Music Appreciation is a go-to class for students who need to fill their fine art credits for the school year. The class isn’t very popular, and now, it might not ever exist again. Ukulele class is the replacement for it, and people are getting really excited.

  “Ukulele class seems like a fun class to join. It’s like learning a little guitar,” junior Molly Baumhoff stated.

  At first, ukulele class was only an idea, and it was unknown whether or not it would pass as a class for the 2017-18 school year. It is still unknown for certain whether it will be a class, but it does look promising due to the amount of interest in it.

  “The amount of people who signed up for this class makes me believe that it’s going to be a class next year,” band and ukulele teacher Brandi Holt replied.

  Unlike Music Appreciation, Holt felt that ukulele would be a more welcomed alternative fine arts credit.

  “The purpose of starting Ukulele was to provide an alternate course to music appreciation that better suits the interests of this generation’s students,” Holt said.

  Holt, herself, is very excited to teach the class because Ukulele will be new for her as well. She plans to teach herself the instrument over the summer while developing her curriculum with the help of her cooperating teacher, Deanna Schockmann.

  “I know the basics of Ukulele, but I’ll need the summer to get up to performance level,” Holt said.

  This will be a learning experience for quite a few of the students as well. Junior Zoe Eledge stated that she has no experience with stringed instruments, but it shouldn’t be too hard for her to learn because she already has a foundation in reading music notation.

  A good question many people might ask, however, is why Ukulele? When asked this, Holt replied saying that is was because it’s comparable to a guitar class, which many other schools have, yet different.

  “A lot of schools offer guitar a an alternative. However, unlike the guitar, the ukulele only has four strings, has softer string material, and it’s size makes it easier to learn,” Holt said.