Uke Away!
When I went to primary school you had two instruments, the voice and the recorder. There’s nothing wrong with the first one, but face it – how applicable is the recorder to modern music?
But now many schools are adding a third choice: The ukulele. A lot of schools in New Zealand have purchased ukuleles for their students and it’s becoming a legitimate instrument, rather than just a silly item at a luau. Besides the fact that they’re fun, and colourful, and cute, they’re also a lot easier to play than guitars and are great lead-ins. And “ukulele” in Hawaiian means “jumping flea”. Can’t beat that.
You can play heaps of songs on the uke, including the current hit “Hey Soul Sister”. The video above is of the late great Israel “IZ” Kamakawiwoʻole singing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”, which Judy Garland could never have imagined, but which has its own charm.
Anyone play the uke here? Anyone play an instrument period?
– Jean AAR
Convert avi to ipod – how to convert avi files into ipodGuide: how to convert avi to ipod, convert avi into ipod video, upload and convert avi files into ipod, how to convert avi video files for playback on ipod?
This blog doesn’t render correctly on my blackberry – you may want to try and repair that
My partner and I stumbled over here by a different website and thought I should check things out. I like what I see so i am just following you. Look forward to looking at your web page repeatedly.
Howdy! This is my first comment here so I just wanted to give a quick shout out and tell you I really enjoy reading through your posts. Can you recommend any other blogs/websites/forums that cover the same subjects? Many thanks!
What I want to know is why you didnt think to include the other side of this issue? There are so many things that youre missing here that I dont see how you could actually form an intelligent opinion on the subject. Its like you didnt even consider that there me be another side here. Im kind of disappointed.
I had never heard of Bruddah Iz until I saw this. Now I can’t get the tune out of my mind. I’ve heard the phrase ‘voice of an angel’ so many times, but this really is the voice of an angel.
@ellen – I found the guitar incredibly difficult at first, but luckily at school we have a 3/4 size one with a thinner neck, which makes the chords (especially those wretched bar chords) a lot easier.
@Meri – I had no idea slowly killing cats rates above torturing them.
The flute in school and learning to play the gaita(Bagpipes) now. It still sound as if I were torturing cats, but I´m getting better.
Now it sounds as if I were slowly killing cats.
I played the ukelele back when I was a kid. I enjoyed it and got to be fairly good at it, but I could never graduate to the guitar. I have small hands and had difficulty doing the chords.
@LinnieGayl – Hey, I used to play the clarinet too, in middle school. Then I switched to the flute because the case was smaller.
@beth W – Love that website, and I now have another addition to my music department wishlist. Dang it.
Ukes run for under $50 in NZ, which means they’ll probably go for under $40 in the US, and they’re mega-easy to play. I can testify that some of my students labour for hours over the guitar and get frustrated (it’s harder than it looks), but pick up the uke and half an hour later they’re smiling.
Don’t play the ukelele. I do like that schools are starting to veer away from the recorder. I dearly wish more schools would go to the tin whistle/irish whistle/pennywhistle instead of the recorder.
1. It’s easier for a beginner to play a simple tune – though I can’t say it’s easier to play, the masters of the whistle make me green with jealousy because I just can’t do that.
2. They are inexpensive. You can get a high quality whistle for under $10. These are the same instruments some of the greatest players play. Sure you can get recorders for similar pricing, but they are cheap, low quality instruments.
3. They are more relevant to music today. Irish whistle can be heard everywhere. Probably the heyday was a decade or so ago with the Riverdance and Titanic mania, but it’s still a popular instrument on lots of recordings. Obviously you can play Celtic music with it, but it lends itself better than the recorder to lots of other styles of music.
4. If you haven’t figured it out yet, I am a proud whistle player. And a proud supporter of music education in schools. I play my whistles primarily in church with our worship team. I am a mediocre player but it’s loads of fun.
(And if you want to find out more about the whistle, check out http://www.chiffandfipple.com. You will not only get an education, but lots of laughs).
Just love that video. Very interesting about ukes being added to schools in New Zealand. I took piano lessons for years, and also clarinet lessons for a few years.