I teach ukulele and recorder and I wouldn't have it any other way.
You're listening to that music podcast with Bryson Tarbet, the curriculum designer and educational consultant behind that music teacher at the elementary music summit each week, Bryson and his guests will dive into the reality of being an elementary music teacher, and how music can truly be transformative in the lives of the students you serve. Show Notes and resources mentioned in this episode can be found at that music teacher.com.
Welcome back to this week's episode of that music podcast, we're going to be talking about why I choose to include both recorder and ukulele into my music curriculum. And I have to say there are there's a short answer and they're hilarious. So let's dive into it. So first of all, the reason I'm talking about this at all, is that I often hear people say that they like especially when I start talking about how much I love teaching the recorder, which I know is not everyone's thing. And there are a lot of people that have replaced ukulele or replaced a recorder in their curriculum with ukuleles I. On the other hand, I have ukuleles and I do record as in my curriculum. So I got ukuleles this year in my fifth and sixth grade school. I've been wanting to get them for years. And we finally got them approved, which was wonderful. And it's been a great experience so far. And I can't wait to dive in even more. But I still am really excited to bring recorders into my curriculum. Now here's the short answer. Why do I do recorders and ukuleles? Well, the short answer is I district as reporter in fourth grade, and I have reporters in fifth grade. So there are two different buildings that I can't I'm not gonna use them to replace. But even if I was at one school and had the opportunity, I would keep both. Because I think that there are inherent values of both instruments for one. Once a wind instrument and one's a string instruments, that's a different kind of experience with musical understanding. I am not going to play dumb and understand that, you know, there there, there are benefits of teaching recorder when it comes to building a band program. I don't teach band and I don't think we should teach recorders specifically for building or getting people ready for band. But I'm not going to say that there aren't benefits, there definitely are definitely things that that crossover. But the reason that why I choose to include recorder is that I have found it incredibly accessible. My students are able to keep their instruments at the end of the project, which are at the end of the unit, which I think is great, because a lot of my students just don't have instruments at home. These are instruments that are they're able to apply that knowledge in a lot of different ways. They're able to go into beginning band, they're able to bring it into a choir setting and they're able to just do recorder and that's it. And they're that I've been do teaching recorder, I found that the students really enjoy because it's play based it's a lot of we're still doing games and things like that it's not just kind of this model of just going through a book or something like that, we're actually getting up moving and using that recorder again, as kind of another musical modality, the ukulele on the other hand, I love that it allows a different for one thing, we're not doing melodies all the time, we're doing chorus, which I think is a really good skill that a lot of these students that maybe they're really not in the band, maybe they won't even do choir or anything or but they would love to learn how to do the guitar or play that play a song that they heard on the radio on the ukulele. The ukulele is an incredibly accessible instrument, especially when it comes to string instruments. It's not that tricky to play a couple chords. We're gonna be talking about an episode number one 123 about ways to differentiate the record the ukulele. So that's definitely something that to look back on, if you're if you're thinking alright, well, how do I make sure it's accessible to everyone? There are definitely things and concerns there. But I'm gonna talk about some of those in that episode. But what I love about the ukulele is that it makes it so incredibly easy to bring in music that they are listening to outside of the music classroom. If you go into YouTube, and you type in a song, and then put ukulele play along, I'm sure you'll find something. And what I love about the ukulele as you can play a lot of songs with just a few simple chords, if you learned C, A minor, and then G. And maybe maybe throw F in there, like that's three or four chords, and you can get the majority of the song majority of the pop songs that students are listening to or that they might ask to play, which I think is really, really makes it really simple. And it makes it so that they can have a lot of choice, that agency they're able to choose what songs they play, they're able to give me suggestions over things that hey, can we play this song in class next time? And I think that's a great way to do that as well. So why ukulele and recorder? Again, short answer they offer there at different times. But the the longer answer is that I think they allow different forms of musicality, and students that really don't like what or I've seen really latch on to the ukulele, or vice versa students that really didn't like the ukulele as much they loved the recorder. So we're allowing students to experience music in a different way in a different modality using different instruments styles. Because that's what music is, right? It's not just one thing or the other. It's the idea that you can make music in so many different ways with so many different instruments or your voices are a combination of, and when we're able to bring that into our general music setting. That makes it so much more than just just demonstrate of what music is outside of the music classroom. I think sometimes we get stuck in our high powers, even when we try not have what music education is. And we forget that music is music. And music is not just folk songs, music is not just the things that happens in our classroom, there's music that's happening all around our students, even when they're not in our rooms in our schools. And we need to include that when we can. And having something like this is really why I enjoy it and why I do both. So, again, I know that not everyone has ukuleles. I know that not everyone likes the extra quarter. But I really think there are there are inherent benefits of including both into your music curriculum when you're able to another reason why I love the ukulele is it's not quite as accessible price wise as a recorder. But you can get a really good ukulele for like 50 bucks. So if students wanted to continue and have an instrument at home, more of them would be able to do that. For instance, if we did an instrument like a guitar or something, obviously not everyone's gonna be able to afford a ukulele. But it makes it more accessible. It's not this, it's not like a French horn, it's 1000s of dollars and things like that. So like, I think a lot of value in that. These are conversations that are going to want to keep happening. Like I said, I've done recorders since I started teaching COVID times. But I've done this is my theory lately, so I'm gonna be honest, I'm still figuring it out, I still am trying new things and seeing what students kind of interact with the most and what what they what they seem to engage with the most, I really think that there is inherent value, including both. Now if you and you replace recording with Ukulele, I promise this is not me coming for you. Again, everyone's teaching situation is different. Everyone is doing things that they enjoy the most. And I think as long as we're given different musical experiences throughout the years, that is the core of it. So if I'm not here telling you that you're a bad music teacher if you're only doing one or the other, or neither. But what I am telling you is that I have seen so many students unlock different types of musicality that I didn't know that they quite were able to access that they didn't quite know that they were able to access because I was able to give them different experiences with music making. I hope you enjoyed this week's episode. If you enjoyed the episode, I would love if you left us a review wherever you're listening to now. And if you haven't joined us inside that music teacher community, I want to extend a formal invitation to join us at music teacher community is a growing library of professional development specifically for elementary music teachers. And also a community we're able to talk with each other and, and kind of support each other and understand where we're coming from and have that you know, essentially I've kind of a professional learning community, community community that we actually all want to be a part of, because it's people that are in our situations. So if you haven't joined us inside that music, teacher, unity, check out the link in the description, or you can head it over that you're not calm and find the information to join there as well. With that being said, thank you so much for listening. I hope you've had a wonderful time. We have a great week. And in case nobody has told you lately. Thank you so much for making a difference in the lives of the students that you teach.
