Ukulele Resources
List of Resources Needed to Create New Classes Including Materials and Supplies
Ukulele in the Classroom. “Ukulele Advocacy.” Squarespace, 2026. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5bc42e4debfc7f803450a2d6/t/5bdd98bd70a6ad0fe1903742/1541249214102/Starter-Kit-p2.gif.
This one-page resource advocates for ukulele programs. This would be easy to print and give to an administrator as you begin the process to start a ukulele class. The resource lists 10 reasons why the ukulele is great for schools and learning.
Webley, Rachel. “Ukulele Wales.” Ukulele.wales, 2022. www.ukulele.wales/education.html.
This website based in Wales (run by same musician who created the Ukulaliens YouTube channel) has excellent suggestions on how to start a Ukulele Program. It covers everything from class needs, pros and cons of selecting different sized ukuleles, how to raise funds to purchase instruments, how to store them (along with links to outside website for inspiration for what might work with your class configuration), and a review of the Rainbow Ukulele curriculum by both the website author and a separate music educator. It includes personal experience and tips from a practicing classroom music teacher, which can offer realistic expectations and encouragement for beginners in ukulele education. There’s content discussing how to structure a club versus a class, helping educators decide on an extracurricular or curricular approach. Although mostly links and guidance rather than downloadable lesson plans, the practical advice and curated resources can help a teacher plan, resource, and implement ukulele learning in a middle or high school music program.
Literature on this topic for educators
Giebelhausen, Robin, and Adam J. Kruse. ““A Smile on Everybody’s Face”: A Multiple Case Study of Community Ukulele Groups.” International Journal of Music Education 36, no.3 (November 2017): 347-365. https://doi-org.libproxy.unm.edu/10.1177/0255761417744371.
The article is useful for middle and high school ukulele educators because it highlights how community-based ukulele groups successfully foster engagement, inclusion, and lifelong musicianship, goals that align well with school music programs. It shows that ukulele instruction can prioritize musical autonomy, enjoyment, and social connection while still supporting steady musical growth, offering an alternative to performance-only models. The study emphasizes flexible repertoire, lead sheets, and mixed-ability grouping, which can help teachers differentiate instruction and include students with varied skill levels. It provides practical insight into teacher roles as facilitators or coaches, guiding students with appropriately challenging material rather than emphasizing perfection. The discussion of participatory performances and optional public concerts helps educators think critically about how performance can motivate students without dominating instructional priorities. Overall, the article encourages school teachers to adopt community-music principles—fun, accessibility, and shared ownership—to make ukulele classes more meaningful and sustainable for students.
Hill, James. “Uketropolis Gazette.” Uketropolis, 2024. https://www.uketropolis.com/blog.
This is a blog run by James Hill with many helpful articles for ukulele teachers and students. He also provides teacher training, ukulele courses (many are free, some cost, and he offers a $1 beginner course), and a community of ukulele players and teachers. There are resources for Americana Ukulele style, a ukulele band, jazz uke (including for soprano and baritone uke), Indian Classical music on the ukulele, and extreme ukulele techniques.
Curriculum, Method Books, and Lesson plans structured around national music standards
Baker, Russell. “Lessons for Your Class.” The School Ukulele Orchestra, WordPress, 2019. https://school-ukulele-orchestra.net/.
The page offers a series of downloadable ukulele lessons designed for structured classroom use, including lesson plans in PDF, slide presentations, and accompanying video files for each lesson. The lessons are sequential, starting with basic concepts like parts of the ukulele, holding and strumming, and the C chord, and progressing through additional chords, rhythm patterns, tablature, and ensemble playing. Teachers can use these materials directly in music classes for stages two and three (upper elementary to high school) to introduce and develop ukulele skills. The resources are supported by a tuition book with further instruction and curriculum links, and YouTube video resources are referenced to aid both students and educators (see this link https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF5ymJnpw9Mnvb3kDTujk26SqScLxk_8r). There are additional support documents such as chord video demos, curriculum alignment sheets, assessment tracking tools, and strategies for managing classroom behavior during instrument lessons. Overall the page provides a comprehensive, downloadable ukulele curriculum framework complete with instructional materials and multimedia that can help a music teacher structure lessons and assess student progress.
