People
A Shared Love of Music
The sound of music floats from a meeting room at Communitas. It is the lovely, mellow sound of the ukelele – two, in fact – being played by Wyatt and Chris.
The two have been playing these instruments together for a few months now, something Wyatt enjoys.
“Yeah, it’s fun,” he says, strumming the chords he’s been practicing.
Chris is a Community Inclusion (CI) worker with Communitas. He discovered Wyatt’s affinity for music after a conversation with Wyatt’s mom. She noticed a ukelele in the back of Chris’ car and asked if it was a hard instrument to learn.
“When she told me that Wyatt already plays the violin, I thought that he would probably have no problem learning the ukelele,” Chris says.
Chris found a reasonably priced ukelele for Wyatt on Facebook Marketplace. Then he asked ChatGPT to create some easy-to-learn songs using a basic set of chords. It gave them lyrics and chord charts and they make up their own melodies as they go.
Each session begins with the same question: have you practiced?
“Yes!” Wyatt says.
And then they start playing. Wyatt has learned several chords already and is now concentrating on practicing his strumming technique.
When the weather is good, they’ve taken their ukeleles to the park to play there. When they are not making music, Wyatt and Chris go for walks or meet other CI participants for lunch and to socialize. But most weeks, they begin their time together making music.
“I really like it,” Wyatt says.
SIDE BAR: Chris owns a unique ukelele called the Northern. It was designed in the 1970s by J. Chalmers Doan, a music education director who started the “Ukeleles in the Classroom” program for students across Canada. Doan designed an affordable, portable, durable instrument for students when cheap instruments became hard to find. Its unusual shape is easy to mass-produce (no round corners) and is very sturdy. Doane created the Guide to Classroom Ukelele in 1971, which was adopted by BC Schools and as a result, the Langley Ukelele Ensemble was created. Chris was thrilled when he found a Northern on Facebook Marketplace.
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