janeray1940
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- Nov 19, 2009
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Let me set one thing straight from the beginning - I'm not posting this to slam anyone or to start trouble. I'm posting this in the hopes that it will be helpful to the organizers of the event that I'm about to describe, and to anyone considering attending next month's session of this event.
Let me also preface this with a few words about me: I’m an introvert with a really weird learning style. Most of my musical background has come via teachers who work at McCabe’s, which sets a pretty high standard. I’ve been to my fair share of workshops and I will admit, I tend to always leave feeling disappointed.
The event I’m talking about is the Ukule-Along, put on by an organization called Active Arts, at the Music Center in downtown Los Angeles. The intention behind the event was quite noble - a FREE event to bring ukulele players together, held on three different days in July, August, and one more to come in September. Such a fantastic idea!
I didn't attend the first session but heard absolutely STELLAR things about Mitch Chang, Jason Arimoto, and Daniel Ho as instructors. So based on this positive feedback I decided to attend today's session. I attempted, repeatedly, both in this post and via email to get exact information about which instructors would be teaching the advanced section. I didn't want to name names, but there were a couple that I've already experienced, and my interest was in experiencing new-to-me instructors.
Given vague information that I could opt for a different instructor if I didn't care for the one I ended up with, I decided to give it a go, and headed downtown from Santa Monica this morning. Upon arrival, I learned that there was only ONE advanced session, and the instructors were: Ukulele Bartt, Mitch Chang, and Lincoln Kaio.
My heart sank. I had taken a Ukulele Bartt workshop once before, and – let’s just say it wasn’t my thing. But I had carpooled with others today and decided to keep an open mind and stay.
As with my previous Ukulele Bartt experience, I could tell that no sooner had I sat down than he had singled me out as the person to pick on. I don’t understand what it is – he’s like the class bully who likes to pick on the shy kid. Bartt is an extroverted, flamboyant type who likes to be the center of attention. I am a quiet, reserved type who wants nothing more in the world than the super-power of invisibility: I am an observer. And I am quiet. And I learn in was visual-kinesthetic way that is pretty alien to most instructors. Sometimes I process information a bit…slowly... until I figure out what I need to do to grasp it. I need to concentrate in order to learn. Sometimes I do weird things, like draw pictures of what I am hearing, or go through the physical motions without actually playing. Sometimes I play VERY quietly until I get the hang of what I'm doing. I suppose that may have been what I was doing today.
No later than five minutes into the workshop, Bartt moved in for the kill, singling me out for playing “wimpy.” “YOU! WHAT’S YOUR NAME?” he growled at me after the accusation. I tried to play it cool, and I told him. I’ve got an odd first name; he proceeded to mangle it, sort of make fun of it with a fake accent, and as soon as I sensed he was about to ask its ethnic origins, I announced “I’M OUT OF HERE” and packed up my stuff and made for the hallway to wait it out.
At this point, a gentleman named Ed, one of the Active Arts organizers, chased me down to ask what the problem was. I told him that I’d taken a Bartt workshop before and got nothing from it; I found it to be a hostile learning environment and found Bartt’s potty-mouth and gutter sense of humor to be offensive. I also acknowledged that this could simply be a learning style/personality conflict, and that I was quite content to hang out in the corridor and play my uke while waiting for my friends.
When the workshop let out, a couple of people – complete strangers – came up to me and told me that after I left, Bartt dialed back the in-your-face attitude, and they thanked me for standing up to him. Another person who had experienced his workshop told me she thought he was an… oh, I’m not going to resort to name-calling but there you have it.
Next up was Mitch Chang, with a guest appearance from the always-fabulous Sarah Maisel. Mitch seems like a good guy and probably a pretty decent instructor, but before the workshop Sarah mentioned that they were repeating their “intermediate” workshop even though we were supposedly the advanced section. The workshop consisted of a strumming song with a simple C-G-Am-F progression and a few mentions of things like “hey, you guys know about moveable chords, right?” Nothing wrong with any of that except that there was nothing particularly “advanced” about it. In fact, none of it was anything that I wasn’t already doing as a beginner some years ago – but like I said, my music education has set the bar pretty high I think.
Last up was Lincoln Kaio. Uncle Lincoln is absolutely the embodiment of the aloha spirit – a warm, good-natured guy whose mission in life seems to be to spread aloha and Hawaiian culture. As a beginner, I used to play in one of his uke groups, and I was curious to see what he would offer to an “advanced” group since I had never really seen him go beyond three-chord strumming. Turned out that’s what the entire workshop was – three-chord strumming. Kaholos in several keys. Again, nothing wrong with it, except it wasn’t exactly “advanced” playing.
So. That was my experience with this event, in sharp contrast to my fellow uke travellers’ experiences of last month’s event. While it’s always a pleasure to spend time around other ukulele players, I have to say aside from the camaraderie, the event was a huge disappointment. The highlight of the day was the amusement that came from the privilege of using the Artists’ Entrance of the Music Center – not something that is likely to happen again in my lifetime!
