Hillside 2016 Uke Tunes Workshop etc.

What draws me to Hillside is community. I have also always trusted the musical programming and learned here to wander a festival "by ear,” checking out acts that sound great when I’m in the mood to listen. As for Hillside in particular, I love its non-corporate sponsorship vibe (meaning it feels indie and is actually a charity vs. private co), and I adore the reusable dishes and the water truck instead of water bottles… I like how we have better garbage sorting than I have seen anywhere else. I'm drawn by its support of indigenous communities, and its environmentalism/green initiatives. I love the concern for the planet, and the hole think-global act-local style, and food choices, and its year round activism. I support Hillside for its location and passion and voice. By the way, I’ve celebrated my birthday there 12 yrs in a row and I am heartbroken that it is moving its date next year.

I think Hillside started as a Mom & Pop shop that hired the neighbour kids, giving them a start, unlike larger festivals that take on such talent when they are grown up and successful. I read in an article “Hillside is the corner store, WayHome is the Walmart.” “a brand heavy mega-mart that will books artists when they go from being weird to being popular” I would love to attend future Hillsides with a smaller slew of less expensive performers to see! I’ve been pleased to note future plans include more workshops..

The "workshops" are when bands play together, and actually jam. It's one of my favourite parts of the festival, and I think Hillside does it better than most.

I was proud to present Uke Tunes Workshops this year at Hillside.

On Saturday I demo’d 3 chords and played my original tune lovecall, just to show how easy it is to get started! Then we all mastered another extra chord shape and new pattern of 4 to strum and we heard and tried to learn an awesome tune that a young person had written on the uke for health class, about not catching an STI. I remember thinking, “only at Hillside” ha. Another participant lead a wonderful version of You Are My Sunshine (C & F) and I also thought it was a workshop highlight for us to all try and learn another participant’s choice Dammit which included bar chords on the 4th and 3rd fret. We also heard the uke tune used by a Toronto Subway busker in her audition! She wrote me afterwards “I'm really happy to have met you. The workshop last year gave me a lot more confidence with my uke.” — Sare Komono

On Sunday, we discussed the awesome benefits of playing uke and I tried to introduce a bit about each uke as i tuned and loaned it. We also collaboratively answered participants questions about what type of uke is easiest to learn on. I remember Derek taught us Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (C & F), Ken lead an awesome All Together Now jam, and Kyle lead the first exercise on basic strumming patterns from the ukulogy website. and someone asked me if i knew the “Ahead By Century” tune that Choir, Choir, Choir would be doing later, and luckily I had a semblance of paperwork that we could try and work from. I also remembered to email a pic of my handwritten paperwork to the other person from Toronto who asked for it