 Lee, you're the organizer of UkeFest here. Tell us about what the event is. Well, the UkeFest is all about ukes, of course, and it's bringing together people who love the uke, or want to learn more about the uke, have heard about the uke. This is our second one, and we've filled it with workshops for anybody who, from a pure beginner, to someone who's advanced. So it's for all levels, and it's all free, so no one has to pay for these workshops, and each instructor really is a great instructor. And then in the evening, we have performances by local ukulele groups, and that includes children. Amanda, you helped match up children and instruments. Tell us about your program. So back in 2009, I had a dear friend of ours pass away, and we decided to keep his music and his magic alive by connecting children with instruments and helping the families provide the instruments that the children desire. And why is that important to do? Because music is a universal language and everybody has a soft spot in their heart for music and kids. And how does your program work? It's a completely donation-based program. So folks donate instruments, gently used instruments, and they also make financial contributions so that I can fix up the instruments that are donated, and I match them up with the kids. And how does a kid get an instrument through your program? Children are nominated, sometimes from parents, grandparents, neighbors, teachers occasionally, and I do a little communication with the family, and we find out if we can serve them. And you're here at Ukefest. Do you do only ukuleles or do you do other instruments as well? I do every instrument. I've had band instruments, guitars and flutes, clarinets, all the way to a set of bagpipes and a crystal singing bowl, as well as drum sets and everything else. Are the children that you're giving instruments to, are they children who have never touched an instrument before or have practiced but can't own one? What's the mix of people? Sure, it's quite a range. Some are very young children who are just showing a desire to play an instrument, and others are very well-seasoned children musicians who just need help affording their instrument. For example, I gave an upright bass to a gentleman when he was 13, and now he's 18 and has his own band and plays all over the state. Tell me about the look on a kid's face when you give them an instrument. Yeah, I think I'm a little better than Santa Claus sometimes when I show up with an instrument because the children feel really connected and music can really help all of us through difficult times as well. And if people want more information about your program or want to help you with a donation, where can they get more information? Sure, they can find me at musicandmagicmain.com is my website, and I'm also on Facebook as Music and Magic Main and they can also just find me as Amanda Panda. Why the ukulele? The ukulele, why the ukulele? The ukulele is just a fun instrument. It's easy to play in the sense the way I say it is 10 minutes to learn to play a song, 10 years to master, or if not more so. So it's very easy, four strings. Anybody can do row, row, row your boat. If you know three chords, C, F and G7, you can play thousands of songs. You can play it by yourself. You can play it in a group. Usually ukulele players are very supportive and collaborative and it's just a fun environment. Tell us a little bit about the ukulele itself. Are there different sizes, different types of them, like a bass guitar and a regular guitar? Talk about that for a bit. Yes, they are. They're actually four sizes. The fourth is the biggest baritone, which is almost the size of a guitar, so we don't really include that. There's the soprano, which is the one when people think of a ukulele, they think of a soprano. And that's the plinky, plinky, plinky. Then there's a concert, which is a little bit bigger, and then there's the tenor, which is a little bit bigger than the concert. More and more people are going towards the concert because it's, if I may borrow an expression, it's not too big and it's not too little. It's just right. So people call it the Goldilocks model. Are there different kinds of music for ukulele? A lot of people think it's just chords, but is there more than that? Actually, there is. One of our workshops is teaching participants. You can have finger picking, which is just individual notes. You can have chords, and you can actually have both. Chords, strumming, and finger picking. That's called chord melody. And those are the kinds of things that you would play in your living room or play at a party if you were the only one with a ukulele. The popularity of the ukulele has gone up and down over the past 100 years. It seems to be having a resurgence now. Why do you think that is? Well, it is a resurgence, but if it's a resurgence, it's not new. It's been around probably for the mid-70s. This is what they call the third wave. But I think why it's so popular now is a lot of indie bands and a lot of popular singers, as opposed to Tiny Tim, have been playing the ukulele. And you're hearing rock stars, if you will, play on the