Let me also preface this with a few words about me: I’m an introvert with a really weird learning style. Most of my musical background has come via teachers who work at McCabe’s, which sets a pretty high standard. I’ve been to my fair share of workshops and I will admit, I tend to always leave feeling disappointed.
The event I’m talking about is the Ukule-Along, put on by an organization called Active Arts, at the Music Center in downtown Los Angeles. The intention behind the event was quite noble - a FREE event to bring ukulele players together, held on three different days in July, August, and one more to come in September. Such a fantastic idea!
I didn't attend the first session but heard absolutely STELLAR things about Mitch Chang, Jason Arimoto, and Daniel Ho as instructors. So based on this positive feedback I decided to attend today's session. I attempted, repeatedly, both in this post and via email to get exact information about which instructors would be teaching the advanced section. I didn't want to name names, but there were a couple that I've already experienced, and my interest was in experiencing new-to-me instructors.
Given vague information that I could opt for a different instructor if I didn't care for the one I ended up with, I decided to give it a go, and headed downtown from Santa Monica this morning. Upon arrival, I learned that there was only ONE advanced session, and the instructors were: Ukulele Bartt, Mitch Chang, and Lincoln Kaio.
My heart sank. I had taken a Ukulele Bartt workshop once before, and – let’s just say it wasn’t my thing. But I had carpooled with others today and decided to keep an open mind and stay.
As with my previous Ukulele Bartt experience, I could tell that no sooner had I sat down than he had singled me out as the person to pick on. I don’t understand what it is – he’s like the class bully who likes to pick on the shy kid. Bartt is an extroverted, flamboyant type who likes to be the center of attention. I am a quiet, reserved type who wants nothing more in the world than the super-power of invisibility: I am an observer. And I am quiet. And I learn in was visual-kinesthetic way that is pretty alien to most instructors. Sometimes I process information a bit…slowly... until I figure out what I need to do to grasp it. I need to concentrate in order to learn. Sometimes I do weird things, like draw pictures of what I am hearing, or go through the physical motions without actually playing. Sometimes I play VERY quietly until I get the hang of what I'm doing. I suppose that may have been what I was doing today.
No later than five minutes into the workshop, Bartt moved in for the kill, singling me out for playing “wimpy.” “YOU! WHAT’S YOUR NAME?” he growled at me after the accusation. I tried to play it cool, and I told him. I’ve got an odd first name; he proceeded to mangle it, sort of make fun of it with a fake accent, and as soon as I sensed he was about to ask its ethnic origins, I announced “I’M OUT OF HERE” and packed up my stuff and made for the hallway to wait it out.
At this point, a gentleman named Ed, one of the Active Arts organizers, chased me down to ask what the problem was. I told him that I’d taken a Bartt workshop before and got nothing from it; I found it to be a hostile learning environment and found Bartt’s potty-mouth and gutter sense of humor to be offensive. I also acknowledged that this could simply be a learning style/personality conflict, and that I was quite content to hang out in the corridor and play my uke while waiting for my friends.
When the workshop let out, a couple of people – complete strangers – came up to me and told me that after I left, Bartt dialed back the in-your-face attitude, and they thanked me for standing up to him. Another person who had experienced his workshop told me she thought he was an… oh, I’m not going to resort to name-calling but there you have it.
Next up was Mitch Chang, with a guest appearance from the always-fabulous Sarah Maisel. Mitch seems like a good guy and probably a pretty decent instructor, but before the workshop Sarah mentioned that they were repeating their “intermediate” workshop even though we were supposedly the advanced section. The workshop consisted of a strumming song with a simple C-G-Am-F progression and a few mentions of things like “hey, you guys know about moveable chords, right?” Nothing wrong with any of that except that there was nothing particularly “advanced” about it. In fact, none of it was anything that I wasn’t already doing as a beginner some years ago – but like I said, my music education has set the bar pretty high I think.
Last up was Lincoln Kaio. Uncle Lincoln is absolutely the embodiment of the aloha spirit – a warm, good-natured guy whose mission in life seems to be to spread aloha and Hawaiian culture. As a beginner, I used to play in one of his uke groups, and I was curious to see what he would offer to an “advanced” group since I had never really seen him go beyond three-chord strumming. Turned out that’s what the entire workshop was – three-chord strumming. Kaholos in several keys. Again, nothing wrong with it, except it wasn’t exactly “advanced” playing.
So. That was my experience with this event, in sharp contrast to my fellow uke travellers’ experiences of last month’s event. While it’s always a pleasure to spend time around other ukulele players, I have to say aside from the camaraderie, the event was a huge disappointment. The highlight of the day was the amusement that came from the privilege of using the Artists’ Entrance of the Music Center – not something that is likely to happen again in my lifetime!
