you can get a quantity discount and set up. HMS doesn't normally carry ukes they don't think are good value. You'd have to depend on the seller's customer service though. Kala has great customer service from the factory. I don't hear great things about the Lanikai.

Thanks for the impressions, that is what I've read as well.

In addition to the kala ka-c, cordoba 15cm, empire music Classic cl500, I think I should throw in the ohana ck10s. It should be comparable to the kala and cordoba, and I have a few dealers by me that may carry them so I can check out.

I think my decision ultimately will come down to customer service, setup, bundle pricing, and reputation of the company in supporting their dealers when things break down within and outside of warranty.

Recstar24 said:

4) curricular materials - I really like the ukulele in the classroom series by James hill as it promotes music literacy and music reading, and it fits very nicely into our national music standards. Bruce emery, the skeptical guitarist series has a ukulele from scratch book that I have loved playing and I think would be very accessible to the kids. Jumpin Jim's book of tunes and tips has also been fun and can see the kids enjoying stuff from there. If you have anything else to throw out there in terms of song books, method books, please let me know!

Click to expand...

I did not see anyone address this item, so I figured I'd offer the following:

James Hill's 'Ukulele In The Classroom' is used all over the world:
(mostly paid materials and lessons)
http://www.ukuleleintheclassroom.com/

Jim D'Ville also has lots of resources you could adapt:

(free materials and lessons)

http://www.playukulelebyear.com/

also Uncle Rod Higuchi's boot camp is widely used (and highly regarded here on UU):

(free materials and lessons)

http://ukulelebootcamp.weebly.com/

and for inspiration to the kids, you could show them:

http://ukulele4kids.com/

Maybe for a songbook as a reference point (lots of the songs are VERY easy for the most part, and many in the key of C, and the intro of the books has lots of starting points for the complete newbie):

The Daily Ukulele: 365 Songs For Better Living (FMM-B-365)
http://www.fleamarketmusic.com/store/Scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=258

FYI, Flea Market Music is Jim Beloff's company, that is also partnered with The Magic Fluke Company (his wife's brother) and you can see the rest of the books he has here as well:

http://www.fleamarketmusic.com/store/Scripts/prodList.asp?idCategory=24

Also, a few months ago James Hill started a new project/web site with tutorials and materials, with video sessions, called The Ukulele Way. One of the options and tracks on the site is for ukulele/music teachers, as well as a certification process for those teachers that are involved in this curriculum.

I've just started looking at this web site for learning from myself. Fellow UU brother HippieGuy, aka Brad Bordessa (http://liveukulele.com) is the admin for The Ukulele Way web site.

http://www.theukuleleway.com/more-guest/faq

--

I was also thinking, that as a source of inspiration for the kids, another thing maybe to consider is to see if you can have any of the many current professional ukulele musicians come and give a workshop for the kids, many of them do, but I have no idea of the cost, or if they donate their time for the schools, such as:

1. Aldrine Guerrero (one of the founders of Ukulele Underground, and professional ukulele recording artist who tours the world, and gives workshops as well)
2. James Hill
3. Jake Shimabukuro
4. Sarah Maisel
5. Jim D'Ville (who also does some sponsorship/facilitation to distribute ukes with Kala)
6. Lil' Rev
7. Brad Bordessa
8. Danielle Ate The Sandwich
9. Brittni Paiva
10. Taimane Gardner
11. Aaron Keim (of Mya-Moe ukuleles and his band The Quiet American)
12. Gerald Ross

(you can see them perform on YouTube if you are not familiar with a specific artist, but I did not link them, let me know if you can not find a video or their official web site)

There are many MANY others, and I can not possibly list them all, but these folks could be a starting point, and I am sure that other folks here on UU can fill in anyone else that I have not listed - also many of the folks in this list are in fact members here on UU.

(If you do not see your name on the list, please do not be offended)

--

Separately, I know that they are far outside the budget, and please don't hate me for interjecting this, but I'd want to mention the Flea model ukulele from The Magic Fluke Company.

Their instruments are easily playable out of the box, and they stand behind them with great service. The way they are made is a bit different from other ukes (polycarbonate back and fingerboard) and as such they are more tolerant of abuse as opposed to a traditional all-wood instrument. They sound great as well.

