Sharing Talants Thru The Year

     We learn chords,songs,melodies,and share them with others-but what about sharing the journey that got us to that spot to begin with? Teaching. The very word tends to make us want to run into a closet or go into a speech about how we don't really "know enough" to teach someone else. Belittling inner chatter kicks in about how ridiculous the notion is. Yet-if you've been playing for a year or more,I'd say you could teach a beginning class without a problem. 
      Next choice is what age group do you work best with? Kids? Teens? Adults? Seniors? Picking the group you work easiest with is very important-because you don't want to get home from teaching being worn out and drained. Personally speaking,I work best with teens to jr college age kids,as well as senors. 
       You can select a beginners book for your teaching material and have include it in the student fee for the class- or you can also out together your own chord charts,song sheets,etc.  
       Make sure your students have their own electronic tuners or the entire time will be spent tuning. Also be sure to start promptly and end on time as well.

Re-Discovering Tuning to the Key of D

     I started playing uke tuning in the key of C,and even tho I've been playing for a little over a year,I was having a horrible time memorizing chords,and forget reading music-which I can do on mandolin and baritone uke,but something seemed amiss with the tuning I was using.      So,I took one of my ukes & restrung it with a set of Black Diamond strings made for D tuning (A D F# B) and a wierd thing happened. It suddenly felt right,I've had no problem reading music for it in this tuning and chords are easily memorized. What did I do-play uke in a prior life or something? Genetic memory kicking in? My grandmother played banjo ukulele but I have no idea what tuning she used,nor did I ever hear her play. I did inherit her banjo uke tho.

     There's an amazing amount of vintage sheet music out there made for this wonderful tuning in addition to a copy of May Singh Breen's "New Ukulele Method" Man I wish there were more uke books made like that today-she shows you 3 ways to play each chord,and offers a wealth of musical knowledge in an easy to understand format. She truly wanted ukesters to understand their instrument so they could sound fantastic. There seems to be a lot of books in C tuning that teach such bare bones about playing it's no wonder the public looks at as a toy rather than a instrument to be taken seriously. 

     If you're also having a rough time learning & you're using a C tuned uke,I'd give the D tuning a try. For those who are at home in C tuning,there's a wonderful book that is influenced by May Singh Breen-you'll see the link to it on this page.