Both students at Ernestine's are young but enthusiastic! This always leads to a lesson that keeps me on my toes. They always have something to share, from animal drawings to music from the newest video game! This past week I was asked to learn the theme song from Super Mario Brothers, to sing at the next lesson. I hope I can live up to this challenge!
For our last session we played our favourite game, Guess The Instrument, in which a person turns their camera off and plays an instrument or makes some sounds with objects, while the other participants guess the sound source. We also talked about how far we came through the whole session, and how fun it has been learning to play the ukulele.
As the days get longer, our evening classes at Arise are coming with lots more sunlight, which brings a fabulous energy to things. The kids were eager to begin with If You’re Happy and You Know It, again, which never fails to get things going as an intro song. Our movement songs went even more smoothly than normal, as this week one of the shelter staff figured out how to hook up the louder speakers on Arise’s TV, and the extra volume in the room meant that people could let loose a bit more for our final dancing songs without having to worry about drowning out the sound of the music. A slight change, and a huge improvement!
We had a great check in today, with many teaching opportunities. When the kids described their “musical moments” of the past week, they talked about how certain genres make them feel (i.e., hip hop makes them feel like dancing), and how certain sounds on the keyboard made them feel. This segued perfectly into listening activities about major and minor chords/scales, and a rhythm exercise where we practiced different subdivisions of beats and learned the difference between tempo and rhythm. Then we put those rhythms into practice with our major scale, adding a new pattern so that the kids could get accustomed to crossing over their thumbs while playing up the scale. They were focused and polite the whole way through, raising their hands and eager to ask questions. I couldn’t ask for better students!
Today felt like a breakthrough for some of the kids. Fortunately, the Redwood staff were very helpful in getting the kids’ ukuleles tuned prior to class, so we had more time to spend getting everyone comfortable in their playing positions. Some of the kids needed a bit of a refresher on how to hold the ukulele properly, but that was a good time to get everyone comfortable with using the language of the ukulele’s parts, which helped us later on in class once we were playing chords, switching between different rhythms, and strumming patterns. I find that with this group, the more I ask them to repeat back certain terms and principles, the better. There was definite improvement in terms of finding frets and playing individual strings, instead of strumming them all at once. My challenge for the kids this week was to make up lyrics to their own tuning song, so they can sing along to the open notes while they tune. There are always more opportunities for ear training!
This week we practiced a lot with interactive online activities. We introduced a new chord, C7, and practiced strumming, reading and some songs to put it in musical context. One of the participants during the second session didn’t have their ukulele, as they were doing the lesson while on a car ride, so we adapted the activity for them to participate. To do so, we played the strumming patterns clapping and saying the chord names.
I’m so glad we were able to continue our classes with Arise, as the kids keep on turning up with the same verve every week! Even though Zoom can feel fatiguing sometimes, I always leave our classes feeling more energized at the end than at the beginning. Lots of our songs this week focused on timing, either doubling in time (such as Ram Sam Sam or 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 5 and 6 and 7 and 8), or speeding up, like in Horsey Riding and Head and Shoulders. I’m looking forward to when we’re able to get back to in-person classes, because I feel like the kids will do a great job with timing exercises when we shake the parachute. Lots to look forward to!
We began this class with a review of our TikTok challenge (where the kids tapped their fingers together to the rhythm of a song that’s gone viral on the app). The goal of the challenge is to compare which finger different people end up on at the end of the song clip, to see how everybody counts the rhythm of this particular song (which has caused some confusion on TikTok). This segued into the main part of our lesson, which was learning the difference between quarter, half, and whole notes. We practiced these first with clapping, then with our fingers going up positions on the piano, as we practiced last week. Hopefully with this foundation we can start reading more complicated rhythms on the sheet music next week. Until then, our challenge was to find a pop song to practice counting to with alternating note values. I’m excited to learn about the kids’ favourite songs!
The first half of our class took a bit longer than expected, as a few of the ukuleles were quite wildly out of tune. Unfortunately, tuning on Zoom isn’t the easiest process, but it’s worth spending a bit of extra time to make sure the kids develop good tuning habits before they play. Likewise, we spent a bit of extra time on the proper way to hold the ukulele, and luckily some of the kids who figured it out quickly jumped in to help the younger ones. Once everyone was on the same page, we did some rhythmic strumming exercises and put those into practice with two new chords. With that foundation, the kids will be singing songs in no time. Sometimes two chords is all you need!
This week we introduced a new way to read music. Represented by numbers, this method shows what string and fret should be played. 23, for example, means you play the second string on the third fret. It was a lot of fun discovering the notes that way.
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