Dear Minim Family,
We hope you have been well, and that the children are settling into the school year with ease.
This year we are delighted to offer a vibrant array of classes to the community, from Ukulele to Math to Dance. We will feature each one over the coming newsletters, but today we would like to shine the spotlight on how we teach ukulele, to give you a glimpse of what happens in a Minim classroom.
Learning the Ukulele Is Easy with Minim!
Learning the ukulele is easy with Minim, not because the instrument is simple (though four strings do help), but because we start somewhere most music programs do not: with the child in front of us, not the syllabus behind us. That is the Minim Method, and ukulele is where families see it most clearly.
What a Minim Ukulele Class Looks Like
Walk into a Minim Ukulele class and you will not find rows of children drilling scales. You will find small groups (about one teacher for every seven children) sitting in a circle, often discussing the song they are about to learn. A child obsessed with a movie theme, or the song their older sibling plays at home, becomes the lesson. Technique is built along the way, in service of the song the child already loves, not in front of it.
This is Responsive Education in practice. The teacher is no longer the only source of information, so the real job is to notice what a child is curious about and to curate the path from there. We do not drill. We build curiosity, and the chords follow.
Every group of Minim ukulele students even builds its own Ukulele Songbook each year, a real, printed record of what that class chose to learn together. It is proof the method is not a slogan: the curriculum is genuinely theirs.
Visual Chords, One Finger at a Time
Colour-coded chords help children understand, from their very first class, how to press the strings of the ukulele and sing along to their favourite songs. Our curriculum starts with the "one finger chord" method, which makes it easy to play a real song from the very first class. To date, we have arranged more than 60 songs using one finger chords.
Nurturing Something More Than Music
In the Minim classroom, ukulele is the vehicle. What we are actually building is something bigger than music: the 6 Cs. Every class encourages children to bring these values to life.
- Creativity: choosing songs, adding their own flourishes, making the music theirs
- Critical Thinking: working out a new chord shape, listening for what is off, solving it
- Confidence: the courage to play in front of others, and to keep going after a wrong note
- Collaboration: strumming in time with a circle of classmates, not alone in a room
- Compassion: the empathy and kindness that making music together naturally teaches
- Curiosity: the spark that makes a child ask to keep playing after class ends
A performance, when it happens, is treated as a celebration of growth and shared music, never an exam.
Our Upcoming Performance: Merry Minim Christmas Caroling!
Venue: Arisugawa Park
Date: December 12, 2026
Time: 10:00 to 11:00am
We look forward to a cosy morning of caroling and sharing music with everyone.
Ways to Learn Ukulele with Minim
Afterschool group classes
At partner schools across Tokyo
- Small groups, ages 3 to 10
- Trial classes from ¥3,960 (tax-inclusive)
Ukulele Academy
One-on-one lessons at home or in a studio, paced entirely around your child
- Trial lesson ¥4,950
- Single lessons ¥14,960, with ticket packs from 5 lessons (5% off from 10 tickets, 10% off from 20 tickets)
Family Ukulele
Monthly Saturday sessions at Nishimachi, where parents and children learn side by side, no experience required
- ¥3,960 for one adult and one child (¥1,100 per additional family member)
- Next sessions: October 3 and November 14
We hope this gives you a glimpse of the magic that happens in the classroom, and we look forward to growing a love of music in the children with every lesson.
With love,
The Minim Team
