'Ukulele Teacher Roy Sakuma (1998) | PBS HAWAIʻI CLASSICS

00:30 (instrumental music) tony Pablo 00:49 Tonight on Spectrum Hawaii, students throughout the state are experiencing the arts firsthand through educational outreach programs from Hawaii Opera Theatre and the Department of Education artists in the schools program, but first. Narrator 01:09 (Instrumental ukulele music) tony Pablo 01:18 Music is a subjective topic. But by any standards, Roy Sakuma is the premier ukulele teacher in the state. But that doesn't mean he was a child prodigy. Roy Sakum

a 01:28 Everybody could play the ukulele. That was in thing back then. And I probably was the only one that didn't know how to play, or who tried to learn and who was so terrible at it - end of story. But that's the truth. I was probably the worst ukulele player I've ever seen. Period. Exclamation point. tony Pablo 01:47 It was then that Roy heard the great ukulele player Ohta-San and decided to take lessons from the master. 01:53 I think I learned from him for about 18 months. And he told me it

's time for me to go on my own. If teaching is what I wanted to do, then open up my own studio. And the funny thing is I opened up my own studio with his blessings, right next to his studio. tony Pablo 02:09 In 1973, Roy and Kathy Sakuma opened their first studio in Kaimuki with the aim of offering students a new way to learn music. Kathy Sakuma 02:18 Our goal is to get students of any age to play first, to get sound and satisfaction as quickly as possible. And it's kind of like teaching the spo

ken language of music. Because we found early on that by focusing on theory, it paralyzed so many of our students, and they would hit a wall. And I think the success of the studio is that anybody can come in and, and we're just going to try and get them to play as quickly as possible. Roy Sakuma 02:55 We're not just teaching them music, but we're trying to teach them to kind of open up to get comfortable in our setting, we try to bring them out of their so-called shell because all of us as kids,

we tend to have insecurities, we tend to have problems, coping with certain areas of life. tony Pablo 03:15 Now, there are four Roy Sakuma studios on Oahu with over 25 instructors. Kathy Sakuma 03:20 Over the years, thousands of people have come through our studios. I think the difference now with the resurgence of ukulele is you'll find more teenagers. Before when the kids got to like 12, 13, it wasn't too cool to continue playing ukulele. But now we've got kids teenagers coming in and saying

hey, I want to play. Roy Sakuma 03:43 D, D, D, C, C - flat rest. Flat, c flat, c. And rest. Flat, c. tony Pablo 03:54 Over the years some of the students have formed groups that have done quite well for themselves. Kathy Sakuma 03:58 The Termites, Roy started them back in 1973. At that time, 25 years ago, you didn't see too many young talent being showcased or put out in public. There were no adult musicians helping them out on stage, there were just four boys, young boys, age seven to 10, going

out on stage and playing songs. When adults saw these kids and parents especially, then they thought, "Gee, I'd like my child should be able to do something like that, too." We never thought we could have another group as good as The Termites and the Super Keikis were, were started years after The Termites retired. We said okay, let's get a group of five kids, five years old and let them play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Well they went on stage and they played Twinkle, Twinkle Lttle Star, they

were such a hit. And they loved it so much that this group that we call the Super Keiki became, you know, a great performing group. And we took them to Japan to Disneyland, they play, Danny Kaleikini would invite them to do the Christmas show every year and they had a great career. Joy, The Girls and Joy, they were members of the Super Keiki. And usually by about 12 or 13, they'd start, you know, they'd want to stop and that's when we'd bring new kids in. But these particular girls, when the tim

e came, they didn't want to stop, they wanted to continue, we said, fine. Then we thought, well, let's document them, let's put them in the recording studio. And let's document them. Lyle Ritz 04:16 Roy is generous to a fault. And he decided he would let them record an actual CD for the experience. And it came out during the recording sessions, he decided, boy, this is too good just to let go with two or three songs, we're going to really do a CD and release it commercially. Lyle Ritz 06:02 Hain

