To make this post about this exciting new community initiative, I interviewed my husband Ken Walker.

Take one very enthusiastic, community-minded person, add in a love and a talent for music, and a joy in helping to set up new things – and you end up with Ken Walker and the recently established Findhorn Ukulele Group.

Ken, who has been part of the community for only a few years, has a lifetime’s experience of music, playing a variety of instruments and running events.

His first instrument, at four years old, was the accordion. He went on to learn piano and by the age of ten he was a church organist.

So how did the ukulele become his latest interest?

Ken loves trying out new instruments and a few years ago he decided to buy his first ukulele. He soon discovered that ukuleles have seen a huge resurgence of interest around the world in recent years and a lot of schools are swapping recorders for ukuleles as a first instrument to teach primary children.

But still the next thing to do hadn’t clicked, until a visiting community member Lonnie Gamble stayed with Ken and I at our home in the summer of 2023. Seeing a house full of instruments, Lonnie soon engaged Ken in a shared conversation about music and it transpired that ukulele is Lonnie’s favourite instrument. We set up a music session for Lonnie at our home and soon the talk about creating some kind of ukulele group kicked in. Lonnie, as it turns out, lives in Fairfield, Iowa and the two men joked about setting up simultaneous ukulele groups with the same acronym – Fairfield/Findhorn Ukulele Group – and going international. Lonnie directed Ken to vast depositories of freely accessible ukulele tunes online and there was no stopping him after that.

Within days of Lonnie heading back to the US, Ken put out the word through community links on Facebook and lo and behold the first Findhorn Ukulele class took place in September 2023 with 14 folk eagerly awaiting their first lesson.

Group by group, the players – most of whom had never played an instrument before – gave it their best shot and pretty much everyone moved on from the beginner classes to the developing group, ie FUG. Not all players are able to meet regularly but they stay in touch through a Whatsapp group and Facebook announcements.

And this is how it sounded:

Concert parties happen as often as folk are available and the ukulele players are regular participants of community events such as the Artists Hunt, sharings in the Universal Hall, the summer markets, just about anything that can accommodate a few ukelele players. We have also played in a local care home which brought great cheer. As we have been invited back, so will go there again soon.

The 2025 Ukulele Festival at Findhorn

The next development was to organise a Ukulele Festival at Findhorn which will take place over Equinox in September 2025. The Universal Hall has been booked, along with other venues, and tutors have been signed up. Local accommodation providers have been contacted and bookings are coming in already.

Some final words from Ken: “Throughout my life I have been involved in music, as a professional musician, composer, studio artist and as a performer. The Findhorn Ukulele Group is exciting for me because it is the first time I’ve been involved in a community music group. I’m working with people who are choosing this as a hobby, rather than with professional musicians. Most of the members have never played an instrument before and yet they are willing to give the necessary time and effort to do something that gives them a sense of achievement and boosts their confidence and wellbeing. Playing ukulele is also more than about the music. We are bringing people together without any pressure, just for fun and creating music together.”

“Creating events gives me a buzz. There’s something about moving something from a concept to a reality that makes my heart sing. And then when people come to events like the Ukulele Festival, or the Garden Week that we ran last year at East Whins, and I see how much they appreciate it, become part of it, it’s clear that it’s not something that is organised for them, it is something they become part of.”

“My hope for the ukulele festival is that everybody feels a part of it. Everyone who attends as a player, a singer, a tutor or even people coming to hear us play at the charity concert all play a part in making it a success. We organise it but everyone owns it.”

Check out the festival website for more information.

Susie Minto