Amy M. Burns

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Ukulele C Major and A minor Quick Practice Play-Along (with optional pitched percussion!)

Amy M. Burns

This week, I wanted to begin with retrieval practice for the ukulele chords of C Major and A minor. I chose to use a digital audio workstation (there are many to choose from like Soundtrap, Bandlab, or YuStudio found in MusicFirst Elementary (https://musicfirstelementary.com/).

This play-along is a short loop-based song broken down by:

  • 4-measure introduction

  • 4 measures of the C Major chord with D DU D D strokes

  • 8 measures of the A minor chord with D DU D D strokes

  • 8 measures of the C Major chord with D DU D D strokes

  • 4 measures to improvise

How to Teach This Play-Along

Use the manipulatives found on my Buy Me a Coffee page found at https://buymeacoffee.com/elmusedtech to assist with teaching this song.

  1. Launch the manipulatives. They are PowerPoint, so you can upload them to Google Drive, and they will instantly convert to Google Slides.

  2. Review the C Major chord and the A Minor chord.

  3. Clap the rhythm pattern of the stroke. It will stay that way for the entire song.

  4. Practice the D DU D D stroke for both of the chords.

  5. Practice the chords without the play-along video.

  6. Add the play-along video

Two Choices: YouTube or Soundslice

You have two choices to perform this play-along. You can use the YouTube video (https://youtu.be/PA4URrbzA_k), which just shows the rhythm pattern of the strokes and the chords. Or, you can use the Soundslice video (https://www.soundslice.com/slices/y8z2c/), which you can do the following:

  • Show the video with the sheet music.

  • Just show the video or the sheet music.

  • Decrease or Increase the tempo.

  • Show the video in a small view next to a large view of the sheet music.

  • Or show the sheet music in a small view next to a large view of the video.

It is up to you how you would like to showcase the video!

Don’t have enough ukuleles?

Use pitched percussion instruments like boomwhackers or xylophones/metallophones/glockenspiels/desktop bells to play along so that all of the students have instruments. If there are not enough pitched percussion instruments, use non-pitched percussion instruments. Don’t forget to try virtual instruments like playxylo.com or https://www.doctormusik.com/#virtual%20instruments

Coming Soon!