Rocking with the kids on the Coffs Coast!

When I was asked to be part of the Winter school holiday vacation program at OOSH Community Services I was initially a little nervous about teaching ukulele to over a hundred kids each day at 5 different centres from Grafton to Toormina. But it was one of the best weeks I’ve had, sprinkling ukulele joy to eager young people and seeing the sense of achievement and pride that they each felt as they played along.

The theme for the week was ‘Music and More’ and I arranged six different simple three chord songs that I knew the kids would love. Each day I delivered six ‘rotations’ of half hour ukulele sessions, with a different song each time. It became very clear after the second session, given that with the age of the children ranged from 5- 13 years, that this was going to be less of a ukulele lesson and more of a fun group collaboration.

So for each session, with the support of one of the awesome OOSH staff who often had a musical background themselves, we broke the kids into groups and allocated the ukulele chords accordingly. For the really young ones, we gave them the ‘C’ chord – or what I call in the ukulele world the fall-back position because it’s so easy to play. For those who had played the ukulele before (and with the ukulele having taken over the recorder as preferred musical instrument in schools there were quite a few) and the older participants – they formed groups to play the other chords. I then took on the role of ‘conductor’ and the groups would play their chords at the appropriate time to pull off the song.

It worked so well because even the youngest person could play a C!  What I found most rewarding, however, was I would always find someone in each session who had an aptitude for music they didn’t know about. Within a few minutes, I was able to teach them the three chords and they were able to play along for the whole song. There’s a real sense of achievement that comes with that. It’s why I love the ukulele. It truly is the easiest instrument to learn and perfect for kids – it’s small and portable – sounds adorable – is affordable – and provides instant success.

At the end of each day we had a massive concert where each group performed for the others.  There was much whooping, cheering, singing and clapping along from the audience – and a lot of showing off and hamming it up from the extroverts on the stage plus a few nerves from some of the quieter kids. But that feeling at the end of the performance when they realised that they could all collectively play the ukulele and rock out a song – it was priceless.  Smiles all round.

If your child is interested in learning the ukulele you can check out my online courses at https://www.ukoono.com.au/creative-kids/. It’s free for NSW children with a Creative Kids Voucher.

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Stephanie Sims

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