Grigar, username “Ukeclass”. “Tutorial - My High School One-Semester Curriculum.” Ukulele Underground Forum, 2025. forum.ukuleleunderground.com/threads/my-high-school-one-semester-curriculum.171215/ .
The post outlines a complete one-semester ukulele curriculum developed by a high school teacher, listing units with resources, skills, and suggested repertoire in sequence. It is organized into units that gradually build from basic music reading and chord shapes to more advanced techniques like rhythm patterns, tablature reading, PIMA fingerpicking, and slack key styles. The curriculum integrates method books and specific pieces (e.g., Terry Carter’s music reading, Jason Jerome’s ukulele book, Daily Ukulele selections) to support skill development. Later units focus on ensemble skills, improvisation, and challenging repertoire, including a final performance project where students choose their own piece. Comments in the thread also give context on course structure, pacing, and class logistics, such as class meeting times and balancing music literacy with playing. The curriculum can be found at: https://share.google/eAY8apMC4CptF8M4y
Music in Everything. “Ukulele Curriculum Pro: Beginner to Advanced Ukulele Lessons.” TPT, 2019. www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Ukulele-Curriculum-PRO-Beginner-to-Advanced-Ukulele-Lessons-4725320.
The “Ukulele Curriculum: Beginner to Advanced Ukulele Lessons” product on Teachers Pay Teachers is a comprehensive, structured ukulele teaching resource that a middle or high school music educator could use to guide instruction across skill levels. It includes 43 weeks of content with PowerPoint presentations and extensive PDF materials such as notation posters, TAB posters, rhythm posters, song test sheet music, and worksheets for rhythm, notation, and TAB practice. The curriculum also provides practice logs, agenda posters, chord charts, and a curriculum map, which help with planning, pacing, and tracking student progress. Lessons cover music fundamentals like rhythm values, time signatures, scales, chords, dynamics, and articulation, with both TAB and standard notation support. The resource includes hundreds of worksheets, rhythm packets, and assessments, making it useful for both classroom and individual practice. Song selections range from simple traditional tunes to more advanced repertoire, and supplemental activities include chord and scale studies and composition exercises. Overall, it offers a full ukulele curriculum with multimedia and print-ready materials that can support teaching from beginners through advanced levels. It is mostly used for grades 4-8 and has many assessments included. Note that this product lacks lesson plans and objectives.
Music Will. “Ukulele Resources.” Music Will JamZone, 2026. https://jamzone.musicwill.org/ukulele-resources/.
Music Will offers free curricular pop-style ukulele resources for educators and students, including instructional videos, play-along tracks, and a PDF guide for teachers. There are 9 introduction lesson videos, 25 video lessons teaching chords, and 11 video lessons with Hawaiian ukulele player Paula Fuga. They also offer over 350 pop song charts that include the key, tempo, chords used, song form, chord diagrams, and strum patterns in both iconic and standard notation. There are also links to the lyrics and music video on this page, which makes it a convenient one-stop-shop kind of source. This source also offers composition ideas for songs with 1+ chord(s). This is a fun, accessible, and free resource that would work well in a classroom setting for elementary through secondary music groups. They also offer a printed curriculum here https://a.co/d/0aASRNbf.
Russell, Christopher J. “Ukestuff.” Ukestuff, 2026. https://ukestuff.wordpress.com/.
The UkeStuff website, curated by veteran music educator and ukulele teacher Christopher J. Russell, PhD, offers an extensive collection of free, classroom-ready resources specifically designed for ukulele teachers. Teachers will find over 50 free chord-melody PDFs with embedded melodies for GCEA and DGBE tuning, most paired with demonstration videos, along with public-domain lead sheets and songbooks that can be requested in alternate keys. The site also links to high-quality free materials from respected creators such as Elizabeth Ragsale, Valery Sauvage, Tony Crimlisk, and Spencer Gay, including songbooks, arrangements, tutorials, and videos suitable for educational use. A standout tool is the Uke Play-Along Search, which allows teachers to select known chords and instantly generate playable song lists with YouTube links, making differentiation and student engagement easy. UkeStuff further serves as a hub connecting teachers to trusted ukulele websites, music resources, stores, and manufacturers. For about $10, teachers can optionally purchase Dr. Russell’s Video Ukulele Method, which saves planning time by organizing over 1,500 freely available play-along videos into a classroom-tested chord sequence optimized for group instruction. This website is a very valuable resource for classroom ukulele teachers.
