Lesson 22: Scale and melody

Week 22 of 24

Goal: You play the C major scale, read tablature and pick a melody.

Review

G – Em – C – D7 round and round. Does your Em ring yet?

Step by step

  1. The C major scale has eight notes: C D E F G A B C. On the ukulele: C string open (C), fret 2 (D); E string open (E), fret 1 (F), fret 3 (G); A string open (A), fret 2 (B), fret 3 (C).
  2. Play it slowly up and back down. Sing the names along. More: Note names.
  3. Tablature shows which string and fret a note is on. In the song, each syllable gets a short code like A3: letter = string, number = fret, 0 = open string. More: Reading tabs.
  4. Open “Alle meine Entchen” and switch on “Tab”. Now you see the melody as numbers under the words – pick it along.
  5. Two quick notes in a row on the same string? Alternate index and middle finger – that’s alternate picking.

Time to make music: your piece

“Alle meine Entchen” as a melody: switch on Tab and pick note by note. Once it works: once melody, once chords.

Alle meine Entchen

Homework for next time

Five days, about ten minutes each:

  • Scale up and down, singing the names.
  • “Alle meine Entchen” with Tab, first line.
  • The whole melody slowly.
  • Fun: make up your own mini-melody from five notes.

Done when …

  • you play the C major scale up and down
  • you pick a melody from tablature

If you get stuck

  • You can’t find the notes fast enough? Slow the backing down and use “Waits for me”.
  • Can’t find the string? The letter in the code is the string name: A3 means A string (the bottom one when you hold the ukulele), 3rd fret.
For teachers: lesson plan
  1. ≈ 10 min Warm-up: sing the scale and show the pitch with your hand (stairs up, stairs down).
  2. ≈ 15 min Practice: scale around the circle – each child plays one note, the next child the following one.
  3. ≈ 20 min Together: one group picks the melody of “Alle meine Entchen”, the other accompanies with chords.

Differentiation: those who are confident play the piece with down-up or help a partner; those who need more time strum only on beat one of each bar.

For the board: openstring.de/ukulele/en/lesson/22/

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