OCMS students expand interests by strumming their ukuleles
C, F, G, A minor.
These four chords are the starting point of Erin Serrian’s sixth-grade ukulele class. With these chords, students go from playing “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” and “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” to The Beatles in a matter of weeks.
There’s other skills to learn along the way, as well.
“When they're starting from scratch, some of them are holding the instrument in the wrong direction,” said Serrian, the music teacher at Oglethorpe County Middle School.
Serrian, a graduate of the University of Georgia and certified in band, chorus, orchestra, guitar and general music, revived the ukulele class nine years ago after noticing a lack of diversity in band classes. She turned to YouTube to teach herself how to play the instrument.
“I thought it would be a simple thing that we could do on a quarterly rotation that kids could come in and come out, and it was pretty versatile for everybody to do,” Serrian said.
At the beginning of the quarter, Serrian pairs up students — each with a school-owned ukulele — to learn nursery rhymes with basic chords. By the end of the quarter, students prepare for a test where they perform a song of their choice with their partner.
“It's good to see them present something that’s new material that they may not feel totally confident in, but they still have the drive to complete the assignment,” Serrian said.
Sixth-grader Lux Kuewa-Mokiao said she usually prefers to work by herself, but has found the group work surprisingly beneficial.
“Some of the pairs that I see, I’m not sure I would completely agree with just cause I know how they act,” Kuewa-Mokiao said. “And others, it’s like, how did you know that they would work in perfect harmony?”
Kuewa-Mokiao has a ukulele at home, but she hadn’t played it until starting the class in August.
“My mom is Hawaiian,” she said. “I have a ukulele at home, and I’ve never used it, or hardly even used it, until now.”
Sixth-grader Tucker Baker said he enjoys outdoor activities with his dad and hadn’t thought about playing music.
“My plan in life was to never ever play an instrument,” Baker said. “I’ve always wanted to be a part of my dad’s company, be with him, but there was no instrument in that, so that was kind of a curveball.”
Serrian said she’s especially interested in her students’ ability to overcome the initial learning curve.
“I see a lot, especially in our kids who don’t struggle at other subjects like math, English, social studies or science, and they do struggle at this,” Serrian said. “They have to learn how to persevere through hardships.”
The program also brings together students of varying talents and backgrounds to learn the ukulele.
“I think that it's a relatively inexpensive way to provide music to a large group, or population, and it's just a way to expose them to reading a chord chart or going on a different type of music pathway that they may or may not have been exposed to,” Serrian said.
Many of the kids continue learning ukulele after the class, or shift to learning other instruments, like the guitar, Serrian said.
“They'll say, ‘Miss Serrian, I bought a ukulele,’” she added. “Even when this class ends in October, they continue on.”
By: Walker Durham