4 Reasons Why Ukulele Is the Perfect Stringed Instrument for Younger Children

Many music-loving little kids aspire to play stringed instruments, such as guitar and bass. However, larger string instruments are generally not recommended for children less than 8 years old because they require a larger hand size and finger dexterity that little kids typically do not possess yet. Luckily, the ukulele is a small, cheap, and easy gateway into more advanced stringed instruments and is a very suitable instruments for children as young as 5 years old. In this month’s blog article, we’ll discuss just how simple and accessible ukulele for young beginners can be.

Stringed instruments are extremely popular in every culture and most musical genres. For any younger student who embarks on this particular musical journey, the ukulele is a the perfect instrument for a few great reasons, especially if you want to eventually move to the guitar as you grow older.


1. Ukuleles Come in Five Different Sizes

The ukulele comes in five distinct sizes. From smallest to largest, they are the pocket ukulele, the soprano, the concert, the tenor, and the baritone. The soprano (pictured here) is the ukulele size and type most commonly used and associated with the instrument. You have lots of options to choose from for the optimum variety to suit your hand size and preference.

A small child can comfortably hold and play the pocket or soprano in the same way that a full-sized adult can hold and play a tenor or baritone. In terms of portability, even the baritone is extremely convenient for traveling on foot, by car, or by plane.



2. Ukuleles Only Have Four Strings

The ukulele only has four strings, unlike a six-string guitar, a five-string banjo, or an eight-string mandolin. This provides a refreshing sense of simplicity, both mechanically and conceptually, to many younger students.
At the same time, the range of creativity and musicality is not limited since most of the chords anyone will ever play only contain three or four notes each.

3. Ukuleles Are Tuned Like a Guitar

The strings are actually tuned identically to the four high-pitched strings on a guitar. This means that as students are learning chord shapes and scale patterns on the ukulele, they are actually learning how to play the same shapes and scales on the guitar.

Many varieties of chords and scales on the guitar only incorporate the four high strings. In fact, many of my ukulele students spend their time learning songs that are written and played with the guitar.

4. Ukuleles Are in the Easiest Key
The four strings are centered around the easiest, most understandable key in all of music, the key of C major. This means that the first time you are exposed to the concepts of a major scale, a key, and how chords are constructed, the focus stays primarily on notes that only come from the white piano keys.

The result is that every note is simply named after one of the first seven letters in the alphabet, and you don’t have to immediately learn sharp or flat notes. This provides a very understandable atmosphere when learning notes, scales, and chords, for the first time.

As a music school staffed with experienced professional musicians, North Main Music appreciates the valuable characteristics and accessibility of this instrument for younger children. We feel that the ukulele is a great first stringed instrument for anyone,but especially for younger kids.

Is your youngster interested in learning ukulele? Click here to learn more about our fantastic ukulele instructors!




This article was inspired by and adapted from this article on takelessons.com.

The 5 Easiest Instruments for Adult Learners

Are you an adult interested in learning how to play a musical instrument, but nervous about getting started? We've compiled a list of some of the easiest instruments for adult learners that we teach at North Main Music.

It’s a commonly held misconception that learning to play a musical instrument as an adult very difficult, if not impossible. The myth that one must pursue music lessons early in life in order to master the craft has kept many capable adults from exploring their musical potential.

As the saying goes, it’s never too late to learn! In fact, there can be some advantages to learning music as an adult. Adults are much more independent and self-motivated than kids who may be pushed by their parents to take music lessons. With the right help, guidance, and motivation, any adult can excel at playing a musical instrument.

If you’re not sure where to start, here are five of the easiest instruments for adults to learn.


1. Ukulele
Inexpensive to buy, highly portable, and super fun to play, the ukulele is one of the easiest instruments to learn. With just four nylon strings (instead of the guitar’s six), you can quickly pick up simple chords and play some of your favorite songs within a few weeks. When you learn ukulele, you also gain many fundamental skills that will make it easier to graduate from the ukulele to the guitar, should you decide you want to explore a new instrument in the future.


2. Voice

Everyone can sing something. Most adults usually have some level of vocal skill coming in to lessons and tend to underrate their own ability. One of the best things about having your own voice be your "instrument" is that your instrument is always with you and you can practice it anywhere--while driving, in the shower, walking your dog, etc. 





3. Piano

Beginner pianos or keyboard are inexpensive, but to some, the piano may seem complicated — after all, you need to learn to coordinate both hands at once — but it’s actually one of the easiest instruments for adult learners. Because the notes are all laid out in front of you, it’s easier to understand than many other instruments and good for your mind because you are reading music from day one of your lessons. Plus, though you may play wrong notes sometimes, you can’t ever play out of tune the way you can with other instruments. Moreover, due to its popularity, you’ll have no shortage of useful learning materials when you choose piano as your instrument! 



4. Guitar
There are some great advantages to learning the guitar as an adult. First, the guitar takes some hand strength to play, so it is not a suitable instrument for most small children to learn. Second, many adults have had some prior experience with guitar lessons as older kids or teens, and therefore guitar lessons, in some ways, can be liking "riding a bike" and feel like you are picking up where you left off all those years ago.


