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Products, expensive banjolele, music research boost, braguinha, Hawaii
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Caleb Kraft from Missouri made this flame thrower uke as an homage to the guitar in the last Mad Max movie. It’s heading down to 4 degrees celcius tonight in temperate coastal Newcastle, so I‘m distracted by anything that looks warm. Caleb confidently states that his version “can be built from hardware store parts in a very short amount of time.” If you’re a handy DIYer and looking for new ways to engage your audience, just make sure you get an extinguisher before your next gig. 
July 2017
Hello readers, whilst I work on development of new products, rather than weekly posts, I’ll be posting just a monthly Resonate which will, however include the kind of items that were otherwise posted weekly.

One of the products underway is Ukulele Core Skills, a standard (ie non-PDF) e-book for beginner and intermediate players, which addresses each ‘core’ skill in turn and gives exercises which will help with the issues commonly encountered whilst trying to achieve cooperation between ukulele, arms, hands and fingers!

Another product almost ready for testing by a select group of local critiquers is a ukulele game. It started out being a board game, but I discovered along the way that a uke-specific card game seems to work better, and is as easily portable and playable as the ukulele itself.

When these items are available, you'll be the first to know!
More money than for cleaning windows
You may have heard that George Formby’s banjolele was auctioned this week and snapped up by a UK buyer (to great applause) for £28,500. Sold with the instrument was this photograph of George’s wife Beryl Ingham.

Beryl was, of course, George’s manager and a tough and ruthless one by most accounts. One article, however, claims that they were much more of a team than appearances and George’s later complaining might have suggested, and that George was functionally illiterate, depending a great deal on Beryl to help him rehearse and even get through day to day life.

Health and music research heading toward mainstream care
Music therapy and research exploring the benefits that music contributes to our mental, emotional and even physical wellbeing, has received a boost in the US. Their National Institute of Health and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts have just joined forces in a partnership called Sound Health, which aims to:
  • expand current knowledge and understanding of how listening, performing, or creating music involves intricate circuitry in the brain that could be harnessed for health and wellness applications in daily life,
  • explore ways to enhance the potential for music as therapy for neurological disorders,
  • identify future opportunities for research, and
  • create public awareness about how the brain functions and interacts with music.
The areas of research include those where there are already positive results: music being used to alleviate pain; to reduce blood pressure, heart rate and anxiety in heart disease patients; singing as a way of releasing the brain’s own painkillers and oxytocin for feelings of trust and bonding; and increasing the levels of infection-fighting molecules by listening to music.

Following a workshop in March to formalise the partnership, in the middle of last month (June), musicians, scientists, and music therapists held a day of discussion and music-making, which was available to the general public. Have a look at the how the day went - easy to read and inspiring summaries accompanied by full videos - here.
Music teaching in Australian Public Schools?
Way harder to access than it should be

Dr Alexander Crooke from the University of Melbourne asks -
When many schools have cupboards full of musical instruments, why are so few students learning to play?

Although written from a Victorian perspective, this story outlines what is a similar situation in NSW and States and Territories other than Queensland and Tasmania (which have have specialist classroom primary music teaching).

The situation is partly a shortfall in teacher expertise, but even when teachers do have the expertise, there is no time to prepare and teach music. In addition, there is intense pressure to push the literacy and numeracy national testing barrow, to the detriment of the arts, which ironically, when taught are likely to assist in good literacy and numeracy outcomes.

Fortunately, the Victorian Government has pledged, ‘to provide $2 million over four years so that every Victorian student has access to music by 2018’, so it will be interesting to see the outcome, and whether it helps facilitate ukulele teaching in more classrooms.
 
One of the inspirations for the making of the ukulele by Portuguese cabinet-makers in Hawaii was the braguinha, a small four stringed instrument also known as the ‘machete’. Another inspiration, the cavaquinho, was from the mainland, but braguinhas are from the Madeira Islands.

This 4 minute video from Portugal covers its sound characteristics, construction and the traditional rhythms played on the braguinha. It was called a machete because the sound ‘cuts through’. Even though the tuning is different, you can certainly hear a ukulele voice in there.
Free Online Understanding Dementia course
Many of us have experienced seeing the wonderful effects that familiar music can have on people suffering from dementia. Knowledge of the disease is important not only for those involved in treatment and care but for families, friends and people in the early stages of the disease. The University of Tasmania is again offering its course which begins on July 25:
 
Understanding Dementia is a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), offering university-quality education about the latest in dementia research and care. This free 9-week course (with course materials available for 12 weeks) provides an opportunity to engage with the perspectives of an international community, without requiring exams or assignments.
 
Don’t miss out on this excellent opportunity - find out more information and register here

(Not quite) Straight to Hawaii

It’s only two weeks until Ukestralia, the broadly-based Australian ukulele group established and led by Mark Jackson and Jane Jelbart, founders and driving forces of Newcastle’s vibrant ukulele scene, performs at the 47th annual Hawaiian Ukulele Festival.

Mark and Jane are currently leading Ukestration workshops and performing in Canada and the US and will then head to Hawaii to lead the performance. I am currently wearing gloves, beanie, scarf and various other accumulated layers whilst typing, and thinking that rather than leading some of their groups while they're away next year, a pilgrimage to the northern hemisphere could be in the interests of thermal self-preservation!
And the final word from Sesame Street…
broken ukulele
Cheerio,
Danielle
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