Maybe you can work something out with The Magic Fluke Company. Many here on UU have reported that both Dale and Phyllis Webb (owners) are great folks, and the one time I spoke with Phyllis on the phone she was very helpful. My Fluke and Flea ukes are my favorite instruments. (see this thread).

The worst they can do is say no, or offer a bundle price that can not be met by your budget, so it does not hurt to just ask.

Maybe they can send you a demo unit to test out?

Fellow UU brother bazmaz (Barry) has done some reviews on his web site which each include a video segment with sound samples:

http://www.gotaukulele.com/2010/05/flea-ukulele-from-magic-fluke-company.html
http://www.gotaukulele.com/2010/10/fluke-ukulele-review.html
http://www.gotaukulele.com/2012/08/long-term-test-fluke-ukulele.html

Maybe they can do some kind of volume purchase agreement with the school for the students to buy these ukuleles at the end of the term. I can guarantee you that the Flea is 100% more playable out of the box than any of the other brand/model ukuleles that you have listed previously.

Also, Mike McQueen (owner) of Uke Republic has some video demos with sound samples here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1yg2o1ly50
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMPxO3dEnYs

(Full disclosure: I got my Flea from Uke Republic, but have no affiliation with them, just a very happy customer)

Keep in mind that a poorly made or unplayable instrument will only frustrate the students, as well as mask if the problem is with the student or the instrument, hindering progress.

Hope this helps!

I am definitely sold on the James hill classroom series. A friend loaned me a few of the lessons from book 1 and the progression is excellent. Smooth learning curve that starts with open string melodies, then to c scale, f scale, and g scale, with melodies for each one. Then it introduces c chord, f chord, g chord, all with appropriate and cool songs. Each song has 2 parts, with the uke 2 part significantly easier than the uke 1 part, allowing for classroom differentiation, and there are some cool call and response and harmonic things going on as well. My overall opinion is that on the surface the way it is sequenced is absolutely genius, and do believe it is a legitimate way of teaching music literacy, and it hits on almost every component within our national standards for arts and music. Ill mix in some fun days of where the kids can just jam and strum out a bit in pop tunes, and I think it will be a pretty cool experience for the kids.

Love the magic fluke, but unless they can offer a significant discount, completely out of budget lol. I'll send an email but I won't be mad if I don't get a reply back lol.

EDIT: yeah a concert flea would be just under $200. If we are going to do a set of 30 that means they would need to be willing to offer them at $100 to meet my budget. Ummm....don't think that's going to happen, and I wouldn't want them to have to lose out either. Beautiful ukes though, that mango looks great.

Out of curiosity, what age group will you be working with here? Will the kids be allowed to take the instruments home or will they remain in the classroom for rotating groups.

Hopefully your budget will allow you to get some tuners. In one class my wife and I taught in a "Boys and Girls Club" we made the mistake of not making the kids responsible for tuning their own instruments right away and we spent way too much time doing it for them. Don't go there, it will take half your lesson time every day and make you grumpy, well it made me grumpy.

Doug W said:

Out of curiosity, what age group will you be working with here? Will the kids be allowed to take the instruments home or will they remain in the classroom for rotating groups.

Hopefully your budget will allow you to get some tuners. In one class my wife and I taught in a "Boys and Girls Club" we made the mistake of not making the kids responsible for tuning their own instruments right away and we spent way too much time doing it for them. Don't go there, it will take half your lesson time every day and make you grumpy, well it made me grumpy.

Click to expand...

Junior high, specifically 7th and 8th graders. Currently the 7th graders have been doing guitar but it hasn't been going well - for many of them, their hand size is an issue doing a lot of the primary chords, and even trying to stretch to 3rd fret is too difficult for many on simple melodies. I believe the ukulele is more age appropriate for that group and will allow them to access "music" much faster without the same physical obstacles that guitar has shown.

Our school is 1:1, which is a technology initiative where every child has some sort of device in class such as an iPad in our case, and teachers are able to get apps downloaded on the districts cost if it has a curricular purpose. I use instuner and the idea is the students would just use the same on their iPad, though a few clip on tuners could be helpful.

recstar, you said you were going to order 30 ukes for "hundreds of students".

Who gets to take them home, or how will they be able to practice outside of class?

itsme said:

recstar, you said you were going to order 30 ukes for "hundreds of students".

