I just wanted to send a congratulations to all the participants in this years Dukes Ukes contest. Dukes Ukes is a amateur ukulele contest down in Waikiki @Dukes Restaurant. After auditioning for the finals, participants are placed in age brackets with 5 per bracket. To the right is Anton Banta from Ukulele Hale placing 3rd place in his division. Ukulele Hale had a lot of students enter and a lot of students make it to the finals this past Saturday. You guys did great and really stood up next to the Ukulele Hale name! It is an honor to be an instructor with students like you guys!

Later on in the afternoon I went down to the Queen Kapiolani Hotel for the first day of shooting for a new ukulele Tv show coming out soon. The show is hosted by legendary Uncle Kimo Hussey and is a focus on nurturing the ukulele. The show will include interviews and performances with ukulele players, ukulele teachers, ukulele makers, and special interest people involved with ukulele. This first episode featured Kalei Gamio as the ukulele player, Don from Korea as a special interest person and myself under the ukulele instructor category. It was an awesome experience working and talking story with Uncle Kimo and glad to be part of this new beginning. We talked about ukulele instruction and what it takes for a beginner to get started playing the ukulele. Their website will go live soon and I will post it here when itʻs up.

Along side the tv show is going to be a new venue for ukulele players: The Queen Kapiolani Hotel every second Friday of every month. The idea is to have a place where ukulele players can come together and experience each others music and build a stronger community. Keep in touch and I will bring you the latest with these new developments in the ukulele community!