{"id":1929,"date":"2017-08-06T22:58:16","date_gmt":"2017-08-06T22:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/?p=1929"},"modified":"2018-06-18T22:25:36","modified_gmt":"2018-06-18T22:25:36","slug":"ukulele-is-good-medicine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/ukulele-is-good-medicine\/","title":{"rendered":"UKULELE IS GOOD MEDICINE"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Vineet (grad student volunteer taking the selfie). Back row to front: CC Strummers: Michael, Ed, Vicki, Mollie, Nancy, Cali and Jenna (our Music Therapist) at U.C.L.A. Mattel Children’s Hospital<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What is it about the ukulele? This sweet little musical instrument that makes you feel so good. When you hear it. When you play it.<\/p>\n

We \u201coo\u201d<\/em> and \u201cah\u201d<\/em> when we watch a great guitar player or violin virtuoso, piano, sax… \u201cWow, look at that.\u201d We are grateful spectators.<\/p>\n

There are ukulele virtuosos too but that is not what this story is about because the ukulele, more than any instrument I can think of, finds YOU. With its four tinkly<\/em> strings, it invites you to join the party<\/em>. Because you can. The ukulele is for \u201ccivilians.\u201d For people who have never thought of themselves as \u201cmusical.\u201d With this instrument you can experience the utter joy and deep mystery that comes with being THE ONE who is making music.<\/p>\n

The ukulele turns spectators<\/em> into participants<\/em> and when we keep on strumming, something magical happens. A community appears. Out of nowhere… I have seen this again and again. At my gigs. In my classes. There is just something non-threatening and goofy and sweet happening with this instrument. It is not about rivalry. It is about sharing. It\u2019s about \u201cbeing human.\u201d Together<\/em>. That means the whole circus<\/em> of being human. The triumphs. The travails. The hello\u2019s. The goodbye\u2019s.<\/p>\n

The CC Strummers and I “take our community on the road.” Every other month we visit The U.C.L.A. Mattel Children\u2019s Hospital. The music therapist tells us that some of the kids we meet…well…they won\u2019t make it. Room after room we breathe in the truth that hangs over all of us: It\u2019s a short life even when we live long.<\/p>\n

So we make music. That\u2019s what we do. We play a song or two, sometimes we teach a kid or mom and dad how to strum along then we give them the ukulele with a tuner and songbook. There are no words to describe what this means to them. What it means to us<\/em>. Several CC Strummers have come close when they say it\u2019s \u201clife-changing.\u201d<\/p>\n

I put together a short video<\/strong><\/a> of our trips to Mattel. \u00a0It includes kids, parents and our \u201cCarpool Ukulele\u201d where we rehearse as we drive north on Westwood Boulevard towards U.C.L.A.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

And you can do something like this too. \u00a0First of all we partnered with The Ukulele Kids Club<\/a> which donates ukes to pediatric hospitals around the United States. When we sent them our first check they asked if we had a hospital we\u2019d like to designate. The CC Strummers are close to Westwood so we contacted U.C.L.A. and waited several months for them to get funding to begin a Music Therapy program. But it happened! And from that moment on things started moving very fast. With the help of the music therapist whom I swear is an angel incarnate, we brought the ukulele to the intensive care unit at Mattel.<\/p>\n

Doing something like this changes you. Our entire group has been transformed because we are all part of this journey whether we step foot into the hospital or not. It goes back to that \u201ccommunity\u201d thing. As of August 2017, we have donated over $1000 to The Ukulele Kids Club. That’s a lot of ukuleles… And a lot of smiles.<\/p>\n

Please watch the video by CLICKING HERE<\/strong><\/a> and you will see what I mean. This instrument is powerful medicine! For the kids, the families, the staff. For us<\/em>. It is a gift that keeps on giving.<\/p>\n

Resources:
\nThe Ukulele Kids Club<\/a>
\nMattel Childrens Hospital Music Therapy Department<\/a><\/p>\n

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _<\/p>\n

We recently lost a member of The CC Strummers Family. Raymond. He joined us the first time we visited Mattel and brought a strong, tender and very sweet presence to those kids that day. We miss him.<\/p>\n

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Raymond, Cali, Michael, Rose & Jenna<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is it about the ukulele? This sweet little musical instrument that makes you feel so good. When you hear it. When you play it. We \u201coo\u201d and \u201cah\u201d when we watch a great guitar player or violin virtuoso, piano, sax… \u201cWow, look at that.\u201d We are grateful spectators. There are ukulele virtuosos too but that is not what this story is about because the ukulele, more than any instrument I can think of, finds YOU. With its four tinkly … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1930,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":"","_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[148,132,146,145,147],"class_list":["post-1929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blogentry","tag-mattel-childrens-hospital-at-ucla","tag-music-therapy","tag-senior-citizen-ukulele-groups","tag-ukulele-in-hospitals","tag-ukulele-kids-club"],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":2,"label":"blog entry"}],"post_tag":[{"value":148,"label":"Mattel Children's Hospital at UCLA"},{"value":132,"label":"music therapy"},{"value":146,"label":"senior citizen ukulele groups"},{"value":145,"label":"ukulele in hospitals"},{"value":147,"label":"Ukulele Kids Club"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/CC-Strummers-Mattel-May-2017-1024x841.jpg",1024,841,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"Cali Rose","author_link":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/author\/crbauthor\/"},"comment_info":3,"category_info":[{"term_id":2,"name":"blog entry","slug":"blogentry","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":2,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":139,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":2,"category_count":139,"category_description":"","cat_name":"blog entry","category_nicename":"blogentry","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":148,"name":"Mattel Children's Hospital at UCLA","slug":"mattel-childrens-hospital-at-ucla","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":148,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":132,"name":"music therapy","slug":"music-therapy","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":132,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":4,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":146,"name":"senior citizen ukulele groups","slug":"senior-citizen-ukulele-groups","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":146,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":145,"name":"ukulele in hospitals","slug":"ukulele-in-hospitals","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":145,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":147,"name":"Ukulele Kids Club","slug":"ukulele-kids-club","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":147,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1929"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1929\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1946,"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1929\/revisions\/1946"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}