Singing and playing together is common in Japan, and the ukulele has become quite popular here. For the third year in a row, I took part in the Ukulele Welcome Party in Toyama, Japan. It takes time to learn the music any given community knows and loves, and this year we included some Japanese songs and lyrics along with well-loved American tunes. We also included the Okinawan sanshin, another instrument strongly associated with participatory music.

For those interested in the basic approach, here are a few photos and some video. The underlying participatory approach, making music with others instead of performing for others, is featured in several posts on this blog and also in an article in Music Educators Journal.