Teaching Left-Handed Ukulele
Teaching Left-Handed Ukulele
Fun fact: in my 2 and a half years working in a Japanese school I never had a left-handed student. I believe the students all had to use their right hand for everything, so my students never requested a lefty ukulele.
Now that I work in an American school things have changed. I have left-handed students in every class. Now that my YouTube channel is growing I have had subscribers request resources for left-handed players.
In this blog post I will collect left-handed resources as I make and find them on the internet.
Lefty Ukulele Tuning
This video is just to get you started.
When setting up lefty ukuleles you have three options:
1. Change all the strings
2. Change only the center strings
3. Change only the tuning
For the video below I have only changed the tuning.
When setting up lefty ukuleles you have three options:
1. Change all the strings
2. Change only the center strings
3. Change only the tuning
For the video below I have only changed the tuning.
After tuning your ukulele, move to the ukulele chord tutorials below!
Reading Chord Charts
Here is a wonderful video that helped me get some ideas for teaching lefties. I highly recommend you watch this if you want to understand how lefties will read the chord charts you've created/printed with right-handed students in mind.
Chord Charts for Your Class
If you don't have chord charts, I've got you covered. I created these chord charts for my students and I LOVE them because they have the names of the notes within each chord. This way, students will not only learn chord shapes, but also know what note each string is producing. These chord charts also help the students communicate with their fellow piano/boomwhacker players on what notes they need to play if they are jamming together ;)
Ukulele Chord Tutorials
C Major Chord
A Minor Chord
New videos will be posted weekly
Next chord will appear live here!
Looking for ukuleles to buy?
Look no further ;)
What a wonderful idea to share this incredibly helpful video for teaching all the "south-paws" out there! Thank you SO much.
ReplyDeleteBernadette, do you offer teaching videos for children trying to learn a specific instrument?
Hi Christina! Thank you for your thoughtful comment!
DeleteI am currently building a library of tutorial videos for children and beginners learning ukulele.
You can find all those videos on my YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHF88ovEEPETzNtEUbgGBuw
I'm like a DJ, I take video requests, is there a lesson you'd like to see? :)
I will check out your channel, thank you!
ReplyDeleteWell, maybe I could ask you: if you were starting your own children off in music, where would you begin? With an instrument or...? We homeschool so the field is wide open, but music isn't my personal strong point. What would you suggest I begin with?
Oh, that's a fantastic question! If I were starting my own children off in music, I would start them off with push bells! They are colored and labeled and SO easy to use!
DeleteHere's the link: http://amzn.to/2nNSCaT
I have used push bells in the past when I transitioned pre-k and kindergarten students into instruments.
We use videos from preschool prodigies to get them started.
Here's a simple example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7Cjgdde5pk
Hi Bernadette, I am trying how to get in touch with you. Do you give left handed guitar lessons? on video .. I love your teaching ways <3 thank you Denise
DeleteMy husband is left-handed and plays the guitar so this was interesting-thank you!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your sweet comment! It's nice to hear there are other lefty musicians out there!
DeleteGreat idea! I bet a lot of people will find the video helpful!
ReplyDeleteThank you! As long as one person finds it useful, this post was worth it <3
DeleteLooking forward to checking out your videos. Bought my first ukulele this weekend as I’ve been wanting to learn for awhile now.
ReplyDelete