Ukulele songs
Clinton City Schools band uses unusual instrument to make do during the pandemic
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Members of the Ukulele Club take a break from practice to have a photo taken. - Ken Leinart
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Ben Morrison plays “Down in the Valley” in a recent practice. - Ken Leinart
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Reece Hollifield follows the chords to “Down in the Valley” while playing her ukulele. Also pictured are Addyson George and Lindzey Taylor. - Ken Leinart
Ukulele Lady
(Popular standard written by Gus Kahn and Richard A. Whiting)
Maybe she’ll sigh (an awful lot)
Maybe she’ll cry (and maybe not)
Maybe she’ll find somebody else
By and by
To sing to when it’s cool and shady
Where the tricky wicky wacky woo
If you like Ukulele Lady
Ukulele Lady like a’you
They may not know who Eddie Vedder is, or that the frontman for Pearl Jam recorded an album titled “Ukulele Songs,” because Vedder played … Well, the ukulele on all the songs.
But the students taking part in Clinton City School’s Blaze Ukulele Club aren’t interested in any of that.
On this day, they are interested in learning to play “Down in the Valley” on their four-stringed tiny guitars.
“It’s awesome,” Addyson George said of learning to play the ukulele and being part of the club. “It’s really fun.”
The ukulele club was born out of necessity. The COVID-19 pandemic forced the school system to drop band because of the near impossible task of keeping instruments germ and virus free.
“I didn’t want to hear that,” Matthew Case said. “But I understood the reasoning.”
Case teaches music at Clinton Elementary School and teaches band. While “traditional” instruments may have posed some problems as far as being virus free goes, ukuleles are a little different.
For one thing, each member of the club has their own instrument.
“There was an in-service training and one of the sessions talked about band,” Case said. “And it talked about ukuleles.”
With that information he approached the school system and asked, basically, if he could teach music using ukuleles.
“They were all for it,” case said.
He even received backing when he applied for a grant so he could purchase ukuleles for each member of the club.
The rest, they say, is history.
Or, music.
Case and his charges have been practicing songs since the beginning of the school year and they’ve made progress.
The students are learning how to read music and things like, “tempo.”
They are also learning playing the ukulele takes a special something.
“You have to have really flexible fingers,” Jayden Bullock said.
As if to prove the point, several of the club members showed off the fingering of difficult chords.
“They’re learning and they’re having fun,” Case said.
Depending on how the pandemic goes, Case and the club are hoping to have a concert in the spring. All ukulele music, of course.
And hopefully all the students will be able to show off how flexible their fingers are.