Club Leader - Mr Foss-Smith - osmith@newlandhouse.net

Booking has now closed.

Welcome to Newkulele, our Newland House Beginners Ukulele Club, for children in Years 3 & 4.  We meet on Tuesdays, at 1pm in the Music Room.

We start by introducing our budding strummers to the instrument and over the next few weeks learn some of the main chords that, once learnt, will open the children to a vast catalogue of familiar songs. We will practise changing from one chord to another and work on different strumming techniques.  Due to the size of the room, we need to limit the club to 15 children, but the club will run again next term. 

The key ethos to the club is that children have fun strumming along to some of their favourite tunes and we introduce them to some helpful online resources so that they can practise at home. 

We are fortunate enough to have a full class set of Ukuleles in the Music Room, however if the children wish to bring their own in, they are most welcome. We will help to tune the instrument each week!

We'll use this Firefly page to post useful information and links to help the children practise. We can also offer advice on buying an instrument if you wish. 

Watch out for exciting news about a possible performance at some point later this term!

Please let me know if you have any questions. 

Mr Foss-Smith

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Helpful practise information

Please find attached our slides from our first couple of lesson, introducing the children to the instrument and getting to know the first couple of chords we've been learning: 

There's a couple of links to help you practise at home: 

Ukulele Chords - UkeBuddy   : Useful for hearing what the chords should sound like and the website has a useful Ukulele Tuner as well. 

Ukulele Practise Drills: We'll be working through these drills as the weeks go on as we get used to changing from one chord to another: 

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Looking to buy a Ukulele? 

We have a whole class set of Ukulele, however many children benefit from the opportunity of practising at home and enjoy bringing it in to school for the club. 

You may be looking to buy a Ukulele - you can pick them up reasonable cheaply:  Hill Sound in Hampton Hill sells a good basic Ukulele for less than £30: 

Of course, Amazon also sells them as well - go for ones around the £20 to £30 mark. Kala and Mahalo are good 'starter' brands. Try to avoid 'toy' versions from toy shops, as they won't work as well. 

If you do buy a Ukulele, a basic tuner is essential - this is only £6. A new Ukulele will need tuning every day for a couple of weeks before the strings reach the correct tension. 

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