Our joyful afterschool ukulele groups, full of musicianship skills, singing, dance, improvisation and strumming, are booking now in South East London for children in reception and above. 

Real life classes…

…are taught by Becky and Martha from Beanstalk Arts, they are joyful, musicianship based lessons, full of movement, singing, improvisation and fun, with heaps of music theory snuck in, and of course lots of ukulele skills! Our unique, creative approach to ukulele teaching folds in storytelling, composition and improvisation, as well as learning chords and strumming techniques, all built on our own tried and tested syllabus. 

We have different groups for different ages and level of experience, our classes in the Autumn term are:

Reception and year one afterschool ukulele story club:
Thursdays, 4.10pm in Sydenham with Becky 
This is a great group for beginners, and uses lots of the same structure that children may recognise from our Cello and Violin Stories classes. Our approach is very much informed by our EYFS practice for this age group, so whilst they will be learning ukulele, we will do a lot of other musicianship work around this. 

Year 2-4 after school ukulele story club – beginners:  
Tuesdays, 5.10pm in Sydenham with Becky 
Also for beginners or players with only a little experience, this group is for slightly older children, so will go at a faster pace and focus a little more on technical ukulele skills. There will still be storytelling, song writing and singing galore! 

Years 2-4 after school ukulele story club – for children with ukulele experience
Tuesdays 4.10pm in Sydenham with Becky
This group is suitable for children who have been playing a while and have learnt C, Aminor, F and started to play G. This group is currently full, but if you’d like to join the waiting list, or have a chat about what class is most suitable for your children, do ask!

Wednesday Peckham Story Strummers
Wednesdays 5pm at the Copleston Centre, Peckham with Martha
This group is for children in c. years 2 – 4 who have been playing a while and have learnt C, Aminor, F and started to play G. We have spaces in this group – if you’d like to chat about what class is most suitable for your children, do ask!

Year five/six Thursday Jammers:
Thursday’s at 5.10pm in Sydenham with Becky OR on Zoom! 
‘The Angry Lemon Cats’
This is a group for older more confident uke players who have been playing with us for a while OR already can play a bit of uke (or are confident on other instruments so have skills easily transferrable to uke) – our repertoire is drawn from music the children are interested in, with lots of song writing  too, although we still draw inspiration from storytelling! We currently have space for 3 more children to join us 

As part of signing up to this course, you’ll have access to our full online syllabus of lessons too, our real life classes won’t follow this exactly, but your teachers will suggest videos to practice along to between sessions. 

You’re welcome to drop an email to becky@beanstalkarts.co.uk if you’d like to have a chat. 

We’re also teaching at Ivydale Primary School next year, so if your kids go to school here, they can sign up for lessons in school time that will be taught with our Beanstalk Arts ukulele syllabus! 

We have some capacity for bespoke groups or more teaching in schools – do get in touch if you’d like to enquire about private lessons – costs depend on venue and travel, as well as the number in your group.

We also do lessons for grown ups! 

The Autumn Term starts for ukuleles on Monday 18th September for our groups, and the following week for groups in schools. 

These groups are block booked. After school groups are £90 for the 10 week term (£9 a week) and you can choose to pay upfront or in instalments. There are discount tickets available if cost is a barrier to entry. 

What age are they for and how many children in each group?

These sessions are for children in reception and above – they are playful, joyful sessions with a maximum of 8-11 kids in our  classes depending on the venue 

Is any musical experience required?

Nope – not for the first level! But you will require a ukulele (you can buy or borrow one as part of your sign up). 

We’ve recently done your online course, what level should we do?

Drop Becky an email to chat about this so we can find the right course! Reach us on becky@beanstalkarts.co.uk – replies will be slow over the summer holidays! 

Are there exams? 

Not in this syllabus! But we will do an ‘open rehearsal’ in the last session of term when grown ups are invited to come and watch.

How much practice do we need to do? 

The perennial music teaching question! You’ll get links to a few videos (the same as on our online self paced course) and song sheets, and we hope your kids will be inspired to practice a bit at hone! As with all music learning, they will get out more, the more they play. BUT I’m a mum and a realist, and for many kids this is their first step into musical instrument learning, so please don’t worry too much. I’d advise leaving the ukulele out in an accessible place so they can pick it up regularly – little and often is the key! 

What about your online course? 

Our online beginner’s ukulele course contains all the material for our level 1 and 2 course, perfect for little ones age five and up that are showing an interest in music, or maybe just need something to tempt them away from jumping on the sofa for the rest of the summer and beyond! I’ve heard lots of reports of families taking part in this course together!

Preview and sign up for this course here