Report from David Chen's workshop

Organising this historic workshop was exciting because it was the first workshop in Hungary led by an internationally recognised ukulele teacher. I hardly know where to begin this report because I am still very much under the influence of the event. First, I would like to repeat briefly the words of thanks I gave at the beginning of the workshop. The greatest thanks go to David Chen and Vlastimil Prochazka, who came and created a wonderful, atmospheric afternoon and evening full of music and ukulele playing for us. Thank you toValyo Kikötőfor providing this beautiful venue on the bank of the Danube. The weather was kind to us and the sun shone beautifully throughout.

The next photo was actually taken at the end of the event, but it still feels like the right one to put at the beginning of the post:

We met David and Vlasta by the Parliament building, got into the car and drove down along the Pest embankment to the venue. We took our ukuleles out of the boot and headed for Valyo Kikötő. We arrived an hour and a half before the start. Within a few minutes we were already playing together and rehearsing the songs that we later sang and played with everyone at the end of the workshop.

We have arrived – pre-rehearsal selfie
(I put on my finest Sunday-and-special-occasion Hawaiian shirt .)

And the benches are going into place

People are arriving!

As the announced starting time approached, more and more people gathered, and in the end – if I counted correctly – there were twenty of us. We settled in, tuned the instruments, and David began the workshop. Sometimes he played alone and sometimes together with Vlasta. We were able to admire his two-finger technique and how effortlessly he plays the ukulele.

David and Vlasta

The mini-concert was followed by the learning part. David explained what and how to pick with the thumb and index finger: the chord tones less prominently, while bringing the melody out clearly. We also experimented with rhythm and picking technique, putting together the building blocks of music through one or two songs. Naturally nobody masters these things at a workshop to the level of automatic skill. That is not the purpose of a workshop anyway. The goal is to receive a push in the right direction and see where our learning can – or perhaps should – go next.

Distracting everyone by taking photos

We ended the workshop with group playing. David performed the five songs announced earlier and we joined him. I think this was a particularly good way to close the event, and for me it was an honour to stand on the same “stage” as David and Vlasta for a few songs.

I saw that many of you documented the event, so if you can, please feel free to upload your photos to the Ukulele Magyarország Facebook page and to the Magyar Ukulele Klub group as well. Thank you.

And two more thank-yous at the end. Thank you to Zsolt for helping with the organisation; I was glad to meet my rarely seen fellow blogger in person again – not that we do not bombard one another with information, ideas and everything else practically every day. And a huge thank you to ALL OF YOU for coming. I hope at least this many people will attend the next workshop as well. I can already reveal one thing: there will be another one in November...