We are a very small rural school in far northern Vermont. The closest city is 1.5 to 2 hours away, so exposure and access to cultural education and events is difficult for most families to get to. We have a very active music program for a small school. Many students enjoy studying music, either in the concert band, guitar class, or piano class.
The students are inquisitive about all music and particularly about traditional world music.
It’s this area we’d like to explore. The students have a natural curiosity to try different instruments. When we play as a group, the students experience the joy of making music collaboratively, really adding to the community life of the school. As individual student musicians, they’ve learned the self-discipline and concentration it takes to be proficient on an instrument.
My Project
These ukuleles are for middle schoolers that find regular guitars too big and too many strings. Learning to play ukuleles is an excellent introduction to playing stringed instruments and learning music fundamentals. Chords are more manageable and melodies easier to learn with a smaller fretboard.
As an ensemble, we will be a ukulele orchestra, learning chords and melodies of a variety of compositions, increasing music literacy.
We will present our work in the school's spring concert. We have three classes of ten students, so we will learn in groups of 10 with an additional student learning to play a small size bass to add support.
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