Ukulele community in Edmonton strumming right along

A growing subculture in our city has captured the imaginationsof hundreds of enthusiast, but it comes with strings attached.

Four strings.

Ukulele strings.

In Edmonton and surrounding communities, includingCamrose, St. Albert, and Sherwood Park, there are more than a dozen ukulele circles groups of musicians who get together, sometimes several times a month, to hold jam sessions.

They can be found in senior's homes and restaurants. Players get together onweekends, weeknights, even overthe noon hour.

This Christmas,the ukulele was a runaway hit at local music stores. Long &McQuadeoutletscouldn't keep them in stock. And any stock that did show up was snatched up within hours.

For reasons no one can adequately explain,Edmontonhas become enamoured with a diminutive stringed instrument famously associated withthe Hawaiian Islands.

Ukulele enthusiastBrianDunsmorehas been on the ukulele bandwagon for years. Every Wednesday at noon, hemeets up with other musiciansfor a weekly jam session. They've been doing it for four years now.

'It's hard to stop'

"We're hummers and we're strummers," he said."You know, after a couple of three songs it's like having a couple of drinks. Everybody just kind of loses the inhibitions and after 45 minutes, out comes the real people. It's wonderful to see and it's hard to stop at the end of an hour."

The group started their ukulele circle in 2012in the CKUARadio building onJasper Avenue. Initially, the groupwas made up of CKUA employees,but as the word got out thegroup grew.

"We've got more people now from outside CKUA than within the original staff," saidDunsmore, who spent years as the radio station'sexecutive producer. "It's really just a campfire kind of experience around here. We play the songs that we like to."

The ckUkuleleCircle, as it's known, has grown to includefriends and spouses of CKUAstaff.

CorinnaStory, a dental hygienistand figure skating coach, found out about the group and has been hooked ever since.

"There was actually a ukulele camp that I participated in for a weekend in the fall through the blue grass society," said Story, who enjoys being able to play her ukulele and sing along to all kinds of songs from Royals by Lorde, to classicsbythe Beatles and Dire Straits.

Cafe Blackbird ukulele jam session

Edmonton and the surrounding area is home to as many as 14 different ukulele circles.

That's how Cafe Blackbird owner MichelleHaydukgot interested.

She doesn't play, but was approached by a group of ukulele players looking for a place to gather and play music.

Now Cafe Blackbird hosts the Edmonton ukulele circle on the second and fourth Mondayof every month. On those nights, you might walk into the cafe and see as many as 30 people strumming along together.

"Idefinitelydidn't realize just how vibrant the ukulele players were until they hadapproached us," saidHayduk, who appreciates the boost in coffee and dessert sales on those Mondays. "I mean, we do come across a few of them with the live music that we host,but not quite to that degree. So it's interesting to see."

The popularity of the ukulele hit a feverish pitch over the Christmas holidays in Edmonton.

LealandGrauwiler, guitar manager at the Long &McQuademusic store in south Edmonton, says he hasn't seen anything like it.

'More or less selling them off a pallet'

"There was a point before Christmas where there was a four-hour window where you could have got one of our inexpensive ukuleles, and then they were gone again,"Grauwiler said with laugh.

"We were more or less selling them off a pallet. We just pulled them off a truck, and as the $40 ones disappeared the $100 ones started to disappear,and we were more or less cleaned out by the time Christmas rolled around.

"We saw it coming. We did order a bunch of extra ones, but even stillwe just couldn't keep up with the demand, which is pretty awesome."

There seems no doubt that the big attraction is the instrument's affordability. But the fact the ukeleleis relatively easyto learn may be just asappealing.

"From what I've noticed, we get a ton of non-musicians looking at those as the first thing to buy," said Grauwiler. "Again, because there seems to be a lower barrier of entry.

"There's less strings on them," he said. "But really I wouldn't argue they're much easier to play than any differentinstrument. They're less expensive, they're cute, lots of fun people just seem to gravitate towards them as something to start with, for their kids especially."