Week 6 of 24
Goal: You learn C7 and accompany a whole song with two chords, F and C7.
Review
Play “Bruder Jakob” in F. Do all four strings ring?
Step by step
- C7: index finger on the A string at fret 1. Done! Chart: C7.
- C7 sounds like it wants to move on – usually to F. Listen: C7 – F. It sounds like “arrived”.
- Changing F ↔ C7: with F your index finger is on the E string. For C7 it slides one string down to the A string, the middle finger lifts.
- In the song the chords stand above the words. Change exactly where the new chord appears. The backing waits for you.
Time to make music: your piece
“Old MacDonald” with F and C7 – your first song with chord changes! For quiet evenings: “Schlaf, Kindlein, schlaf”.
Homework for next time
Five days, about ten minutes each:
- Tune, then F – C7 – F – C7 without strumming, ten times.
- Four times F, four times C7 – slowly round and round.
- “Old MacDonald” with “Waits for me”.
- Fun: invent new animals for “Old MacDonald” and sing them.
Done when …
- you accompany “Old MacDonald” all the way through once
- you switch from F to C7 without looking
If you get stuck
- You arrive late at the new chord? Leave out the last strum before the change and use that time to move.
- Your fingers hurt? Take a break after 10 minutes. Short and often beats long.
For teachers: lesson plan
- ≈ 10 min Warm-up: play C7 – F and ask: does C7 sound finished or not yet finished?
- ≈ 15 min Practice: the class plays F, on a hand signal everyone changes to C7 and back. Slowly speed up the signals.
- ≈ 20 min Song together: “Old MacDonald” – each child picks an animal, the whole class makes the sound.
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/6/