Toyama International Festival Sing-along November 2016

What a wonderful event, with a few hundred people crammed into the small venue. The acoustics were wonderful for singing together, thanks for coming!

Pepin sing-along November 2016

We had fun!

Japanese Earth Day sing-along

The Japanese contingent of the Homebrew had a wonderful sing-along at an Earth Day celebration in a forest preserve. In addition to ukulele we played sanshin for some Okinawan min’yo.

Nice piece on Ukulele 101 via NAfME

This looks like it will be a great inservice. Great, practical advice! Read the article here: http://www.nafme.org/ukulele-101-beginners-guide-ukulele-elementary-general-music-classroom/?platform=hootsuite

The uke in Missouri

Here’s a nice article on a program using ukes in Missouri: http://www.enterprisepub.com/movalley/news/ukulele-is-an-inspiring-trendy-way-to-teach-music/article_f3f43420-1d18-11e6-8c19-773b595d523a.html

“I got to thinking that I could do the ukulele,” said Spears. “It was becoming a popular thing all over the world to teach children this way. I decided that I would try to implement it here.”

Sing-along in Japan

The Homebrew diaspora extends around America and now to Japan, where Matt has relocated for a few years. In the meantime, we’ll be posting the occasional participatory event, such as this singalong at the Toyama JET International Festival.

The audience sang along to several well-known American folk songs, making for a wonderful afternoon performance.

Great column about ukulele programs in General Music Today

A shout out to a wonderful column in General Music Today by Robin Gibelhausen, “So, You’re Thinking About Starting a Ukulele Program?”

Throughout, Robin discusses her approaches to teaching, detailing thoughtful and engaging ideas for teaching. Even those who have been teaching the uke for years are likely to find a few novel approaches (such as “air uke”) to stimulate their pedagogic imaginations.

http://gmt.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/01/09/1048371315625294.abstract