Croaky Keith
Well-known member
I piddled with that ukulele on the couch. At the end of the 3 days, I knew it was time to shop.
Uke Fever! :rofl::music:
I piddled with that ukulele on the couch. At the end of the 3 days, I knew it was time to shop.
Wow Choirguy, great story and even greater that ukulele has made a difference for some of those kids! I applaud your efforts.
Thank you, everyone, for your replies (so far) to this thread. I enjoy hearing these stories (long and short), and the "marketer" in me thinks that a ukulele manufacturer should contact some of you to make some promotional materials.
My own story of falling in love with this instrument is based on career. I teach middle school music, in a setting where kids have to take band, choir, or orchestra. Ultimately, kids that take choir do so because they want to sing, or because they aren't in band or orchestra. As I result, I work with a mix of students that want to be there and those that do not, and there are no other options for those kids. My administration allows band and orchestra to be band and orchestra, but I am told that choir is to simply be an "experience." As a result, if kids don't/won't sing--there is nothing I can do. There were two other teachers in this position before me...one that left the school to teach middle school in a district where choir was not required; the other was a first year teacher that totally lost control of their classes (they had to have other teachers in the room to try to keep control of the classes). In a relatively wealthy district, it is a tough school with low income (not really diverse) and few consequence from admin or home. When kids don't care about grades, calls home, or trips to the office, there isn't much a teacher can do if a student decides to not learn or to be distruptive.
I struggled through 2 1/2 years of trying to make traditional choir work for my students. While I restored general order to the classroom versus the previous teacher, the traditional choral approach just wasn't working. And this may sound mean--since no one really seems to care about the condition of the program, I have the freedom to do other things, as long as it doesn't cost the school any money.
I had been seeing many articles about the ukulele on my music education social media feeds, and thought, "What if I brought the ukulele to choir?" So I did some research and bought four of the very cheapest ukuleles I could purchase to demo. That was November 2015. I decided to go ahead with a plan to get a classroom set of ukuleles for my classes (58 of them), and approached my parents about sponsoring a program for about a $2200 investment. Between parent donations and fundraising (no cost to the school), we bought all of those ukuleles by mid January, 2016.
I had to buy my own ukulele to work with, so I bought a Makala CE (the first one from Amazon buzzed, was sent back, and then I ordered the next one which was okay) and fell in love. The last year has been the equivalent of a master's degree in ukulele, learning all about the instrument, how to teach the instrument, and how to play the instrument. That started in January of 2016.
Here is the harsh reality: 2.5 years of working with a (percentage) of kids that at best didn't try and at worst sabatoged my attempts to teach music, I was losing my love of teaching, and with a doctorate in music education, I can admit that I had lost my love of music. The ukulele rekindled that love of music in my life.
While I am sure the choral purists out there would hate what I am doing with ukulele and choir, my "singers" appreciate the instrument as they realize that they are on a path to be able to learn and play the music they want to play/sing. A number of the previous non-participants like the instrument. And even some of the absolute toughest kids won't make any effort but will sit there and strum a C6 chord endlessly (to be honest, I don't get that part).
Make no mistake--the teaching isn't any easier, and while participation is higher than before with my ukulele/choir approach, it is still an incredibly hard job. But the addition of the ukulele helps me to get through each day, and I come home and play every night. I love the social aspect of the ukulele and getting together with others to play (and to hear their stories)
Make no mistake--the teaching isn't any easier, and while participation is higher than before with my ukulele/choir approach, it is still an incredibly hard job. But the addition of the ukulele helps me to get through each day, and I come home and play every night. I love the social aspect of the ukulele and getting together with others to play (and to hear their stories)