Everyone Can Play: introductory whole-class instrument teaching
One instrument, a whole class, starting from nothing
Everyone Can Play is four units, one per instrument: ukulele, guitar, bass and keyboard. Each one takes a class that has never held the instrument and gets them playing together, in the room you already have, on the instruments the school already owns.
They are entry-level and they are built for whole classes rather than for a handful of students who already play. Enough structure to start on Monday, loose enough to follow the class once it is moving.
Choose an instrument
Pick the one you have a class set of. If that is a set of ordinary guitars, note that the Bass unit runs on them too, using only the four lowest strings.
Ukulele
Chords and strumming, songs and playalongs, and riffs. Enough structure to start on Monday, loose enough to follow the class.
Read moreGuitar
Em, then G, then the two of them joined together in a jam track. Changing between chords is what playing guitar is, so the unit gets there straight away.
Read moreBass
Built to get students playing as fast as possible. Most schools run it on ordinary guitars, using only the four lowest strings.
Read moreKeyboard
A first keyboard unit, a harmony programme, or the bridge between skill-building and creative music-making. Often all three.
Read moreFour units, and the band they add up to
Each unit stands on its own. A term of ukulele is a complete piece of work and needs nothing else alongside it.
Run more than one and something else becomes available: the instruments are the ones a rock and pop band is made of, so a class that has done guitar and keyboard has most of the parts covered. That is the point at which Just Play becomes the obvious next thing. It incorporates these whole-class resources rather than replacing them, and takes the class from playing an instrument to playing as a band.
Teacher move: you do not need to be able to play the instrument yourself. These units are built for teachers learning alongside the class, which is also how the workshops run.
What students learn
Enough technique to play something real
Chords, riffs and parts taught as the means to play a song, not as exercises to be got through first.
Changing between chords in time
The thing that actually separates holding an instrument from playing one, and the thing each unit gets to earliest.
Playing with everyone else
Starting together, staying together and arriving at the end together, which only a whole-class setting teaches.
Reading what is in front of them
Chord boxes, tab and riff notation, met as a practical need while playing rather than as a topic taught in advance.
Common questions
Do I need to be able to play the instrument myself?
No. These units are built for teachers playing and participating alongside their students rather than demonstrating from the front, which is also how the teacher workshops run. Plenty of the teachers using them started the unit as beginners themselves.
We only have guitars. Can we still do the bass unit?
Yes, and most schools do exactly that. The Bass unit runs on ordinary guitars using only the four lowest strings. A bass guitar or a ukulele bass works too, but neither is required to start.
Do students need to read music first?
No. Chord boxes, tab and riff notation turn up as a practical need while playing rather than as a topic taught in advance. Students learn to read the thing in front of them because they want to play what it says.
How does this relate to Just Play?
Just Play incorporates these whole-class resources rather than competing with them. Everyone Can Play is the entry-level, instrument-by-instrument series aimed at younger learners; Just Play is where a class that can play its instruments starts playing as a band.
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