This is a song my young ukulele classes know very well! I wrote it to get children around the age of five to press one string and then off again while they strum as a very first step. The song is accompanied by a toy or cut-out of a squirrel. They have a star under a string on their ukulele fret board and they have to press their finger on it whenever they see the squirrel. To play it the simplest way, one string on their ukulele needs to be tuned down a tone. Scroll down for more information if you’re interested in teaching this version for very small absolute beginners.
I then adapted it to suit children who already can play a C chord but then need to learn to swap between chords.
How to teach the Squirrel Song with two one-finger chords (as in the video)
Get them strumming, alternately hold the squirrel up and hide it behind your back. When they see the squirrel they play the star chord, when the don’t, they play a chord of C.
When they are able to do this, sing the song while they strum and hide/bring out the squirrel at the appropriate points in the song.
Put them in charge
When they have been playing the song over a good few weeks and you feel they know it well, you can get them to take turns standing in front, hiding and showing the squirrel while you and the rest of the group follow them. They love doing this! Once they can show the squirrel in the right places then you really know that they have internalised when to change chord in a song.
Lyrics
Take a chord of C, tall like a tree
Makes it nice and easy if you use your finger 3
Next part of the song, Squirrel comes along
Find that star and put your finger 1 on
What can you see in the old oak tree?
A big, fat squirrel looking straight at me
I can’ t see what branch she’s on
There she is! Now she’s gone.
The squirrel in the song started out as a he. Then an artist friend of mine, the wonderful Amelia Clark designed a new squirrel to replace the considerably battered cardboard cut-out I was using with my over- enthusiastic class. The students felt that the new squirrel was most definitely a she.
How to teach the Squirrel song with one one-finger chord and an open chord
(For very small beginners)
Tune their ukuleles to G C E G instead of the normal G C E A. Now when they strum they are playing a ready-made chord of C. All they need to do is keep strumming, put their finger on the star chord when they see the squirrel and take it off when they don’t.
Play the song in the same way as before, but use these words:
Play an open chord, play it nice and loud
Put your finger on and listen to the sound
Play an open chord, play it nice and soft
Put your finger on and take it off
What can you see in the old oak tree?
A big, fat squirrel looking straight at me
I can’ t see what branch she’s on
There she is! Now she’s gone.
Thanks so much to Kimi Maeda for the amazing squirrel puppets, backdrop, filming and puppetry in the above video.
Conrad's Chords 