! ! ! ! !! Thinking of starting a group at your school? • Invite students of a targeted age group to sign up for ukulele e.g. Year 3-4, 5-6, 7-8 or year 9-10. • Start with ukuleles tuned and ready to go – NZ Ukulele recommends the most common tuning of G C E A. • Sing and pluck: Giraffes Can Eat Anything (more useful that My Dog Has Fleas as it names the open strings). • Strum some easy one or two chord songs to get everyone playing and singing. C requires one finger on one fret – super easy. • Identify the more rhythmic strummers and scatter them in your group. Two enthusiastic out of time strummers sitting together can create a lot of havoc! • Start with Down / Down / Down / Down with a relaxed wrist and fingers. Strum with you thumb. • Play one-chord songs such as Frere Jacques, Row Your Boat and We Will Rock You. • Move on to two chord songs: Ma is White (Maori colours song), I Have a Dream (ABBA). • Split the students into two groups. One plays C, one plays G7. This gets them underway quickly; they keep their fingers in one chord position for the entire song and only play when it is their turn. Repeat and have them swap the chord. Repeat again and swap half way through. Try this when ready with three chords. • Teach the C / G / a minor / F chord sequence and you will have an endless supply of popular four chord songs to sing and play providing lots of opportunities for repetition! • For students who need extension – add a vocal harmony and/or an instrumental picking part e.g. intro, riff, outro. Teach chords in different positions. • Have a couple of concert or tenor ukuleles in your ensemble if you can to add some warmer tones. A simple bass line is always a bonus. Add some percussion and you’re a band! The New Zealand Ukulele Trust Who are we? We are a small group of passionate music educators working voluntarily. What do we do? We are dedicated to ensuring every child in New Zealand has the chance to benefit from the many proven advantages of learning an instrument. Learning an instrument in childhood is an indicator of success in life. Why? With no dedicated funding for music programmes at primary level we have a generation of kiwi children who could potentially miss out on opportunities to become engaged with music. We are trying to make sure this doesn’t happen. How? By teaching anyone in the school community to lead a group, providing instruments to low decile schools, running workshops and providing resources and performance opportunities. We produce a songbook each year for schools registering for our massed ukulele orchestra, the Kiwileles. It has a range of graded and appropriate songs, is multicultural and is often used for school singing. Our main event is the annual NZ Ukulele Festival, a free community event. The big attraction is the performance by our huge massed ukulele orchestra-the fabulous Kiwileles. We believe that all children, no matter what their circumstances, deserve to experience the joy and benefits of a life enriched with music. If you would like to be involved we’d love to hear from you! You can follow us on Facebook and Twitter too… ! Most of all - don’t forget to sing…and you won’t be able to stop yourself from smiling when you play the ukulele! The Kiwileles shared the billing with national and international artists playing a For
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