I'm excited to announce that I will be teaching a three-week Professional Development webinar for the Illinois Music Educators Association in February.  Classes will take place over web camera from the comfort of your own home, coffee house, or anywhere you can get an internet connection and play ukulele at the same time. (Engaging in playing ukulele and driving at the same time is not recommended, however.)

​There are three sessions, spread among three weeks to give you a chance to practice skills before the next session. Of course, you'll need your own ukulele, a computer and a webcam!  Come join us! The webinar will take place on Sunday, February 11, 18, and 25, from 6:00PM to 7:00PM CST.

ILMEA is excited to offer this web series opportunity. Presenter Paul Marchese will lead the group through 3- one-hour sessions that will take particiapnts thorugh everything from posture to uke ensembles.  For questions, please contact Education Programs Manager Emily Petway at epetway@ilmea.org.
Session 1: The Basics – Posture, Placement, & PluckingStart off the right way! The first session of our Ukulele Webinar will begin with the basics: Playing Posture, Hand Position, Finger Placement, etc. We will also discuss common student errors you can expect to see. We’ll cover the notes of the C Major scale and introduce chords and basic strumming concepts to practice for the following week.
Session 2:  Strumming & Humming… The second session will elaborate on the previous week’s learning, starting to put together basic melodies & scale patterns. In addition, we will begin more complicated strumming patterns and chords. Some ideas for class projects and classroom use will also be discussed.
Session 3: Ensembles, Ukestra and Q&A In our final session, we will put together the first-ever online ukulele orchestra! We’ll also take the time to answer any questions you have about acquiring instruments, classroom use, instrument maintenance, and any other ukulele-related information you might be looking for! 
Register at the link below  and we'll see you soon! 

One of the most common questions and complaints I hear from teachers is how to approach tuning a set of classroom ukuleles. The invention of the clip-on tuner was a great step forward for those of us who teach class ukulele and guitar, since it doesn't rely on a microphone to pick up the pitch. I remember buying my first Intellitouch tuner when I was teaching my first guitar class. It cost $70 at the time, and nowhere near as reliable as even the cheapest clip-on tuners today, but it was worth it to me to have the ability to tune during class. I now usually tune one instrument while the kids are practicing a skill, then trade a student for theirs while I tune theirs.

And now, the next step forward: A Roadie 2 Automatic Tuner. This is an AWESOME tool for a classroom ukulele and/or guitar teacher. The previous version of this had caught my eye before, but when I found out that the first version REQUIRED pairing it with a tablet or smartphone, and it used the microphone from the paired device, I decided that it was cool, but useless to me.

Now that's all changed with the Roadie 2 - now it works like the clip-on tuners, and does not rely on a microphone.  Check it out in action below!

UPDATE: 
Found a new great use for this gadget: allowing students to tune instruments who don't necessarily know how!  The other day, I had a student in my general music "Music Tech" class finish his project early. I had showed them my new "toy" the previous day, and he asked if he could tune all the ukuleles while he was waiting for the other students to finish.

Gee...SURE!  Since then, a number of students have asked to do the same.  I see a work reward in the making...one that rewards me as much as the students!