ukulele. And they're saying this is fun and it can make beautiful music. Kate, you're here at Ukefest and you just completed a course on music therapy and the ukulele. Talk about music therapy a little bit. Sure. Music therapy is a field where we work with people of all ages to work on non-musical goals. So we sort of use music as a tool where we're still making music that sounds good, but it's to meet physical, cognitive, social, and emotional goals of people with disabilities or dementia or even just people that are working on stress relief. And how does that work exactly? What's the process? The process is different for every client, but we generally try to meet clients where they are. So even if people don't have any musical skill, we start talking about their favorite kind of music and maybe listening to it and talking about the lyrics. And then we go into maybe changing the lyrics or playing along to the song or moving in time to the music. So if someone's working on their gate, someone with Parkinson's say, we will measure their gate speed and then make music that matches that tempo and then we speed it up or slow it down and that will actually, the body entrains to the music and then they will walk along in time to it and it evens out their gate. Are there different kinds of programs for people with sort of mental problems as opposed to physical problems? Definitely. So people with physical problems, there's a real structure to the session where we're meeting that goal exactly. So really spending the whole hour just working on, they're walking or like if you're working on crossing midline with your right arm or something. And then people with more emotional goals, we might do music and relaxation, more listening. Sometimes I work with groups of adults with developmental disabilities and we're working on social skills. So we might have one person playing ukulele and then the other person is playing a drum and matching the strumming rhythm and then we'll treat instruments. So working on social skills. Is there something about music that sort of reaches people at a sort of base level no matter what their issues are? Definitely. I haven't really met anyone that doesn't like music so everyone sort of likes it but also everyone has a connection to it. So music, when you're engaging in music, you're using up more of your brain. It's not necessarily just left or right brain but you're using more of your brain. And so it's engaging that emotional side of your brain that brings up memories to music but then also the cognitive side of your brain where you're remembering words to songs even if you weren't able to speak them, you can sing them. So it's really connecting all parts of you and really getting you motivated to meet your goals. And how does the ukulele help meet those goals that we hear at Ukefest? Ukulele is one of the greatest instruments for music therapy. I think drums and ukulele because they're so accessible and it's less intimidating than bringing out a guitar or like a giant harp to play. And it's got four strings and they're made out of nylons. It's a little easier on the fingers and anyone can pick it up and play it. So even if you strum it an open chord, it's still a nice sound. And so it's sort of forgiving even if you don't necessarily have the skills to make chords yet. There seem to be a lot of ukulele festivals all over the country lately that I've seen. Why do you think that is? Well, I think it's because the ukulele is a very social instrument. It just invites people to come together. And usually these ukulele festivals, I wouldn't say usually, almost all the time, they're fun events. Not just here's how you practice the ukulele, it's let's join and learn some songs or let's have dinner together. Then we'll play ukulele and we'll have some performances in front of a very understanding, supportive audience. So it's just all fun. So why wouldn't people want to come to a fun event? A lot of people associate the ukulele with Hawaiian music, but there is a lot of other kinds of music that is written for it as well. Absolutely. The instrument itself came from Portugal, the island of Madeira, found its way to Hawaii in the 1870s and then it came to the United States roughly 1915 in San Francisco and then spread east, if you will. And now the music that you hear is a lot of Tin Pan Alley things from the 1920s. That was the first wave. And then the second wave, Arthur Godfrey, and that brought in pop music. And then the third wave with the indie bands, not Tiny Tim, they brought in all kinds of songs. We can do anything on a ukulele. You really can. We've all avoided the big question now. Is it ukulele or ukulele? It's ukulele is the correct pronunciation, but to keep correcting people and saying, don't say ukulele, say ukulele, it's too hard. So the American version is ukulele. Whichever one you do, it's just plain fun. Exactly. No matter how you say it, it's fun. If people want more information about your organization going forward beyond the Ukefest today, where can they get more information? They can go to our Facebook page, Casco Bay Ukefest and find all the information.