ondhu, eradu, ready, go!!
c, eradu, muru, naalku! a minor, eradu, muru, naalku!! (c, two, three, four! a minor, two, three, four!)
thank you to all of you who have joined in on the survivor girl ukulele band project!! i am so grateful and encouraged by your support!!! good news! we’re in our second week of ukulele classes at odanadi girls home in mysore, india!!
above is a day one video of my first batch of students. aren’t they wonderful?!!
one of the staff said that a couple of the girls were practicing ukulele in the dorm and the atmosphere was so calm. “the stressness all went outside,” she said. yay!!
here is the main building at odanadi girls home. the offices and classrooms are on the left and the dorms are on the right. odanadi is a 20 minute walk from where i stay.
week one’s lessons included tuning and the chords of c, a minor, and d minor, as well as the c scale and some tips on strumming. here’s pooja*, getting in tune — with a makala dolphin ukulele outfitted with worth strings from japan!
on day two, one the girls gave me a small flower for my hair. ;-D
here’s the odanadi boys home. there are about 20 boys living here. it’s out in the country, so there’s a great view from every window.
lunch time at odanadi. nutritious and delicious. how to eat, you ask? well, first you portion off a small amount of rice with the fingers of your right hand, and then move it over into the bean area. and then you movie it around a bit so it can soak up some of that yummy sauce. then you take about a tablespoon or less of that mix in your fingers, keeping it toward the tips and never toward the palm. and then use your thumb to push that bit into your mouth. yep. that’s how we do.
day four and pooja* had yet trim her nails! in fact she had recently painted them. oh, no!! too bad they had to be cut.
oh, so much better with short fingernails!!!
two happy girls toting wonderful kala brand music’s makala dolphin ukuleles — the best beginner ukulele on the planet!!
on day five only one of my first batch girls showed up. but then along came mahi*, who sat in and was soon helping the other student. she had learned a few things from one of the other girls the night before and became very interested in the ukulele. she’s so smart and so motivated, i swiftly added her to the batch one class as a walk-on. and two days later she won the c-scale contest!!
and here i am in yet another in my series of great light, soft focus, auto-rickshaw selfies.
see you again real soon!!
* names are changed
survivor girl ukulele band 