a ia mai ana ka puana/Ka hui lau lima Hiilaniwai/Me ka ua Apuakea/ Ka lai ao Mololani/ Me ka anu o ke Koolau Lyle Ritz 06:26 It's such an important instrument in Hawaii and Roy not only perpetuates the art of ukulele playing, but he teaches these kids music, whether they know it or not, they learn chords and they learn songs and it's not just simple songs. Jaena Shimabuku 06:44 Comes and goes in a minute. Where's the real stuff in life to cling to? Love, love is the answer. Someone to love is th

e answer. Once you've found him. Built your world around him. Jaena Shimabuku 07:07 I really love singing a lot. It's fun. And it's once you get into it, it's hard not to call it a part of your life, you know. I haven't met one person that despises music yet, you know. tony Pablo 07:30 In 1971, Roy produced the first annual Ukulele Festival. Now in its 27th year, the festival showcases the ukulele with players from around the world. Roy Sakuma 07:41 The whole purpose of the festival was to demon

strate the ability of this small little instrument, that it wasn't just, not just used for strumming and Hawaiian music, but you could play the Beatle songs, you could do anything on the ukulele. Kathy Sakuma 07:55 We've had people like James Ingram come and perform at our ukulele festival. The great jazz guitarist, the late Howard Roberts, and the finest entertainers from Hawaii have all participated. How did we get involved in a record producing? It's not, it wasn't anything planned or deliber

ate. It just, we just stumbled upon it. The Kaau Crater Boys Tropical Hawaiian Day, their first CD back in 19...when we released it, it was 1991. They made a big impact on the, the contemporary Hawaiian music. tony Pablo 08:37 But the greatest impact on the future of ukulele music can come to a musician very early in life. Roy Sakuma 08:43 I really feel that it's so very important for children, to have that opportunity to have things where they can express themselves, be creative. And for learni

ng to play the ukulele, for example, it's been such a tremendous help for so many kids throughout the lifetime that I've been teaching. You know, if you take that away from children, you're taking away what's a very important part of their growth. Kathy Sakuma 09:10 These kids are amazing. Just the way they respond to music, the way they the way they behave. You just, their off the wall comments. They're so open and honest. It's it's the greatest thing to go to the studio every day and just to h

ang out with these kids and teach, we're teaching each other. Kathy Sakuma 09:32 Kid: That's it! Kathy Sakuma 09:46 (Kids cheering in distance) Erik Haines, Hawaii Opera Theatre 09:47 I'm Erik Haines and I'm the Education and Outreach Manager for Hawaii Opera Theatre. And basically it's my job to come up with different types of education programs which marry opera and children. Our most comprehensive program is the mini residency in which basically we take an elementary school and turn it into a

n opera production company. Sounds simple, but very complex. Cynthia Casamina/Waimalu Elementary School 10:12 I knew it was big. I knew there were a lot of things involved in this, a lot of different people, different aspects of production. But I had no idea until I got into the middle of it. Louise South 10:31 I'm Louise South and I direct productions for Hawaii Opera Theatre, children's productions. Louise South 10:45 (Children singing: ) Louise South 10:46 The onstage performers in this schoo

l, auditioned. Large school, they have a very active theater and music group, during school and after school and so many of those auditioned, plus some who've never auditioned for anything before auditioned. I was impressed with the auditions. So every child that auditioned was in the show. This means the group is very interested, very eager, and very willing to work. Richard Stead 11:14 Well, what we're doing is we were doing a production of Macbeth, but the kids are doing it themselves. They,

it started out when they came and saw Macbeth that we did at Hawaii Opera Theatre, they saw the full performance. And then they came back and did a tour of the stage before they saw backstage, how we got the opera on. And then I came out and I did a whole demonstration, spent a couple of hours with them showing what wigs and makeup can do. And now they're doing it themselves. The process is as important as the, if not more important than the end product, finding out what it's like to actually do

all the work that is to get an opera onstage. And all the discipline of learning the music and learning the staging and working together. And, and these kids especially are incredible, and it excites them. It's something probably won't forget. Richard Stead 12:07 (Actor: A murderer has killed King Duncan) 12:16 I love the children's faces. I just love it. Love it when they come up, you know, "Hi, what are we doing today?" Even though sometimes I don't want - "Where am I supposed to be now?" I s

