Aloha! Ukulele San Joaquin was born from the inspiration and hopes of Rob Scholnick. The group had it's first meeting on August 28, 2011 and we have been strumming along ever since! Ukulele San Joaquin gets together every 2nd and 4th Sunday of the month and we have people joining us from all over the San Joaquin Valley (no matter their skill level), just to have someone to strum with. As we all know, ukes are social instruments.
We are still in the process of developing a Song List, but we have a pretty good start, so check it out!
If you are interested in joining the group or just coming to check it out, please contact us at valleyukes@gmail.com, we'll be happy to get you the location of our next meeting. (The more the merrier) Mahalo!
Rob Scholnick is a semi-retired lawyer, who moved to the Sierra Foothills in 2004. He plays ukulele, banjo, mandolin and guitar in Old Time and Jug Band groups. " In 1965 my parents returned from a trip to Hawaii with a Kamaka pineapple uke. I fell in love with it at first sight. It is an absolute truth that the ukulele is a happy instrument. You can't play it without a smile on your face. After getting involved in the regional uke scene, I felt that it was shameful that the Fresno area did not have a active ukulele club, so I decided to find out if there was any interest. The answer was, yes and so UkeSan Joaquin was born.
Both of Pam and I are fairly recently retired and are finding our way through a life beyond careers where we find ourselves with time on our hands. We both enjoy gardening and each of us is doing volunteer work at different gardens in Fresno, specifically the Garden of the Sun and the Shinzen Garden. We love travelling to Hawaii and experiencing, among so many other things, the music there. Based on those experiences, I purchased my ukulele on the island of Kauai in 2006. The ukulele, to me, is a special instrument from which I derive a pleasure different from any other instrument I listen to or play.
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| Mark Eaton |
To pay the mortgage and put food on the table, I teach high school art in Porterville. I’m hoping this will be my last year! I used to make art with clay, but I suppose I lost my muse. Maybe I just got tired of trying to sell the stuff I made. Getting back into music a few years ago seemed to make more sense. Still play guitar, plus mandolin, banjo and Dobro (again, all badly). I’ve also been known to throw in a blues lick on harmonica when nobody’s looking.
I picked up my first ukulele about four years ago. My current collection consists of a Lanikai tenor, Lanikai concert (with pick-up!), Oscar Schmidt baritone (mostly stays in its case), a cigar box uke, and a 1920s Stromberg-Voisinet banjolele I found in an antique store in Clovis. I also collect things with strings. My current stable includes several 6-string acoustic guitars, a 12-string acoustic guitar, a couple electric archtops, an acoustic bass, mandolins, a mandolin cumbus (Turkish), banjo and on and on. Oh, and there’s an old-moldy accordion in the back of the closet too! I really need to get into some 12-step program, and soon. It has gotten out of hand.
