Yes, A, you make a good point about the skills of the classroom teacher. Many primary classroom teachers are quite reticent about their musical ability, which is both a shame and undermines the endless possibilities if they were better trained as part of their teacher training. That is another crate of worm cans in itself, so I may leave that for the moment.

But the performance of your 180 boys must have been a wonderful achievement, even with the side effects! Good for you (hope you recovered quickly).

Ah, those were the days, Don B, when you could make a successful movie with a crowd of extras standing around a bloke with a banjo - with one camera and in one take!   (I'm not sure, but although he's playing uke in the picture of "When I'm Cleaning Windows", isn't the sound a banjo anyhow?  (surely the uke is sort of twingier.. tinnier sort of sound?

I think the "bangulele" must be a banjolele - a kind of hybrid?  I spent my two first terms at Univ sharing a room with a banjo-player who was a true evangelist for his metier, and found out more about the instrument than anyone would feasibly wish to know  I followed Jeeves's splendid example and found alternative accommodation thenceforth

Meantime even Jools Holland hasn't scorned association with the Ukulele (which I shall spell correctly in future...)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=VXVdNKciP94


PW, how nice to see you back at the ancestral haunts once more - have you been allowed out to play?    Although the trombone may be louder in pure decibel terms,  the diminutive size of the ukulele in no way incapicates its irritant qualities in the hands of the unsuitably trained.

180 massed recorders, however, is a musical banquet that will find me on a diet 

When I was a child I played the violin and the only time I have ever heard a hamster make a noise was when I practised (the noise was accompanied by a frantic whizzing round his exercise wheel and occasional running leaps against the bars of his cage...)

To eradicate any doubt about the ukele's right to be taken seriously as an instrument may I suggest a ticket to the next performance given by The Ukele Orchestra of Great Britain, one of the most entertaining and talented musical groups before us.  As far as I know, they rarely perform George Formby except for a wonderful balalaika inspired version of When I'm Cleaning Windows.  They are worth every penny of the admission.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back on the internet...

http://www.ukeopedia.com/wiki/Main_Page

The man whose web page this is

http://www.theukuleleman.com/index-page2.html

is a friend of mine. At a concert I was in last Saturday he played Rubinstein's Melody in F on the banjolele - the instrument George Formby usually played. It's a cross between the ukulele and the banjo as you would expect and aims to combine the best features of both instruments.

It's this bit that had me scratching my head.