Ukulele!

My first ukulele student came to her lesson yesterday at Prairie Center Music & More! She is AWESOME!!! We did 14 pages in the method book to start, and I gave her a Ukulele magazine to read, and we played The Hokey Pokey, strumming F and C7 chords!

My journey into ukulele started in 2010 when I got hired to teach elementary music in Michigan. My school had a set of old hand-me-down ukuleles from Kalamazoo Public Schools. I got a library book and took one home for Christmas vacation, and I was hooked! I promptly bought myself a nice concert ukulele at a local music store, and I've been playing ever since!

My school's Music Boosters in Michigan generously bought us a full class set of new ukuleles from Sweetwater in Fort Wayne, IN. They arrived practically overnight! Those kids learned All I Want For Christmas is My Two Front Teeth, The Name Game, Big Green Tractor, Home by Philip Phillips, and Made In America by Toby Keith. They were huge Country fans!

Fun Facts: Ukuleles come in four sizes, soprano, concert, tenor, and baritone, from smallest to largest. The baritone ukulele is tuned like the top four strings of a guitar, and the three smaller ones are all tuned to match: G, C, E, A.

Strangely, the soprano, concert, and tenor's string pitches are not in order from lowest to highest. The first string when you strum down is G, the second highest note. Then comes C, like middle C on the piano which is the lowest note, followed by E and then A, the highest string. If you pluck the strings in order, it sounds like, "My Dog Has Fleas."

Another fun fact is that the three smallest ukuleles all play the same. So if you can play one, you can play any of them.

The baritone uses the same chord shapes, but the chords have different names and sounds, because the tuning is like a mini-guitar, minus the two lowest strings.

Ukuleles are easy to collect! Now I've got two sopranos, two concerts, two tenors, and a baritone, plus a U-Bass... that's an itty bitty bass made by Kala, one of the ukulele brands. The U-Bass strings are rubbery and thick. They don't hurt your fingers at all, and when it's plugged in it sounds like a real bass guitar!

If you've been thinking of ukulele lessons for a child, teen, or adult, I'm your gal! I can teach siblings or friends together, or private one-on-one lessons!