Category: Community Artists

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Community Artist – Karl Jackson

by Dave Thorpe

Any regular Ukelandia Facebook followers cannot fail to have been intrigued, impressed and inspired by the playing of our own Karl Jackson. Karl has been a member of Ukelandia since December 2021 and is a regular, and valued poster of videos. Karl has a unique personally developed playing style necessitated by the fact that he has one arm. In this interview I discuss with him his ukuleles, the development of his playing and his ambitions. 

Hi Karl – an obvious starter – what got you into playing ukulele and how did you come across the Ukelandia community?

I first took an interest in the ukulele after my youngest daughter said she wanted to learn to play in 2019. Helping her get started watching tutorials online made me realize that I wanted to learn as well, though I had been told by music instructors in the past that playing more than hammer-ons on a stringed instrument would be impossible. 

What scale lengths do you use (soprano/concert/tenor/baritone) – are some more suited to your style than others?

My preferred scale length is concert, though I can play any of the differing sizes of ukulele. I found that the concert size fits best for my playing style as it best matched the length of my forearm. The longer scales require me to reach for the first few frets, that’s why I play the longer scales with the ukulele resting on my lap still.

Obviously, you have to do the job of two hands – strumming and fretting the notes – with one. For anyone who has not seen you play can you describe the mechanics of what you do?

To learn to play I had to train my fingers to do specific jobs on the fret board. I started with my ukulele lying on my lap face up like a dulcimer or lap steel guitar, fretting one string at a time with my index finger and picking the string with my pinky. As I built up the muscles needed to do this, I was able to start using my middle and ring fingers for fretting as well. So, my pinky is in essence doing the work of my strumming hand, and the other three fingers are doing all the fretwork. My thumb is usually supporting the back of the neck to keep the ukulele from moving around too much, that or I use it to pluck the open G string.

Those of us that follow you on FB have watched you develop as a player. We’ve seen you move from playing melody only to playing chords as well, and from playing the uke horizontally while sitting down to playing standing up. What do you consider to be the major developments in your style and what has driven those developments?

Every day I learn something new about the ukulele, my playing style, and the impact sharing my playing style has on others. The most recent developments in my play style have been learning to play with the ukulele strapped up off my lap, singing along to my own strumming, and playing my harmonica and the uke simultaneously. 

One of the biggest drivers in these developments has been my increasing confidence in my abilities.

Sharing my videos on Facebook (Ukelandia especially), lead to an outpouring of support from the ukulele community. The support and encouragement that I saw, made me honestly appraise my playing style, not for the one-handed aspect, but for the actual music I was making.

Away from the uke and playing, what is the music you listen to – are there particular musicians (uke or otherwise) that you admire?

I am a big fan of the blues, jazz, and especially ragtime music, which reflects itself in the music I play on ukulele. Some of my favourite past artists include Tom Lehrer, Robert Johnson, Frank Sinatra, and Larry Addler.

I am often enjoying the styling of Keb Mo, Thomas Benjamin Wild Esq, and Hugh Laurie, just to name a few.

You have come a long way since you joined us in 2021, what’s next?

Moving forward, the ukulele is becoming a predominant part of my life goals. I am working with music therapy groups out of New York and Hawaii to get established doing workshops at events and to help inspire others.
Additionally, I am working on a one-handed ukulele primer, so that others with limitations can break out of the “That’s Impossible” mindset.
Beyond that, I am excited to see where my ukulele takes me next!

Karl, many thanks for your time here and telling us about your musical journey. It’s been fascinating to hear your story. Thanks also for all your inspiring videos. I look forward to many more!! 

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Community Artist – Marisa Levy

by Yuta Hsu

If you’ve been a Ukelandia member for any amount of time, you’ve probably seen this person’s posts. A little “ or “ a little wave, followed by a cover that would bring a smile to your face. Or maybe a small collaboration ( of a handful of members. Or maybe even a large collab put together with lots of love. Either way, I had the distinct honor to sit with the lovely Marisa Levy.

Born in Korea, she was adopted as a baby by her very loving selfless parents. Her father, her biggest hero, was a decorated Vietnam veteran. Her mother is also pretty amazing. Her parents had two sons, and then decided to adopt wanting to help children after remembering how life was in Vietnam. They ended up adopting four children: one child from Vietnam (older sis), two children from Korea (Marisa a boy), and one from Hong Kong (younger sis). Growing up where there weren’t a lot of A sians, she would sometimes feel out of place, but her parents always made everyone feel equal and as much a part of the family as her brothers. She has done 23 and Me and found a close cousin, but she hasn’t reached out to her… yet. She now has her own family consisting of her husband of 20 years and two teenage boys. The boys have taken to their Asian side and are bringing her along on a journey learning more about her heritage.

