Ukulele classes in Berkeley/East Bay and online.
In these uncertain times,
keep the music in your heart alive!
Summer Session will run from July 7 – August 31, 2025.
Enrollment is open! Register here, or sign up for the mailing list for news and updates.
We’re going to sing and play, together.
We’re going to build a good foundation of basic technique.
We’ll learn how chords work and how they fit together.
We’ll learn a few ways to strum.
We’ll learn a ton of songs, together.
We’ll have fun!
Ukulele Classes taught by Ryk Groetchen
I have been teaching ukulele since 2016. I came to the uke from other musical activities, and I love how this small instrument can take the place of a whole band, and make a very satisfying accompaniment to the voice. I also love its approachability, for people of all levels of experience and musical development.
I am a multi-instrumentalist (voice, flute, guitar, bass, ukulele), composer and lifelong music lover. My performance experience includes rock bands, free improvisation ensembles, jazz big-band, vocal ensembles and multi-media/spoken word performance groups. I have participated in a variety of community art- and music-making activities with young children, middle- and high-school students and adults of all ages.
As a neurodivergent person (ADHD, proprioception hyposensitivity, aphantasia), my particular challenges have necessitated that I think mindfully about many aspects of practice that might come more naturally to another student. I will take great care in understanding, articulating, and providing strategies for a wide range of challenges that a student might face when learning to play an instrument. We’re on this journey together, and there’s no hurry. Let’s enjoy learning about ourselves in this musical way.
I am a perpetual student, committed to continuing my own music and movement education while sharing my understanding and learning process with the community.
- Teaches early childhood music classes with East Bay Music Together since 2002
- Certification Level I by the Center for Music and Young Children in Princeton, NJ.
- Orff Schulwerk Certification Levels I, II, and III
- Orff-Afrique course in Ghana
- Smithsonian Folkways Course in World Music Pedagogy
- Orff Jazz Course New Orleans
I have always had a strong desire to contribute in some way to musical culture, which led me to found the East Bay Community Music Project in 2012. I have been teaching ukulele in the Berkeley/Oakland/San Francisco East Bay area, and since music classes went online due to Covid 19, my students have Zoomed in from all over the US, as well as Taiwan, Mexico, Canada, Israel, and India.