We’re going to be posting the latest things we’re working on with our ukuleles on here. Please check out the posts below for chords, patterns, videos and other things that might come in useful for practicing with your ukuleles at home.
Please do look after them by keeping them away from particularly hot or particularly cold areas (they will fall out of tune) and do be aware that small children, dogs, cats or wild dinosaurs are liable to stomp, stamp, chew or spit on them.
We tuned them in school so there should be no need to tune them whilst at home, however if you find you do need to you can either bring it into school with you (I’ll happily give it a quick tune) or, if someone in your family is confident with tuning stringed instruments) use the website Ukebuddy and tune each string to correct note (Green is G, Red is C, Yellow is E and Blue is A).
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We've been working on this celebrity lullaby recently. Feel free to have a go yourselves!
https://ukebuddy.com/ukulele-tabs/sesame-street/celebrity-lullaby
This week we continued our work from last session by looking at 'Hey Ho, Nobody Home' again. This time though we tried with a different chord, Em. Take a look at the chord diagram and have a go at replacing the Dm with Em. It changes the tone of the song a little!
Today we took a look at a new chord, Dm. It's a minor form of D so tends to sound a little sadder. We put this to the test by playing a piece called 'Hey Ho Nobody Home' sung in a round. It can be sung with any chord, though it has an interesting 'dirgey' feel to it when played and sung in Dm. There is a video of is trying out it out on the main Maple page. For a transition, try playing it with the C chord instead and see if you can sing this sad song in a happy way! Enjoy!
Today we took a look at our nursery rhyme for the week, The Grand Old Duke of York. It's a fairly simple piece using just C, F and G, though it does have some quick chord changes. This version is a little tweaked as the G chords are supposed to be G7. Feel free to try it with the correct chords using the chord diagram here:
Today (despite it still being November) we started looking at the Christmas carol, Silent Night.
This involves finger-picking rather than playing chords, where you are using one finger to play individual strings rather than playing all four at once. You may also like to try using a plectrum. The file below contains the song, along with chords that could be played over the top if you have someone in your house that can accompany you. Enjoy!
Now that we have officially mastered (ish) the G chord... we've moved onto something harder! The D chord has many different ways to play it, each with their own benefits and challenges. While we're just starting out, you might want to try London's Burning below. It includes one possible version of how to play D. There are other methods just here. Enjoy!
We've been continuing to explore G (it's a hard chord!) but did work out today that we can now play Riptide by Vance Joy as we know all the chords!
If you're interested you'll find the chord sheet below:
Today we continued to explore the G chord, particularly in how we transition into and out of it. We looked at the traditional song 'Tinga Layo' as shown below. While I have put the chords below, please do hop across the Ukulele Orchestra Lessons page and take a look at the resources for lesson 5 as they contain a video of the song being performed. Have fun!
Today we were looking at that absolute club classic, 'Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.' It includes our friend the 'G' chord, exemplified below this song. Remember, you play the chord at the same time you sing the word it hovers above. Check out the chords below and if you need more resources have a look on the Ukulele Orchestra page. Good luck!
This week we explored the chord Am (pictured below). We used lesson 4 of the Ukulele Orchestra Lessons to practice a song about a bird. Feel free to hop on a try it out for yourself.
This week we started to look at using C and F to play the song ‘My Baby Bumblebee’ (an utterly bizarre nursery rhyme!). We were focussing on playing C and F which you can check out on the chord diagram. When you feel confident playing the chords, hop into lesson 3 on the Ukulele Orchestra Lessons webpage to find a version you can play along with!