Who gets to take them home, or how will they be able to practice outside of class?

Click to expand...

Unfortunately students will not be able to take one of the classroom ukes home, for the obvious reasons of making sure that our ukes stay in good shape and don't go missing. I'll have a list provided that encourages parents to purchase an uke for their child with a few options for practice, but it is not required.

Will you be planning to have a spare uke or two on hand? (in excess of actual class size)

Even if the vendor supports repairs (and shipping is involved), or local luthier, you may have a time when a few ukes are out of commission due to damages or other failures, it might be helpful to have 1 or 2 on standby for that occasion.

Otherwise, until the issue is resolved, some students may be without an instrument to use.


(make sure there are no Hammers in the back of your classroom - LOL )

The 30 ukes includes a few extra. Class sizes are set around low to mid 20's with my largest class being 26. So the proposal for 30 that was approved took that into account.

We have deals for schools, give me a call. Mike 812-988-6760

Recstar, you're new here. You should know that hoosierhiver, above, is Mike H., the highly regarded and 100% reputable distributor for all Mainland ukes in the U.S. He is beloved by Mainland owners for both his quality ukes and his fine service. (Oh, and he hosts the Ukulele World Congress too.)

He's also fairly close to you, and a trip to visit him, to try out the ukes, and discuss all that you need would not go amiss.

.

hoosierhiver said:

We have deals for schools, give me a call. Mike 812-988-6760

Click to expand...

Call him. Really.

I just ordered a red cedar concert from mike this past week for my personal use!

Though now the kids ukes will be as nice as mine

Thanks Mike, we will be in touch very soon.

Recstar24 said:

I just ordered a red cedar concert from mike this past week for my personal use!

Though now the kids ukes will be as nice as mine

Thanks Mike, we will be in touch very soon.

Click to expand...

Holy cow....I never even thought of Mike! Shame on me!!

He's a really good guy and business person, and it would only be about a 3 and a half hour trip if you decided to go pick everything up yourself.

Jim Hanks said:

Another option might be Butler Music. They have a lot of blems with solid tops or even all solid for under $100 that might be better than nato/laminates you're likely to find elsewhere.
http://stores.ebay.com/Butler-Music/Ukuleles-/_i.html?_nkw=Concert+ukulele

Another thought is you might want to find a local service contract even if you don't source the instruments locally.

Click to expand...

I did Butler Music for my school uke project - got 14 gamblers special Lanaiki LU-21 sopranos (a couple were pineapples) for about $25 each. I was able to put 12 of them into service by doing the setups myself. Two were unsalvagable. I've also bought about 8 baritones from them on the gamblers special, of which 3 were playable with some setup. I'd put them under the category of "do you feel lucky". That said, if you're willing to gamble you can get a long way on a little money.

Well, it appears mike from mainland and I have reached a nice agreement! Thank you everyone and I am so happy to be a part of this community.

so my next question is how am I going to store all these ukes lol. My current room is cinder block, so I believe wall mounts are not an option. Our guitars which are going to be leaving are basically in a corner of the room in cases on top of a table. If anyone has any ideas that are maybe a little more elegant, I'm open to them.

The local junior high uses the big boxes we gave them, they put the ukes back in the individual boxes after class and then they pack them back into the big box for easy storage.
We use PVC racks at the shop, but if the room is dry the boxes might help them retain more moisture.

Recstar24 said:

Well, it appears mike from mainland and I have reached a nice agreement! Thank you everyone and I am so happy to be a part of this community.

so my next question is how am I going to store all these ukes lol. My current room is cinder block, so I believe wall mounts are not an option. Our guitars which are going to be leaving are basically in a corner of the room in cases on top of a table. If anyone has any ideas that are maybe a little more elegant, I'm open to them.

Click to expand...

I have no connection to this seller, but his design looks pretty good and the plans are reasonably priced. Of course, it will require some basic woodworking skills...
https://payhip.com/b/mhkO

river_driver said:

I have no connection to this seller, but his design looks pretty good and the plans are reasonably priced. Of course, it will require some basic woodworking skills...
https://payhip.com/b/mhkO

Click to expand...

That looks excellent - something like that from Wenger though would be super expensive I am sure.

Anyone know of anything that works well with cinder block walls? Or should I just start looking at a rack of some sort?