Aloha. I am in Hawai'i, the Ka'u district of the island of Hawai'i at the Kahamoku Hawaiian Music and Lifestyle Workshop. I am learning more ukulele and meeting some great young players. One of these players is Brad Bordessa who has his own blog on the 'ukulele www.liveukulele.com. You can find a lot of information there on the playing.
Today I have a rough video (my video and editing skills are primitive) to share with you. It is my way of communicating with my students at home while I am at the workshop. I hope you all enjoy.
A BIG MAHALO to Brad for his time and input into this lesson.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Friday, November 20, 2009
'Ukulele on KQED California report
I forgot to share this link. Hope I do it right. Not sure.
To go to the site, click the title of this entry.
To go to the site, click the title of this entry.
A time of Thanksgiving
Ahhhh! A well earned week off with the Thanksgiving Holiday. One of the best ideas from the bargaining team I was on. Then, a week at Keoki Kahumoku's Hawaiian Music and Lifestyle workshop. (http://www.konaweb.com/keoki/).
This last week we had another 'ukulele club meeting. I think we had about 50. They divided into groups and started jamming on some songs. Had about 4 groups. Karsten had a large group and was in heaven playing my Lehua tenor that I recently outfitted with a pickup. I also recently picked up 2 practice amps for $10 each off craigslist. Karsten really enjoyed playing my uke with the amp and had all the kids around him enthralled. He was showing them something. I was working with some kids who are just learning some chords and wanted to learn Island Style.
On Wednesday I did a video of Karsten playing. I will do some editing of it and post it at a later date. It is about 10 minutes long. He is getting better and better. A couple of the science teachers were commenting on how nice it is to hear and see all the 'ukuleles on campus and how good Karsten is. Let's me know that I am doing the right thing.
I will try to post more later. It has been a long week with parent/teacher conferences and lesson planning for a sub the week after Thanksgiving.
Aloha.
This last week we had another 'ukulele club meeting. I think we had about 50. They divided into groups and started jamming on some songs. Had about 4 groups. Karsten had a large group and was in heaven playing my Lehua tenor that I recently outfitted with a pickup. I also recently picked up 2 practice amps for $10 each off craigslist. Karsten really enjoyed playing my uke with the amp and had all the kids around him enthralled. He was showing them something. I was working with some kids who are just learning some chords and wanted to learn Island Style.
On Wednesday I did a video of Karsten playing. I will do some editing of it and post it at a later date. It is about 10 minutes long. He is getting better and better. A couple of the science teachers were commenting on how nice it is to hear and see all the 'ukuleles on campus and how good Karsten is. Let's me know that I am doing the right thing.
I will try to post more later. It has been a long week with parent/teacher conferences and lesson planning for a sub the week after Thanksgiving.
Aloha.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Uke class and club
Well the first quarter is over and I have taught 24 students the basics of playing the ukulele. They did not want to rotate to their next elective so I may start with a lunch time jam for the alums of the class.
They learned the basic C scale and how to read simple musical notes. I decided not to teach them to read tabulature. They learned the basic chord progressions for G, C and F as well as some in A (they wanted to learn Drop, Baby Drop so I used Aldreine's video from Ukulele Underground). I also taught them the picking part and they did really well.
This next group of 26 may be a bit more challenging but I think they will get into the groove in the next week. It is always a challenge when they first start. It is different and new.
I decided to put a pickup into my Lehua tenor that I use at school as I found that when I used a small practice amp they would stay together better as far as beat and tempo. So now I can plug in my Po Mahina and the Lehua. All I have to do now is restring the Lehua with the high G, though I am still hesitant, not sure why.
The Ukulele Club after school is going strong. We had about 60+ at the last meeting. We were competing with an after school volleyball game against the other middle school in the district. The kids who don't play are learning basic chords and strum. I am going to try to get those who do play to bring in some of their music and let them use my Lehua, plugged in, to jam together. My challenge is to keep those who play already engaged in the club so that as students learn more they can jam and play together. It is a large group and they are all pretty enthusiastic. Since I am doing the Club every other week there are a number of kids who come by on the off Tuesday with their ukuleles wanting to come and play. Sometimes I have a few of them hang out in my room and do minor repairs to tuning pegs or restring an instrument. They are funny these kids. They think that doing these things is magical.