5. Drums
For sure, learning to play the whole drum kit is difficult. It's also not a requirement for taking drum lessons. You can start your lesson with just the snare drum and add additional pieces as you become more comfortable and confident in your playing. 


Learning how to play a musical instrument as an adult is not as intimidating as it may sound. While the options listed above may be some of the easiest instruments to learn, there’s no need to limit yourself! You are always welcome to take a 30-minute introductory lesson in any instrument that may interest you to get a feel for it.

Whatever instrument you pick, excelling at music will eventually feel easy and natural, just as long as you’re genuinely engaged in your lessons, practice regularly, and have a dedicated teacher who will nurture your inner musicality along the way. Check out the talented and caring instructors at North Main Music and start becoming the musician you’ve always dreamed of being!



This article was inspired by/adapted from this article on takelessons.com


Photo credit: Doug Guarino

Habits of Excellence in Music

Welcome to the North Main Music blog! Through this blog, we’ll be sharing with you tips on improving your musical performance, instrument maintenance, and interesting articles we have discovered that discuss issues around music education and how music impacts our everyday lives.

Seeing as it’s the start of a new year, and many of us begin a new year with a resolution, often to break a bad habit or adopt a new one, this first blog post is about some of the habits of excellence that can lead anyone to greatness in their music studies. Enjoy! And as always, we welcome your feedback and comments.

HABITS OF EXCELLENCE IN MUSIC

Madi C. Pineau at Fall 2013 student concert. Photo: Sid Ceaser.

Are you driven in your musical pursuits? Do you love to excel? Whether we’re practicing or performing, all of us musicians are striving for excellence. But do music students always understand what excellent musicianship entails?

After years of striving for excellence in my own music career, working with top musicians, and observing incredible musicians, I realized that there are universal habits that enable people to achieve excellence in music. As Aristotle would put it, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit." 

I’ve seen time and again that when we embody these habits in our study of music, excellence becomes our ‘default setting’ in rehearsal and on stage. These habits are not traits that a select few are born with--they are habits that anyone like you and me can cultivate.

1.     Have the end in mind. Everything begins with the end—the goal or the vision you want to fulfill with your study of music. If you don’t know what the end is, then there’s no way of getting there, is there? It’s important that you form clear goals of what you want to accomplish with music. What is the end you envision? What are your personal goals and dreams for yourself? Your dreams remind you of exactly what you want and can drive you to practice every day.

2.     Play/sing what you love. When you do something you love, it’s like you have unlimited fuel that keeps you going—day after day. What types of music, or specific songs, do you love to play? If you’re not sure what music you love yet, then what is something you are most eager to try at the moment? Your passion and interest are fuels that will drive you towards excellence.

3.     Work harder than anyone else. I don't know of anyone who has achieved excellent results who hasn't worked hard for them. A big component of excellence is hard work. Sheer, unadulterated hard work. We can streamline processes, choose effective strategies and steps, but ultimately the hard work will still have to come in. Fortunately, if you are doing what you love (step #3), work wouldn't even be work at all.

4.     Make use of every moment. Every moment counts. Excellent people know that time is highly valuable. There's this quote by Donald Trump that I love. He said that time is more precious than money, because you can earn back money, but you can't get back time. That is absolutely true. So try to maximize every moment. If you have some pockets of time, take out your instrument and practice.  Note that this habit doesn't mean practicing 24x7. Making use of every moment also refers to knowing when to rest and rejuvenate when it's needed, because this will help us walk the longer mile on the path of excellence.

5.     Take action to achieve your results. Achieving excellence in your musical studies means being a proponent of action. Whatever we do or don’t do will determine how much we can grow or succeed as musicians. If we want to attain excellent results, we need to take the equivalent actions to reach the results we want. So, instead of just thinking about practicing, pick up your instrument and do it. Don’t just dream about playing in front of an audience, sign up to perform at a North Main Music student concert, or seek out an open mic night near you.

6.     Continuously upgrade yourself. Learning to play music never stops. There is always something we can do to become better. Excellent musicians are always learning, reading, exposing themselves to new knowledge, new people, new contexts and honing their skills. We need to always be leveling ourselves up to achieve excellence. 

7.     Ask for feedback. No matter how much we practice and try to improve, we will have blind spots, and we can’t improve on things that we are blind to. Asking for feedback from your instructor and peers is an effective way to improve. Sometimes you’ll get feedback that is predictable, but other times it won’t be, and often times it will lead to an epiphany on some level.

8.     Positive attitude. It takes time and diligence to acquire the skills of an expert performer, and all of us deal with triumphs and stumbles as we progress. Remember to stay positive by setting specific goals, maintaining a degree of detachment, and fueling your motivation.

Adapted from 7 Habits of Excellence on www.themusiciansway.com/blog and 7 Habits of Highly Excellent People from www.dumblittleman.com.