Harold O.
Well-known member
Except for a few UU posts and a quick look at some YouTube videos, I had no idea who Mitch Chang was/is until last weekend. Turns out that he's not only an event promoter in the southern California area (Slack Key Festival, Jake concerts, etc), he teaches a lot of ukulele classes.
I contacted him without introduction and asked him to visit the Canogahana Players group. We're a beginner/intermediate group that meets twice a month.
Mitch was great and I highly suggest to others that have regular meetings to do what we did. He sat in with us as we went through and played our usual songs for about an hour and a half. For our final half hour, I turned the floor over to him.
He had been taking notes all along and was able to point out some cool things we take for granted, a few ways to improve/change up our playing, and offered a few tips on lively strumming techniques.
Had he not been willing to sit through our first bit of time, he wouldn't have known what we needed to improve upon. Classy move. Some other instructors may not have had the patience or confidence to sit back, play along, and enjoy themselves before getting to work.
So if you have regular meetings, see if you can't find a local pro able to come out once in a awhile and do what Mitch did for us.
We didn't need or want a full-on workshop or concert, just some tips. It was way cool and a neat way to grow the group without expending a lot of effort. We'll be having him back later in the year.
I contacted him without introduction and asked him to visit the Canogahana Players group. We're a beginner/intermediate group that meets twice a month.
Mitch was great and I highly suggest to others that have regular meetings to do what we did. He sat in with us as we went through and played our usual songs for about an hour and a half. For our final half hour, I turned the floor over to him.
He had been taking notes all along and was able to point out some cool things we take for granted, a few ways to improve/change up our playing, and offered a few tips on lively strumming techniques.
Had he not been willing to sit through our first bit of time, he wouldn't have known what we needed to improve upon. Classy move. Some other instructors may not have had the patience or confidence to sit back, play along, and enjoy themselves before getting to work.
So if you have regular meetings, see if you can't find a local pro able to come out once in a awhile and do what Mitch did for us.
We didn't need or want a full-on workshop or concert, just some tips. It was way cool and a neat way to grow the group without expending a lot of effort. We'll be having him back later in the year.