They learned the basic C scale and how to read simple musical notes. I decided not to teach them to read tabulature. They learned the basic chord progressions for G, C and F as well as some in A (they wanted to learn Drop, Baby Drop so I used Aldreine's video from Ukulele Underground). I also taught them the picking part and they did really well.
This next group of 26 may be a bit more challenging but I think they will get into the groove in the next week. It is always a challenge when they first start. It is different and new.
I decided to put a pickup into my Lehua tenor that I use at school as I found that when I used a small practice amp they would stay together better as far as beat and tempo. So now I can plug in my Po Mahina and the Lehua. All I have to do now is restring the Lehua with the high G, though I am still hesitant, not sure why.
The Ukulele Club after school is going strong. We had about 60+ at the last meeting. We were competing with an after school volleyball game against the other middle school in the district. The kids who don't play are learning basic chords and strum. I am going to try to get those who do play to bring in some of their music and let them use my Lehua, plugged in, to jam together. My challenge is to keep those who play already engaged in the club so that as students learn more they can jam and play together. It is a large group and they are all pretty enthusiastic. Since I am doing the Club every other week there are a number of kids who come by on the off Tuesday with their ukuleles wanting to come and play. Sometimes I have a few of them hang out in my room and do minor repairs to tuning pegs or restring an instrument. They are funny these kids. They think that doing these things is magical.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Benefit Concert
Things are happening this coming week. Derick Sebastian, a wonderful uke player from Maui, is giving a benefit concert for the AMS 'Ukulele club on Wednesday, October 7 @ 6 pm. It will be at Alvarado Middle School in Union City - $3 for students and families, $5 all other. No one turned away for lack of funds. In addition, Rick Rasay and his local group Garden Island Blend will also be performing. It should be fun. I hope to get at least 100 folks to come. Derick is an inspirational type of player, having started playing 'ukulele while in middle school. I am looking forward to hearing again.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
AMS 'Ukulele Club First Meeting 09-10
This afternoon was the first meeting of the Alvarado Middle School 'Ukulele for this year. Last year about 35 students came and about 15 stuck with it throughout the year. This year we had 83 students show up for the first meeting. We had a hint that it was going to be big because last week we had 83 sign up for the club. Not everyone who signed up in advance came and lots who had not signed up did come.
What we are going to try to do is create 3 or four groups within the group. I say we including 2 other teachers at school, Kim and Marcella, who play a little 'ukulele and can get kids started on the learning. We will try to have a group of students who will jam together, a group of advanced beginners and then one or two groups of beginners. Hopefully we will get the beginners caught up quickly.
I am still in amazement that 83 students actually came to the club.
What we are going to try to do is create 3 or four groups within the group. I say we including 2 other teachers at school, Kim and Marcella, who play a little 'ukulele and can get kids started on the learning. We will try to have a group of students who will jam together, a group of advanced beginners and then one or two groups of beginners. Hopefully we will get the beginners caught up quickly.
I am still in amazement that 83 students actually came to the club.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
A new school year !
Aloha to all,
The new school year has started and I am getting in the swing of things. The exciting part of this school year is that I am teaching Beginning Ukulele on what we call the 6th grade activity wheel. One period a day (50 minutes) I will teach 25-30 6th graders ukulele for about 10 weeks. Then I get a new set of students. Thanks to Elaine deMan of Kani-ka-pila Klips and Louis at Ohana ukulele I was able to purchase 30 Ohana soprano ukuleles. Many thanks for all your help in getting that done.
In addition to the class I am going to continue to do the afterschool ukulele club on Tuesdays. I have had a number of students want to be in the ukulele class but they are not 6th graders. There are also a number of students who know how to play the ukulele and have said they will come to the club. I am excited about all the ukulele that is going on at school.
I am also grateful that the Principal and Assistant Principals are supportive of my efforts, though there is no money for any of this. It is nice to walk around campus and hear students playing the ukulele.
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