Week 7 of 24
Goal: You strum evenly down and up and use it in two songs.
Review
“Old MacDonald” with F and C7 – does the change work without looking yet?
Step by step
- So far you’ve only strummed down. Now add up: down with the fingernail, up with the fingertip.
- Count: “one and two and three and four and”. Down on the numbers, up on “and”.
- Your hand keeps swinging like a pendulum – even if you miss once. That keeps the rhythm steady.
- Practise the “Down-up” pattern in Rhythm, on “Slow” first. More: Learning strumming patterns.
- On the up-strum you don’t need to hit all strings – two or three are enough. Up can be quieter than down.
Time to make music: your piece
First “Down-up” with F in the rhythm tool. Then “Yankee Doodle” and “Ode an die Freude” with F and C7 – now with down-up!
Homework for next time
Five days, about ten minutes each:
- Down-up without a chord, open strings only, with the metronome.
- Down-up with F, then with C7.
- “Yankee Doodle” with down-up.
- Fun: play a song of your choice and tap your foot.
Done when …
- your hand swings down and up evenly
- you play a whole song with down-up
If you get stuck
- Your hand gets stuck? Don’t dig into the strings – just brush lightly across.
- It keeps getting faster? Set the metronome to “Slow” and count out loud.
For teachers: lesson plan
- ≈ 10 min Warm-up: everyone does the pendulum movement in the air, without the ukulele, saying “down-up”.
- ≈ 15 min Practice: half play down only, the other half down-up – at the same time to the metronome.
- ≈ 20 min Song together: “Ode an die Freude” – sing slowly first, then accompany with down-up.
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/7/