A retired hair stylist and make up artist, she’s currently a stay at home mom When not playing an instrument of some kind, she enjoys fishing, nature photography, paddle boarding, kayaking, painting, and cooking. She admits she can get bored easily, so she’s seemingly always looking for a new challenge. Like many of us, a main mo tivator of her uke journey was the COVID lockdowns of 2020. Just before the lockdowns, she was actually picking up an electric piano to learn to play, and saw a little pineapple uke that was too cute to pass up. “I taught myself basic piano via YouTube vid eos. I then decided to pick up the uke I bought and give it a go watching YouTube. That s how I found Bernie and Ukelandia. It kept my mind busy and gave me a community to share my hobby! Things are getting back to normalish, but it still calms me to play and Ukelandia lets me see everyone s journey and progress.” She has since expanded to baritone uke, U bass, guitar, guitalele, and violin. And if you look hard enough, you may see her play a saxophone or percussion, too!

Known by some as “The Collab Queen,” I asked her about the collabs and what inspired her to organize them. “The collab idea came from me wanting to cover a song I really like (I Will Wait by Mumford and Sons), but I knew it would sound better with more members adding their talents. I made a post and received way more volunteers than I ever thought I would! It turned out so great and we just kept on going every few months with a new song!” That first post asking for volunteers resulted in a video of 12+ Ukelandia members (some recording t hemselves for the first time!) doing a wonderful cover of Mumford Sons complete with kick drum. That first collab was so well received, another one happened a few months later where 25+ members (including Bernadette!) joined in for “I Need Never Get Old” by Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats. Then came “Don’t Stop Me Now” by Queen. After that, “With a Little Help from My Friends” by The Beatles. And while she was organizing these large collabs, she was still posting her own videos, doing smaller coll abs, and encouraging other members on their uke journey.

As life slowly returns to some sort of normalcy, the ukulele is still a part of her life. When her father passed away last year, she found solace in the ukulele, finding chord melodies more comforti ng and therapeutic. The positive influence of the ukulele cannot be denied. I asked her what she’s learned on her uke journey so far, and she said “I learned that collabs bring us closer together and encourage some that feel more comfortable in a group pro duction. ThatThat’s my favorite part of it! Some have only recorded themselves to share for the collabs. Safety in numbers, as they say. I met so many great people doing them! ItIt’s time for another one, by the way.”

I’m inclined to agree with her!
And as is my tradition, I ended our interview with a questionnaire based on one Bernard Pivot used on his talk show. Here are Marisa’s answers…

  1. What is your favorite word?
    Journey or Progress. I like the idea of going somewhere better or more positive, or attaining a goal/skill… the process of bettering oneself.
  2. What is your least favorite word?
    Perfect.
  3. What turns you on?
    Someone that cooks for me and plays me some music.
  4. What turns you off?
    When someone is cocky, justified or otherwise. Confidence is good, cockiness is bad.
  5. What sound or noise do you love?
    A major chord followed by a minor chord.
  6. What sound or noise do you hate?
    Loud chewing or drinking.
  7. What’s your favorite curse word?
    Well, it depends on the situation, but the one that starts with the letter “F”
  8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
    Animal rescue/rehab.
  9. What profession would you not like to do?
    An office job.
  10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?
    Would you like to organize a collab with all of the musicians up here? And my answer would be “Hell yes! I mean, Heck yes!

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Community Artist Dave Thorpe

by Yuta Hsu

The number five. Trad Irish music. Twenty Twenty Vision. What do these all have in common, you may ask? How could such seemingly random things have any connection? If you look around hard enough, you’ll see the hidden connections, but you don’t have to look very hard to find this connection. It’s none other than the very talented and lovely Dave Thorpe. A man of many talents, one of which is bringing a smile to your face with his disarming charm and laid-back manner.

Born in 1960, he grew up listening to his father’s records, ranging from The Beatles, Slade, Simon & Garfunkel, to big bands like Glenn Miller. You can see his varied musical taste started early. As a child, he took classical piano and trumpet lessons, but found that they didn’t agree with him. He discovered his love of stringed instruments on the age of fifteen when he borrowed his sister’s guitar and taught himself how to play. Back in those days, there was no internet or YouTube, so he had to learn by looking at chord sheets and listening.

For most of the last 20 years, he mainly played guitar for Trad Irish sessions and gigs with some of the best Irish musicians such as Elmer McGowan (flute), Colette O’Leary (accordion), and Brendan Power (harmonica). He also recorded several albums (all available on Apple Music/Amazon/etc), the most recent being his first ukulele-based titled “Twenty Twenty Vision” back in June of 2021.

Since music was a passionate hobby, I asked him about his professions. To no one’s surprise, music played a big a part of that too! He’s been a classroom teacher for decades, working with children who had special social, emotional or behavioral needs. Many times he’d bring his guitar in and play music for the children, but it wasn’t music therapy per se, as he was really just a teacher who happened to be a musician. He didn’t say it in this way, but I think he was inspired by witnessing how music helped the children to earn a master’s degree in music therapy. He became a full-fledged Music Therapist in 2013, and helped countless people for nearly 10 years. He worked with cancer patients, people with autism, adults with dementia, and survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017.

One of his greatest projects as a music therapist was setting up the first dedicated music therapy service in a renal dialysis ward. This was an important project to him because he was a patient at the same dialysis ward back in 2004, before getting a kidney transplant in 2006. Knowing how difficult dialysis is, he wanted to go back into that setting and use his newfound skills to help. It was a very successful program, but unfortunately lost funding after three years. Since then, he became a dialysis patient once again, as his kidney transplant is now failing. He now finds himself in the same dialysis ward three times a week, six hours each time, sitting next to some of the same patients he played music for, waiting for news of another transplant.

In his words, finding Ukelandia “was brilliant!” Before COVID hit, his life consisted of a lot of going out and performing at venues all around London. Playing Trad Irish music meant musicians sat around tables playing all sorts of instruments right next to each other, which was obviously out of the question with the advent of COVID. He hasn’t played with another musician live since February 2019 and misses it. Mostly, life is going to dialysis, maybe an outing or two and being at home playing ukulele.

We talked a bit about his some of his outings, and a recent favorite was being able to visit the Southern Ukulele Store and meeting Alex. If you don’t know, SUS is a wonderful uke store in England and Alex uploads many videos to YouTube. On the platform he is showing off the many incredible ukes they have, along with tutorials about strings, woods and many other topics related to our favorite instrument. Dave was given the VIP treatment, with no other customers in the store, and hundreds of ukes to play with! In the words of Dave himself, “it’s a two and a half hour drive, but it’s worth it!” As a result of his visit, he ended up two more ukes.

I paused slightly and smiled, because I realized that Dave was in that very familiar spot in his house we see in all of his videos… on his couch, with a painting on the wall behind him and a uke always within arm’s reach. It’s amazing that he only really picked up the ukulele a few years ago and now it’s his go-to instrument. Dave is on a wonderful musical journey which he shares with all of us with his video’s and articles in this magazine. I was honored to listen and share his story with us all.

Oh, and the number five? Dave lives just a few blocks from the old Wembley Stadium, so he’d get to hear concerts for free. Once, he got to hear the Bon Jovi concert for what seemed like five times.

Before we stopped, I told him that I like to end my interviews in the same way James Lipton of ‘Inside the Actor’s Studio’ ended his, with a questionnaire based upon one used by Bernard Pivot on his talk show. So without further ado, here are Dave Thorpe’s answers…

  1. What is your favorite word?
    Syzygy. A word that describes the seeming chaos and order of the universe.
  2. What is your least favorite word?
    Like. When used as a filler word or a pause. Or emojis!
  3. What turns you on?
    Music. Song lyrics.
  4. What turns you off?
    Our current Prime Minister
  5. What sound or noise do you love?
    The C5 chord. It’s neither major nor minor because there’s no third.
  6. What sound or noise do you hate?
    Foxes at night. Though he points out, as a music therapist, that any sound can be used in a positive way. Except those damn foxes.
  7. What is your favorite curse word?
    Bollocks. It’s a very flexible word.
  8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
    “I would’ve loved to do music at a high level.” Meaning, he would’ve loved to been a full-time musician.
  9. What profession would you not like to do?
    Anything that’s a 9-5 desk job.
  10. If heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the pearly gates?
    “John Prine’s over there, and he’d like to talk to you about all of those covers you’ve done over the years.”