The 6th Newkulele Festival
18-20 october 2024

In this workshop, Graeme “The Scotsman” McColgan will lead you to captivating stage performances with your uke.

This workshop focuses on building confidence through simple techniques, engaging your audience, and enhancing your overall stage presence. Learn techniques to express yourself, connect with your listeners, and deliver memorable performances.

Perfect for ukulele enthusiasts of all levels, this workshop will help you shine on stage and make your music truly resonate.

Jo and Ruth have decades of singing experience from their early days with the Café of the Gate of Salvation choir to teaching and performing.

They will help you get the best out of your vocals and teach you how to harmonise with others.

Have you ever looked for a note on your uke but struggled to find an option beyond the first few frets?

This workshop will help you identify ALL of the different options available to you on your fretboard, and give you some simple tips and exercises to help you find them whenever you need them next.

Hive's expert early childhood music teacher Melissa Saunders will lead you and your child on a family musical journey. Your child will need you on board to be their best mate and leader so they can join in this exciting class which will include ukulele, exciting rhythmic percussion, sensory play and dance.

For children 3-7 years. Must be accompanied by an adult. This workshop starts at 9.30am and finishes by 10am so the kids can then join Tom The Pom (10am) in the Harold Lobb Hall.

Get down the dusty end and into the interesting shapes and places.

Demystify chords and all those funny words like “Inversions” and “Voicings”.

Make C, F, Am and G7 a challenge again!

Campanella Ukulele – for high G soprano/concert/tenor ukuleles. Sally Carter will show you how to make your ukulele sound like a harp by playing as many open strings as possible when playing a tune.

Three tunes will be looked at and different techniques will be discussed.

TAB reading skills required.

Have you ever wanted to learn the bass? Every uke group needs one!

Come and learn the basics from Newcastle’s premier Ubass teacher, John Wallace, and leave with the skills to accompany your uke group effectively on almost any song.

In this workshop I cover:

• Microphones – types, pickup patterns, care and feeding Microphone use – How to correctly use them for both vocals and ukes.
• Pickups, volume/tone controls and the audio frequency spectrum.
• Amplifiers.
• Wireless transmitters – types, range and some interesting facts before buying one.
• Basic mixing desk controls and techniques.

Join Graeme The Scotsman McColgan for a fun and practical workshop on refining the art of singing and playing the ukulele at the same time— learning to strum, sing, and breathe without looking like we’ve just climbed Ben Nevis! Graeme will share his tips and tricks he has picked up from performing and the process of recording his first album...a steep learning curve!

This workshop will take you through ways to learn a song in stages, breathing techniques, ways to injecting emotion into your songs, and what to do when you mess up or forget your words! Whether you're a beginner or just looking to improve, this workshop will bring your songs to life—while looking like you know what you are doing, of course!

This workshop will show how to incorporate Latin American music rhythm concepts such as the Clave, strumming styles and melodic elements into your playing, with original compositional examples as well as well known Latin American music classics.

Abe has extensive experience as a music teacher, performer of Latin American music for over 30 years and has a fun and knowledgeable teaching style.

Who can write a song? You can!

Prolific songwriter, Jane Cameron brings her interactive and engaging introduction to songwriting to Newkfest. Whether you are 10 years old or 80 years old, Jane will share simple tips and tricks to provide a low stakes, fun and collaborative entry into songwriting.

Together you will unblock your creativity and find the path to free your inner songwriter!

A feature of the Coolibah Coolective repertoire is writing music to poems we love, for example we do a musical interpretation of Ariel’s Song from Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’.

Ahead of the workshop we circulate a poem – perhaps keeping it local with a poem by a local poet (subject to permission from the poet). Participants are encouraged to bring along their voices and/or instruments to add to the song that we write together.

In the first half of the workshop we discuss the musical vibes the poem conveys to participants; how we (Coolibah Coolective) go about creating our own parts; and seek input from the group.

In the second half, participants jam out the song ideas we have worked up together. We record the end result (phone) and share with participants.

Audience participation is key and the skill level and teaching techniques used ensures this workshop is accessible to people of all ages.

David Megarrity and Samuel Vincent (Tyrone and Lesley) offer a workshop in which we learn a new song, ‘Strumalong’: a tune about the joys of playing in uke groups, designed for uke groups to play.

The experience, open to players of all skill levels, offers learning around half-chords, simple strumming and basic choral singing. Along the way we may learn more about the mysterious art of songwriting.