Report from the 10th ukulele course
Yesterday we held the 10th ukulele course in the heart of Budapest, at the Aranytíz Cultural Centre in District V. That day at the end of March when I arranged the dates of yesterday's Course I and the Course II taking place next Sunday with the venue now seems quite distant. And yet those few weeks flew by so quickly. I had really been looking forward to meeting new ukulele players and helping them begin their journey with this wonderful instrument.
As usual I had a million things to carry and set up, but by 9:00 everything was ready and we could begin exactly on time. I think the hours — which felt more as though they were flying — passed in a very good atmosphere again, and I hope the participants enjoyed themselves too.
The anniversary course was also documented by Márton Demeter, thanks to whom there are “public” pianos at several locations in Budapest that anyone can play. There is currently one upright piano at Deák tér and another at Fény Street Market, with two more due to arrive soon. I think this is a fantastic project and I support it however I can. As soon as I get the chance, I will visit one of the locations myself — probably the one at Deák tér — and do a little tinkling on the keys . Marci regularly documents the events around the public pianos with photos and videos, and he also records other musical events. So I thought I would invite him to the course and ask him to treat us to a few professional shots. You can see his photographs below the blog post, and on behalf of all the participants I would like to thank him very much for them. I also warmly recommend Marci's @budapestpiano Instagram page — follow the piano and other music-related events there.
Back to the course: a message to every participant — practise a great deal with a slow metronome !
At the end of the course, thanks to D'Addario — one of the world's largest manufacturers of strings and accessories — we raffled off several ukulele accessories. A huge thank-you to D'Addario!
At the very end I still had that brutal amount of equipment to carry downstairs, and it meant a great deal that several of you waited until I had packed everything up and then helped carry it all down. An enormous thank-you !!!
Only a few more days and Course II is next — I am already looking forward to it !
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Finally, the photographs I took and the D'Addario winners:
