UGH West Hawaii Region News - February 27, 2002

(By Andy Berard)

Aloha Kakou from the Island of Hawaii. We have started to organize builders on the West Hawaii side of the Island of Hawaii and are so excited about being able to be a part of the Ukulele Guild of Hawaii. We are also counting on the Evans ohana and Bob Gleason to organize the East Hawaii builders. Mike Chock's dream of the sharing of information amongst builders of the uke is finally a reality and we will do all that we can to kokua in the attainment of the goals and objectives of the UGH.

Our membership in the UGH is slowly growing and we expect to have from 20 to 30 builders as time progresses. Calendar of events as well as meeting place and schedules are in process of being developed for our 2002 year. A membership recruitment meeting is planned for March.

UGH Sound Forum: I was fortunate to be able to attend the UGH's first sound forum which was well worth the trip. Got to meet the people, renew old acquaintances and hear 30 plus ukes being played by three top-notch players. Acoustics could have been better, however the players and the ukes more than made up for it. Clarity, projection, volume, note separation and overall sound were the categories of evaluation. I understand from Vince that posting of scores on a non-attribution basis will be in this month's newsletter. Looking ahead, it is envisioned that the players will be able to get good feedback for areas of continued improvement in their building of the ukulele. To Vince Yagi, chair of the event, and his hardworking crew, mahalo nui loa for all of your hard work in putting on such a fine event that will continue to grow and afford all of us an opportunity to share and learn from the process. Mahalo also for the ono food!

Ukulele Building Classes: Here in West Hawaii many of us have started building ukuleles at Konawaena's adult evening class sponsored by the DOE and taught by Guy Sasaki. This is where I started 4 years ago and have been enjoying it ever since. Queen Liliuokalani Children's Center, under the tutelage of Mike Ikeda and his staff, also provides building instruction here in Kona as well as on other islands. After building ukuleles for four years I decided to offer a professional quality ukulele building class and our first two classes started in January of this year with eleven students. We are into week 7 of our class schedule and bodies are assembled and we are finishing binding and starting on our neck construction. If all goes well we should complete by mid March. We plan to have a Ukulele listening session in April/May and look forward to the wonderful sounds of the ukes when they are pau.