Music instructor Joseph Young can’t say enough about the humble ukulele.
“One of my favourite things about teaching the ukulele is the community surrounding it,” says Young, who has been teaching music for almost 20 years. “The uke community in the Lower Mainland is robust and welcoming across the board, and getting to introduce people to it is a pleasure.”
Skilled at playing a variety of instruments, including the guitar, piano, saxophone and, of course, ukulele, he finds the latter’s playability particularly appealing.
“The ukulele has a low-skill floor (you can pick it up comparatively easily) but a high-skill ceiling (the sky is basically the limit in terms of what you can do with it),” says Young, who has degrees in music and education from UBC. “There are virtuosic uke players from Canada and around the world doing incredible stuff with this little instrument!”
Teaching at community centres throughout Vancouver, including Kerrisdale for more than five years, Young’s overarching message to his students is “music is for everyone and classes with me are safe and non-judgemental spaces to experiment and learn.”
In addition to teaching and playing ukulele, Young is also a father (shown with daughter Emma in photo, below) and husband, sings solo and in local choirs and “loves taking time to learn new things.”
If you’d like to learn something new, further your skills or join the growing uke community at Kerrisdale, there are still a few spots left in Young’s spring classes and jam sessions below:
• You Can Ukulele: Level 1 (55-plus)
• You Can Ukulele: Level 2 (55-plus)
• You Can Ukulele: Level 3 (55-plus)
• Kerrisdale Ukulele Ensemble (18-plus)
• Ukulele Jam (19-plus; April 27)
• Ukulele Jam (19-plus; May 25)
• Ukulele Jam (19-plus; June 29)
