The Province .com posted a fine article, ‘Ukulele-playing takes Langley schoolkids from Hawaii to Olympics: Music tradition goes back 40 years’, about the Langley Ukulele Ensemble who travels from Canada to Hawaii year-after-year to entertain and is now entertaining back in Canada during the 2010 Winter Games (Olympics).
The article emphasizes some of the reasons that Ukuleles are the perfect choice for students and schools:
‘Why the ukulele?
“First of all, playing it doesn’t require the mouth so this frees up the easiest musical instrument we all have, which is the voice,” Luongo says.
In other words, students can sing and play simultaneously.
The program started 40 years ago, when the ukulele — not the more popular recorder — was selected as Langley School District’s instrument of choice to introduce young students to music.”
Secondly, ukulele-playing utilizes every main component of music education at the student’s fingertips — melody, harmony, ear training, scales, theory and rhythm,” he adds.
The ukulele is also relatively inexpensive and easy to carry.’
Read the article to find out more about them and their Olympics appearances.
Read about the history of the Ensemble on their Website.
Here is a video of the ensemble playing the Beatles’ song, ‘I Feel Fine’…