Anyone know a good Bay Area uke teacher?

If your friend wants to learn Hawaiian music, she could contact Saichi Kawahara, who teaches 8-week beginning and intermediate ukulele classes, with the next cycle beginning on Monday March 12 through his organization, Kapalakiko I Ke Aloha. The strength of this program is the breadth of Hawaiian music, Saichi's involvement in the Hawaiian music community, and the size of the Kapalakiko community -- he teaches classes in the East Bay and San Jose as well and offers monthly workshops for students, and 75 of his students will be performing at the Northern California Ukulele Festival in Hayward on April 1. I've been taking those classes for a few years and have improved quite a bit. In addition, Ka'ala Carmack teaches ukulele classes on Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings (the Tuesday evenng class is no longer being offered) at San Francisco's Japanese Community and Cultural Center in Japantown and he gives private lessons as well. He probably focuses on technique a little more than Saichi does. Hiram Bell teaches an ukulele class at Freight and Salvage in Berkeley, but I believe he also teaches classes in South San Francisco or thereabouts. There are also ukulele classes at Blue Bear Music in Fort Mason.

Your friend may be interested in joining San Francisco Ukulele Rebellion, a meetup.com group that meets every other Sunday from 1-3 p.m. at a cafe near the Panhandle in SF to play somgs from The Daily Ukulele. At our last meeting, 30 people of all experience levels showed up. One of the organizers of this meetup group has recommended both Dennis Donovan and Steven Strauss for private lessons.

I hope that helps.
 
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