Hill, James and J. Chalmers Doane. “Ukulele in the Classroom.” Ukulele in the Classroom, 2025. https://www.ukuleleintheclassroom.org/.
Ukulele in the Classroom is a Canadian based organization that offers a digital and print classroom ukulele curriculum. The website offers a Free Ukulele Program Starter Kit, which advertises as having everything you need to start a ukulele program with enough guidance, strategy and teachable materials to start and sustain a program for weeks. Some materials are free (like the student e-books), and some others are only available for purchase. The teacher books include detailed curriculum lessons that include key teaching points, teaching strategies, expected learning outcomes, and both written and performance assessments. The website links to free resources as well as forums to help connect teachers.
Videos
Shimabukuro, Jake. “Jake Shimabukuro YouTube channel.” YouTube, 2026. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHvWv6d-IWyWquyq_xuFAuQ.
Jake Shimabukuro is a virtuoso ukulele performer who is passionate about his craft and inspiring to watch. His piece “Dragon” is especially notable (found here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QW-vxhHAPYU) and merits showing to students as high quality, creative, and relevant music.
Webley, Rachel. “Ukulaliens - Ukulele Club.” YouTube, 2017. www.youtube.com/channel/UCZjDV_1UEbVsAQA_q9tyTWw.
The Ukulaliens YouTube channel is a robust source of 220+ play along videos and lessons. These videos are aimed at beginner-intermediate ukulele players and teachers leading ukulele classes or clubs. There are multiple instructional videos that teach how to strum chords in both swing and straight rhythms, with each video set to a speeds ranging from 70-130 BPM. The play-along videos feature pop songs from the 1950’s up to modern hits (including holiday songs) set in the key of C. These function as lead sheets with chords and finger charts under the lyrics with animated indicators of when to change chords. The chords used in the video are listed in the video descriptions. This is an excellent source for helping students practice chords, gain confidence in a safe setting, and make real music as they play along to full accompaniments/backing tracks. The videos are not organized by difficulty so instructors will need to carefully select the appropriate songs for their students levels based on what chords they want. Teachers and beginners, use this video to get started. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_jxUIIqSBY&t=6s. If the tempos on some videos are too fast, you can use the chrome extension “Transpose” to slow the tempo while maintaining the pitches. See this tutorial for more details https://youtu.be/RaYqEr2eZcs?si=662QGwXYHpLXtk0U
Assessments
Hill, James. “Ukulele in the Classroom; Resources.” Uketropolis, 2026. https://www.uketropolis.com/classroom-resources.
This source contains 19 quizzes that are available freely as PDF download for various levels of students. They can help an educator assess a student’s knowledge of note address identification, music reading skills, and chords on the ukulele. They are clear, easy to read, and well-crafted resources.
Music Team in EPS415. “General Music Rubrics.” University of Illinois, 2013. https://assessmusic.weebly.com/general-music-rubrics.html.
This source (one of five for various instruments, found as a download here https://assessmusic.weebly.com/uploads/2/0/7/4/20749282/ukulele_solo_performance_rubric_pdf.pdf) is a rubric for teachers to assess solo ukulele playing. With a possible 20 points, this rubric helps teachers gauge a player's rhythm, progress, notation reading and performing skills, and correct playing posture. The rubric is simple but effective. It would be easy to modify this rubric to fit your class needs. The source is a good place to start when assessing students in a ukulele class. The source was collected by students in a college music class at the University of Illinois and all rubrics on this site are based off rubrics currently used in the field by in-service teachers.