UKL - Ukulele for Teachers
Learn to play, for you and for the classroom
Have you always wanted to learn the ukulele? Now you can.
Whether it is simply to learn ukulele for your own creative and personal enjoyment or something that you want to make part of your professional approach to curriculum and learning, then this is the course for you right now.
We will support you to strum your way to success this summer! You may even decide to hit the ‘Fleadh Cheoil’ circuit in Wexford to show off your newly acquired ukulele skills on some street corner!
Our truly exciting course is designed to equip primary teachers with the skills and confidence needed to effectively integrate the ukulele into their curriculum.
Whether you’re a complete beginner or already have some musical experience, our course caters to all skill levels.
Discover the magic of strumming, picking, and chord progressions in a fun and supportive environment. From honing basic chords and tunes to exploring advanced techniques and mastering an extensive repertoire of songs, you’ll receive comprehensive instruction and guided practice sessions from Gayle, every step of the way.
Don’t miss out on this chance to acquire a fantastic new skill, bring the joy of music into your classroom, and transform your students' learning experience.
Here is a brief introduction from your course tutor, Gayle Murphy.
Enrol on the ukulele course today and embark on a musical journey that will inspire, motivate, and uplift you, all at once.
Let’s strum, learn, and grow together in summer 2024!
Our Superb Ukulele package - worth €25
We supply a tuner, as tuning your Ukulele is essential. Gayle demonstrates how to do this in the first lesson.
We include a fantastic book with accompanying online audio, which is brilliant for continuing beyond the course.
We also provide plectrums as part of the pack.
Do you require a Ukulele? If so, perhaps you can borrow one from school or a friend? Or, if you wish to purchase one, here are some supplier options:
Note:
The on-line format of this course enables you to study at a time and place that best suits your own needs.
You can access your course anytime until March 31st 2025.
Within this highly interactive web-based course, a dynamic learning experience awaits, where you can interact with your fellow course participants through the in-course chat forums and communication tools provided by the CPD College learning system.
Our friendly and knowledgeable tutors actively support each course, providing expert interaction, guidance, and feedback for all participants on chat questions and assignments that require critical reflection, self-analysis, and reasoned responses.
On successful completion of your course, you can download and print off your CPD record and certificate of completion.
We look forward to welcoming you to your course.
- Prepare teachers to deliver an exciting music scheme, incorporating the ukulele
- Teach teachers to play the ukulele to a standard where they can play and teach the ukulele to their pupils
- Provide activities enabling children to explore, listen to, respond and compose music in various ways
- Enable teachers to use the ukulele to support the teaching of musical elements and for students to accompany on percussion instruments
- Support teachers to create cross-curricular opportunities for music listening, responding and composing
- Reflect & develop action points for improvement in specific aspects of their planning, design and delivery of music lessons
| 01 - Introduction and basics: Gayle starts at the beginning by demonstrating how to hold, tune and strum the ukulele. She teaches you how to read chord diagrams and how to form their first chords e.g. C, Am, F and G. We practice chords, strums, transitions, time signatures and rhythms within a suite of tunes such as: Pump it Up, Hush Little Baby, Óró sé do Bheatha 'bhaile, The Lion Sleeps Tonight, Skip to My Lou, Old McDonald, Drunken Sailor and many others. |
| 02 - Developing your play: In this module, Gayle revises the chords and transitions from module 1. She incorporates tasks in the chord studio to smoothen transitions on C, Am, F, and G and introduces the new chords of D and Dm. Through guided practice and a suite of tunes, we teach further time signatures and rhythm patterns in songs such as Baby Shark, Feliz Navidad, Hound Dog, Let it Be, Wagon Wheel, Shotgun, etc. |
| 03 - Progression and practise: Gayle teaches the chords A, E, B, Dm, and Em. She demonstrates and encourages you to play songs incorporating and exemplifying these chord progressions, including Country Roads, Hakuna Matata, Jingle Bells, Viva La Vida, etc. She also teaches and practises a suite of strums and rhythms across a number of songs within our chord/rhythm practise studios, thus building confidence and smoothness. |
| 04 - Confident practise: Gayle guides you through a mixture of chords and riffs together with the transitions between them. She teaches, practises and applies these chord sequences with riffs while learning to play tunes like ‘There was an Old Woman’, ‘Seven Nation Army’, When the Saints go Marching in’, ‘Stand by Me’ etc. |
| 05 - Getting ready for the classroom: Once chords and chord changes are clean and sound well, learning and applying finger-picking techniques, patterns, and chord progressions is the next and final step for this course. Gayle provides expert guidance to us on each of these skills. The tunes for the module include: ‘This Little Light of Mine’, ‘Moana - How Far I'll Go’, ‘Pocahontas - Colours of the Wind’, ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’, Mamma Mia’ etc. |
"My favourite course ever, in the 20 years I have been teaching. It was so well planned and the lessons given by Gayle the tutor were so clearly and carefully explained, with notation to ensure understanding and the chance to try time and time again in personal practice. I am now a more courageous beginner. This course has helped restore my confidence and will in time enhance the enjoyment of music immensely for the students this year and many years to come! Thank you all so much." - Karen, 2023