Ukuleles on Retreat

Each time I post about my ukulele experiences, I am surprised by how many people respond with wishes that they, too, could learn.  Because some of these people are also people who go to the Create in Me retreat, I've wondered about teaching people some basic ukulele chords at the next retreat.

One of the joys of travelling by car is that I could bring a lot of ukuleles with me; I know ukulele musicians who would probably let me borrow instruments for half a week.

We'd realistically only have 2 days--could we learn enough so that people could go on to teach themselves?  I think so.  And more importantly, people could experiment with the instrument to decide if they like it enough to buy one.

The larger issue is one that is present at every retreat:  we offer lots of activities and lots of opportunities to try a variety of arts and crafts.  Would enough people be interested in ukuleles to justify the effort of bringing them and teaching people?

I have a vision of an initial workshop followed by several 15 minute sessions each day--if people then want to keep practicing, they can.  If not, they cement what they learn, and then they're free to try other things.

This approach might turn out to be a good way to learn an instrument, as part of a temporary community which can gather multiple times throughout the day--a luxury that most of us don't have in our non-retreat lives.