Ukulele classes in Berkeley/East Bay and online.
JOIN ME FOR HOLIDAY, WINTER, & PEACE SONGS SESSION
First three weeks of December 2024
Winter Session will run from January 6 – March 15, 2025.
Enrollment is open! Register below, or sign up for the mailing list for news and updates.
We’re going to sing and play, together.
We’re going to build a good foundation of basic technique.
We’ll learn how chords work and how they fit together.
We’ll learn a few ways to strum.
We’ll learn a ton of songs, together.
We’ll have fun!
Ukulele Classes taught by Ryk Groetchen
I have been teaching ukulele since 2016. I came to the uke from other musical activities, and I love how this small instrument can take the place of a whole band, and make a very satisfying accompaniment to the voice. I also love its approachability, for people of all levels of experience and musical development.
I am a multi-instrumentalist (voice, flute, guitar, bass, ukulele), composer and lifelong music lover. My performance experience includes rock bands, free improvisation ensembles, jazz big-band, vocal ensembles and multi-media/spoken word performance groups. I have participated in a variety of community art- and music-making activities with young children, middle- and high-school students and adults of all ages.
I am a perpetual student, committed to continuing my own music and movement education while sharing my understanding and learning process with the community.
- Teaches early childhood music classes with East Bay Music Together since 2002
- Certification Level I by the Center for Music and Young Children in Princeton, NJ.
- Orff Schulwerk Certification Levels I, II, and III
- Orff-Afrique course in Ghana
- Smithsonian Folkways Course in World Music Pedagogy
- Orff Jazz Course New Orleans
I have always had a strong desire to contribute in some way to musical culture, which led me to found the East Bay Community Music Project in 2012. I have been teaching ukulele in the Berkeley/Oakland/San Francisco East Bay area, and since music classes went online due to Covid 19, my students have Zoomed in from all over the US, as well as Taiwan, Mexico, Canada, Israel, and India.