till love it. Oh, and the say, "We sound good. We did it, we did it." And then when they're on stage, just giving everything they've got, seeing the whole of the group. It's just fun, just fun to do. Erik Haines, Hawaii Opera Theatre 12:45 Everybody sees the final product. And they think that's what the program is about. That's actually not what the program is about. What the program is about, is teamwork. It's all these different students and teachers doing all these different elements that hav

e to come together successfully in order to have that final performance, that product. So our goal is that all the learning is taking place before the production, doing all these different elements. And one of our dreams is is that after this production is over, if you gathered the entire school in their cafetorium and asked everybody to raise their hand if they contributed in some way to this production, that everybody could raise their hand. Lori Kwee 13:27 Okay, well, at this point, we had a

mass cutting day where several of the teachers I would count about 14, we met in the library and we laid out 110 yards of fabric, we had all the patterns and we all were busy cutting and pinning. And then we had a mass sewing day also were people brought their sewing, sewing machines, and sergers and we're busy putting these together, but these are some samples. This will be an outfit for one of our castle guests. And the women in those did wear these fancy hat wear and the belts. Okay, and this

is for another castle noble. And this is with blue velvet. And they'll be wearing tights and long, long black pants, as they did in the medieval periods. We did a lot of researching back in the medieval Renaissance period. And that way the students themselves generated pictures. And then we created patterns and assembled and sewed and we had to dress 60 children. So it was a task and we're still working on it. tony Pablo 14:28 It took a while to get the kids into how to paint it so the effects

would come out and try to explain this to them. But what we did was, I took this and I showed it to them and said this is the set we're in charge of sets. And they had just finished reading Tuck Everlasting, which is a really good children's book, and we did some dioramas on it and the diorama is based on a study of this. So you lift it a little. You try to bring in all the different areas as much as you can without really stretching it too far. So of course, the art is there, of course. So you

try to also try to tie it into language, which is our book Tuck Everlasting. And you also tied into other things that aren't academic, but our life skills like responsibility, and honoring commitments to do things on time. And to also teach other basic skills like measurement, and scale. And just generally, overall, trying to give to the school what the school gives to you is what everything is all about what this production of Macbeth because they were doing it as a school, not just a grade lev

el, they've done a really good job and they're really proud of it. tony Pablo 15:53 (Crowd rumbling/Ambient noise) Erik Haines, Hawaii Opera Theatre 16:08 I think the most fun part is when you finally get to the, to the end of that production, and you see these kids who you've, you've started with nothing and all of a sudden they've put all these different elements together, and they walk onto the stage for the first time, and their eyes just light up. Erik Haines, Hawaii Opera Theatre 16:28 (Cr

owd noise) Erik Haines, Hawaii Opera Theatre 16:44 (Piano instrumental) Erik Haines, Hawaii Opera Theatre 16:44 (Children singing: Fair is foul and foul is fair in the fog and flithy air. we're here to make it clear" ...look away your evil eye, to the heavens her reply. Her lover is a sailor on the sea. He'll discover just how mean a witch can be. Laughter) Kaylene Yee/Waimalu Elementary Principal 17:17 Think music and the arts really enhances and pulls a school and its curriculum together. We'v

e been really fortunate over the last few years to benefit from some funding through the Artists in the School program. Recently also that we've linked in to the school to work effort. And we've gotten additional support there. And we feel that arts can really give the children an opportunity to blossom, to grow in areas that a strictly academic curriculum cannot. I think it's a real critical time in their lives. I think as an elementary student, it's important for them to be open, be exposed to

as much as they can. And our role is to bring in these experiences, an experience like Macbeth can only enhance their lives. It's something I think they will never forget, even when they become adults and parents. An experience in their elementary school years like this will really, I think, have a positive effect. Some of them may pursue the arts in their future, some of them may not, but I think just having the exposure and the experience is going to be a real, real rewarding experience for t

