August Resonate

Favourite songs, stretching, butterflies, music benefiting many, Candle

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From the vaults of UAS Anonymous (via Pinterest Uke Kiddin me?)

Big Island, big heart
Diana Aki is a well-regarded Hawaiian singer, musician and recording artist who has also been playing ukulele for the past 40 years. A family member who stayed with her last week turned out to be one of the ones you don’t choose to be related to, stealing money, an iPad and her beloved old ukulele. Word got out amongst the Hawaiian uke community though and before long, the trusty instrument was found via facebook group Big Island Thieves, and reunited with its owner. Read the heart warming story.

The music you love - better for everyone?
In a study published in 2008, Finnish music therapist Anita Forsblom, and Teppo Särkämö from the faculty of medicine at the University of Helsinki, found that regular music listening by stroke survivors gave positive results for a range of recovery outcomes.
This prompted Todd Frazier, a composer, and director of the Houston Methodist Center for Performing Arts Medicine, and Christof Karmonik, a neuroscientist at Houston Methodist Hospital to wonder if certain kinds of music gave better outcomes than others.
Their initial study measured the brain activity of healthy subjects listening to different types of music and other audio recordings. There was unfamiliar music as well as a self-selected piece chosen for the strong, positive emotional response it provoked. Unlike the unknown pieces, the self-selected pieces, even though they were of vastly different style and genre, all activated the same areas - memory and emotion - in the subjects’ brains.
Frazier and Karmonik are now recruiting for a study of stroke survivors to see if they achieve even better recovery from listening to music they love! Read about it here.

Minor repairs and ongoing maintenance…of YOU
One of the most viewed articles on my site is the one exploring what to do about ukulele playing sometimes being a pain.
Like most musical instruments, playing ukulele uses your hands, fingers, arms and shoulders in ways that aren’t always natural or comfortable. That’s why with my weekly groups, I always start with a stretch and breathe. It helps reduce (or avoid) inflammation in tendons and joints.
I play a lot of ukulele each week as well as ubass and guitar, and rely on regular stretches to keep everything working smoothly and without discomfort. Depending on the group, the weather and how big and heavy people’s song folders are, there can be some extras incorporated but below are the basics. Find more Technique at a Peek videos here.

Basic stretch and breathe - before or after playing, or any time you feel the need!

Get Your Butterflies 'Flying in Formation'
Pre-performance anxiety can make you want to run a mile or disappear into the floorboards (and can take over any number of bodily functions!), but did you know those ‘butterflies’ can instead be marshalled to help rather than hinder? Read this article to find out how.

Stable Yard Music in Hatfield, north of London, uses these hangers to display its ukuleles. Make one (or more) for yourself with their instructional video.

Singing helps heal a Port Arthur survivor deal with PTSD
Cathy Gordon worked for the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and was escorting a group of Opera Australia singers on a tour of Port Arthur in 1996 when the mass shooting at the café took place. She struggled for many years with the personal trauma of this experience but has finally found solace through singing and choir leading. Read about her journey.

Musicians without Borders is a Netherlands-based organisation which takes community music organisers and resources to people in countries that have suffered from or are in the midst of conflict and trauma. Their motto is ‘War Divides, Music Connects’. I could not imagine a better thing to do but they don’t require any more volunteers at the moment! Click the logo for inspirational stories or sign up to the newsletter for the latest information. They have a great list of simple ways to become involved and spread the message.

One of their current projects is the Mitrovica Rock School. It is situated in Kosovo, which since its independence in 2008 has still been severely ethnically divided. The rock school teaches school students from both sides of the divide, so they get to know each other and collaborate musically, a step toward healing bitter divisions between Albanians and Serbians.

The founder and Director of Musicians Without Borders, Laura Hassler, originally from New York but based in the Netherlands since 1977, is one of the key speakers at an event in Melbourne in September entitled ‘Peace, Empathy and Conciliation through Music: A Collaboratory’.
This extraordinary combination of presentations, fieldwork reports, panels, discussions and workshops is designed to: “bring together researchers, practitioners (musicians including performers, community musicians, music educators, music therapists; community development workers; social service workers; arts organisation delegates), and arts and community policymakers to share ideas around the ways that music is used to develop peace, empathy and conciliation.”
More information here if you’d like to attend or do a presentation.

For local readers, the next Strumming Workshop has been scheduled for September 9. This time we’ll be starting with technique and then moving on to timing, emphasis and patterns. I’ve limited the numbers even more than usual to make sure no participant is left behind! Book here

All Our Exes Live in Texas is a four-piece from Sydney featuring ukulele, mandolin, accordion and guitar. Elana Stone, Katie Wighton, Hannah Crofts and Georgia Mooney are accomplished singer-songwriters, very evident in the track Candle, a piece of subtly excellent song-writing and beautiful harmonies.

They have supported high profile Australian and international acts, but their first album When We Fall was crowdfunded and released in June. Candle is worth listening to for the name of the band alone, and it has been well and truly stuck in my head since preparing the songsheet three days ago.

Even though it’s in the key of Eb, there’s nothing difficult about playing it once you familiarise yourself with Ab. There’s always the option of doing a G shape chord on the 3rd and 4th frets and muting the G string with your thumb, but don’t tell anyone I said that.
Verse, chorus and bridge each have a different chord out of the key and this makes for an engaging unpredictability. Each chord on the songsheet is played for one bar in 4/4 - give it a go!

Maybe some of the exes work at the Houston Methodist Center for Performing Arts Medicine?
Danielle

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