Kids are clamoring to be part of the Ukulele Club at William Ramsay Elementary School.
The nine-week after-school program for second graders only started in the spring. With the end of the school year around the corner, the 15 kids in the club are rehearsing for an upcoming school assembly and a performance in front of their parents.
Second grader Shalom Nahom, 8, said she started strumming a toy guitar at home before getting in the club, and that the real thing is much more satisfying.
“It’s very nice, I love it,” Nahom said. “It makes me feel confident and I love listening to music as I strum it.”
The program is run by local nonprofit Sound Impact and funded by a $2,000 grant from the Virginia Commission for the Arts.
By day, Sound Impact’s co-founder Danielle Cho is the assistant principal cellist with the Washington National Opera. She said that ukuleles are cheap to buy, easy to play and fun.
“Students that learn music from a young age, their brains develop better and faster,” Cho told ALXnow. “I think the younger we can start them, the better.”
The program brings in professional musicians to play alongside the students, led by Glenda Bates, a department chair at Levine Music.
Bates works with the students to write new original songs.
“I think that the ukulele is just such a good entry point to music, because it’s very simple, but yet you can do so much with it,” Bates told ALXnow.
Naya Griles, a music teacher at William Ramsay Elementary, said that she’s constantly asked by kids if they can join the club.
“Their whole mindset on what music class is has completely changed, and their involvement has grown exponentially,” Griles told ALXnow. “I think definitely expanding into other schools would be amazing, because I think all these kids deserve an opportunity to have the experience that Sound Impact brings.”