hem. Daniel Hamada/Eleele Elem Principal 18:31 Eleele School is a very unique and special school in the sense that we're located on the far end of Kauai, the west end. And due to the economic situation, our parents often have two or three jobs and they don't have the time to take their kids to experience this type of arts. So we need to change our strategy and bring the arts to them. So the kids can be afforded that opportunity to experience what an opera is about, what a play is about, what an

art project is about. That's the strategy. Daniel Hamada/Eleele Elem Principal 19:43 (Van doors click open) Stephanie Conching 19:44 My name is Stephanie Conching and I'm the Education Coordinator here at Hawaii Opera Theater. Part of what my job is, is to create education programs and to implement them. We do things like touring productions where we'll, we'll go to an elementary school site and perform a mini opera version or a specific opera that's been created for children. We actually toured

with the largest set we've ever had. The Hansel and Gretel production has two backdrops. One is the Hansel and Gretel's cottage, and the other is the witch's house and along with that we have some kind of large props that are props people made. Stephanie Conching 20:36 (Crowd rumbling) Stephanie Conching 20:53 As the director I, I was speaking to the kids to try to get them a little more involved in setting up the opera. So they helped us build the set a little bit. And instead of just knowing

what, what an opera is, we wanted them to actually experience the opera. So that's why we had them help build the set, and we had them touch the props and actually speak to the the performers. 21:18 (Woman singing opera) Stephanie Conching 21:30 You know, I think it gives them an opportunity that they might not have, at any other time in their life. When we do adult outreach, there are so many adults who, who say, "If only I had had this experience when I was a kid," they might view life a littl

e bit differently. You know, I love to hear 200 children laughing, just the sound of that laughter is inspiring. 21:55 Art...at Eleele Elementary school is very much ingrained in our curriculum performance. By learning and exposing our kids to the different arts, they learn how to problem solve, they learn how to work together, they learn how to, to seek creativity. And they learn how to watch that happen right in front of their faces, so they can model it so they can tie it into the curriculum.

And so can the teachers. So when that is happening, it makes more sense in a more appreciation of the arts. To afford the kids a balanced curriculum, you you have to look and be very proactive or innovative or whatever you might call it and go out there and get the outside resources. Art is an important part of our curriculum, and we want to provide it for our kids. And that's part of the long-term planning. In terms of art projects that you saw here today, where the kids did a lot of hands on

type of art, that took a lot of planning to and you can't sit back and grumble about the state of the economy, you need to go out there and go get grants, talk to your PTSA, talk to your business community about partnerships. tony Pablo 23:10 Hawaii Opera Theatre's educational outreach is funded in part through the Department of Education's Artists in the Schools program, which sponsors arts groups, artists in residence and arts programs throughout the state. Their goal is nothing less than brin

ging the arts to every student in Hawaii. tony Pablo 23:29 How are y'all doing today? Kathy Chock/Artist, Educator 23:33 At Eleele the teachers were working with the ahupuaa, they're working with environment. We took the study of the reef area, the dryland forest, as well as the rainforest. Students studied that and then they were to create a unique animal that's to be found nowhere else in the world. In creating their animal, again, they had to really think critically, as well as creatively. So

they had to state facts of the ecosystem, like what did the animal eat? How fast would it move? What plants would be living in their environment? So they had to make a real connection with it and do some critical thinking. To make the basic shape, I asked them to start with a pinch pot. And we created we closed the form and we added pieces inside to make a rattle. So in the whole process, I wanted the students to not only learn about the rainforest or the ahupuaa, but to also learn all the cera

mic skills that I could with handbuilding. And not, not to do this common ones, but to reach and try to do more difficult ones to be able to make a close form to be able to make into a rattle and to be able to add pieces to it from scoring. And knowing that it, they needed to be attentive and really try their best all of them did. Kathy Chock/Artist, Educator 25:05 Any more questions? Kathy Chock/Artist, Educator 25:07 If we give each student a chance to create and to express themselves, not to

create a product that we want them to, but to create their own products that will be an expression of themselves. We're giving them a chance to recognize their own individuality, you know, and when that happens a tremendous amount of empowerment occurs. Child: God save the king! Chorus: God save the King! Macbeth, Macbeth is dead...(singing continues)