Alegra Powers, 12, has always wanted to learn how to play the ukulele. That’s why she took it up last July, and taught herself chords and strumming patterns by watching YouTube tutorials.
Now she’s paying it forward and teaching a virtual ukulele course to show others how to play.
The Oxbow Public School student’s Intro to Ukulele course is a three-week program that will teach prospective uke players tuning, chords and strumming patterns beginning on March 17.
The program, which costs $15 per family, is geared toward Grade 5 to Grade 8 students, who’ll learn the basics of ukulele via group video lessons. Powers said it’s a great opportunity to test out one particular music career she’s had her eye on.
“I feel like teaching people the ukulele would be a good start to learning what it’s like to be an actual music teacher,” she said.
During a regular year, Powers would be attending piano lessons and singing in the school choir. Due to COVID-19, many of the activities she loved came to a screeching halt.
Now, she takes piano lessons on Zoom, and the choir and performing arts extracurriculars she participated in at school are cancelled.
That’s why the Grade 7 student enlisted the help of her mom Rachel Powers, a teacher at Avon Maitland Secondary Remote Learning School, to design a course she could teach to her peers.
The elder Powers said during a year when many activities have been cut to keep young people safe, the lessons are a great way for youth to connect with others who share similar passions.
“There are people out there who want to learn how to do this,” Rachel Powers said. “Alegra has taken the initiative and taught herself, and now she wants to simplify [the learning process] for the community.”
The four-string instrument is generally regarded as simpler to play than a guitar, which has six strings and wider frets. The goal of Powers’ lessons is to provide students with the basics so they can start learning songs.
During their last session of Intro to Ukulele, students will get to pick a pop song they’d like to learn from a selection of Jason Mraz, Vance Joy, Ed Sheeran and Bruno Mars hits.
“I knew with the guitar, it would be harder. There are more frets, more strings, more to hold down,” she said. “But the ukulele is similar enough. A guitar just has more strings.”
