Welcome to Ukulelear

Back in 2005 I brought a Roy Smeck ukulele to school. Kids were intrigued and wanted to try to play it themselves. The sound was pretty cool with just a few simple chords. Within a few weeks kids had bought their own Mahalo ukes and started to really enjoy playing.

Since that first ukulele group the Cal-Mum Uke club has had about forty students join-up every year. It has been a joy to teach in a school that is filled with the plinkety-plunk of the uke music.

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Jake Shimabukuro's "1-2-3" at Cal-Mum

One of the coolest little songs written for ukulele came from the effort of Leo Daquioag of the Music for Life Foundation and Jake Shimabukuro. Back in 2011 Leo and Jake headlined the effort to break the Guinness Book of Records for largest ensemble of ukulele players playing a specific piece of music. Jake wrote the music for the song that only requires three fingers to play. Instruction of how to play the song and videos are on the Go For Da Record site. Students from Iliahi Elementary School in Wahiawa wrote the song that goes with the music.

Here are students at Cal-Mum Elementary School performing the song at 2012 Christmas Concert.