Set Up
When starting your club the first thing to figure out is who you will be offering it to. I decided on just having 6th grade do the club this year. I offered 30 spots and I had about 15 students that ended up signing up. No shame in starting small 😉
Do you really need chairs? Nope! I stressed myself out the first few weeks setting up chairs and stands for the students. One morning I decided to see if they would be okay sitting on the floor and they were totally fine. Chairs and stands are nice, but not a necessity.
Curriculum
When considering what to teach your students, take a well rounded approach! I include tab, chords, and strumming patterns in mine! I will say tab is more difficult for students, but very rewarding!
C, Am, and F
C, F, and Am is a great place to hang out for a while! I found that my students could master these chords pretty quickly and enjoyed playing many songs with these! “Thunder” by Imagine Dragons and “Best Day of My Life” by American Authors are two great songs to start with.
Ukulele Play-Along Videos
Ukelele play alongs are the BOMB. They boost students confidence and help them play together well.
Pacing
Give out a lot for variety, but focus on little sections each day. Overwhelm, is something so many students experience when learning an instrument. I started to realize I needed to have little mini brain breaks from playing. Whether this was a video time or a quick review game it was helpful to help a mix of playing vs. non-playing activities.
Tuning
Tuning is quite difficult to teach students. As difficult as it is, it is vital to try! This will allow for students to have meaningful practice at home and lead to less frustration. Tuning captains are great to have. I will teach students one on one and test them to see if they can tune a quite out of tune ukulele. When they pass, they become a helper when tuning at the start of class. I find it helpful for students to have a guide (you can check it out by clicking on the photo) that can walk them through what to do if they forget a step. Towards the end of the club season I had about a third of my students able to tune independently!
Three Beginner Strums
Three Finger Chords
Finally, the dreaded three finger chords. Just rip the band aid. I have found when trying to teach G and G7 students have quite the difficult time. You just have to do it! Remind them that they will be able to play so many songs if they can just stick with it! It seems that G7 is slightly easier for students to learn first and then flip when ready to play G. I would build students confidence with many easier chord songs first before introducing this chord, but at some point you just have to do it! Be prepare to do a lot of encouraging! When some students start to get G7/G I will pair them up with students that don’t have it quite yet. They can work together to play F, Am, C, and G/G7 songs together. One student plays the F, Am, and C chord while the other student is just in charge of the G chord. Team work makes the dream work!
Good Luck!
