Preserving Quality Music Education
No matter how tight state budgets become, no child should be left behind when it comes to learning music. Research supports music making as “education fuel” for excelling academically and socially, in addition to developing music proficiency.
Supporting Parents and Teachers
Musician Maker Kits featuring FLEA ukuleles provide an excellent music education tool and curriculum for children taught in home, public or private school classrooms. No prior familiarity with ukulele is required. Whether funded by school districts, boosters, grant agencies or parents, our kits provide an economical tool for:
- home school music programs – individuals plus community student groups
- larger musical education classrooms
- musical art performances that are broadly inclusive and easy to learn
- after-school clubs that create positive social interaction centered on music
- special education programs (see Supporting Music Therapy page)
Adult guidance is helpful for younger beginners, but for the most part, musician skills can develop as a self-guided adventure using our kits inside and outside the classroom –– without costly lessons.
A colorful 40-page STARTING UKULELE book and CD simplifies the learning process with ten progressive lessons. Emphasis is placed on mastering a growing set of chord shapes and strum techniques ... without reading standard musical notation. Importantly, this early success lays the motivational groundwork to learn standard music reading and more complex, contemporary song arrangements later. Engaging multiple learners (e.g., classmates, siblings, parents) makes it all the more fun. For example, our exclusive Song Card provides chord diagrams and tablature for Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. Guiding some players to strum chords while others perform the fingerstyle melody creates a beautiful concert rendition!
Discover the Benefits
We invite the community of parents and teachers to discover how Musician Maker Kits featuring FLEA ukuleles can be applied to achieving national standards for musical arts education. Related standards are outlined below for easy reference.
National Standards for Arts Education – MUSIC (Content Standard #2): Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.
Grades K-4
Performing, creating, and responding to music are the fundamental music processes in which humans engage. Students, particularly in grades K-4, learn by doing. Singing, playing instruments, moving to music, and creating music enable them to acquire musical skills and knowledge that can be developed in no other way. Achievement Standard:
- Students perform on pitch, in rhythm, with appropriate dynamics and timbre, and maintain a steady tempo
- Students perform easy rhythmic, melodic, and chordal patterns accurately and independently on rhythmic, melodic, and harmonic classroom instruments
- Students perform expressively a varied repertoire of music representing diverse genres and styles
- Students echo short rhythms and melodic patterns
- Students perform in groups, blending instrumental timbres, matching dynamic levels, and responding to the cues of a conductor
- Students perform independent instrumental parts (e.g., simple rhythmic or melodic ostinatos, contrasting rhythmic lines, harmonic progressions, and chords) while other students sing or play contrasting parts
Grades 5-8
The period represented by grades 5-8 is especially critical in students' musical development. The music they perform or study often becomes an integral part of their personal musical repertoire. Composing and improvising provide students with unique insight into the form and structure of music and at the same time help them to develop their creativity. Achievement Standard:
- Students perform on at least one instrument (e.g., band or orchestra instrument, keyboard instrument, fretted instrument, electronic instrument) accurately and independently, alone and in small and large ensembles, with good posture, good playing position, and good breath, bow, or stick control
- Students perform with expression and technical accuracy on at least one string, wind, percussion, or classroom instrument a repertoire of instrumental literature with a level of difficulty of 2, on a scale of 1 to 6
- Students perform music representing diverse genres and cultures, with expression appropriate for the work being performed
- Students play by ear simple melodies on a melodic instrument and simple accompaniments on a harmonic instrument
- Students who participate in an instrumental ensemble or class perform with expression and technical accuracy a varied repertoire of instrumental literature with a level of difficulty of 3, on a scale of 1 to 6, including some solos performed from memory
Reference: From National Standards for Arts Education. Copyright © 1994 by Music Educators National Conference (MENC). Used by permission.
