Often bored in his freshman year dorm room, UNC Wilmington student Zach Beauchemin improved his ukulele skills by playing songs on the second floor of Schwartz Hall. One year later, with the help of new friends, this 19-year-old New Jersey native turned his downtime hobby into an official university club. Ukulele Club kicked off this school year with an unexpected amount of interest at the 2013 Involvement Carnival, and since then they’ve had one interest meeting. As the president of the group, Beauchemin says that the Ukulele Club is more than just a campus organization—it’s a movement.

 

Q: How did you get into playing the ukulele?        

A: My friend just wanted me to help him start a club [in high school]. I’ve played drums my whole life, and I heard that the ukulele is really easy to play and a cheap interest to get into. You can get a ukulele for like $40 if you want. You can learn a song in a week of playing it. I just decided to pick one up at the end of [senior] year. I didn’t play too much at the end of the summer [before college]. I got to the dorm and had a bunch of extra time. There are YouTube videos – all kinds of instructional videos. I just started to get pretty good at it. Now I feel like I can teach other people the basics, and can play most songs, any song that I would want.

Q: Are you familiar with the North Carolina Ukulele Academy on Racine Drive?

A: I’ve actually become pretty friendly with Kent [the owner]. I go into the shop all the time, and he’ll be like, “You’re the guy who started the ukulele club.” I’m hoping he’ll be the club advisor…He’s planning on coming out to a lot of our meetings.

Q: How does playing the ukulele fit into your interests?

A: I like the good kind of chill vibes I have with the ukulele. I really like music. I really like to hang out at the beach and surf a lot. I love making my friends laugh when I play, like, an Outkast song, or cover a hip-hop song, and everybody seems to enjoy it. I definitely enjoy that aspect. It’s so simple to carry around [a ukulele]. I’m always listening to music. If I can carry a ukulele around I can always be playing music. 

Q: So where does the interest come from? Your parents?

A: My brother plays the drums, but my parents were never too musical. My mom played flute back in the day or something. I’m kind of the first of my family to be into playing music. 

Q: How many people do you know that play the ukulele?

A: I would say…last year we had one interest meeting, which was mostly my friends—they’re probably like seven friends that actually play the ukulele. At the involvement fair, we got 170 to sign up for more information about the Ukulele Club. A lot of them had already played; a lot of people already had a serious interest. 

Q: Do you feel like there’s a community for ukulele playing at UNCW? Like surfing?

A: I think the ukulele is actually becoming a really big thing that is growing in popularity. The fact that there is a ukulele academy down the road that specializes in ukuleles and lessons—he’s been in business for a while. Apparently there are other ukulele clubs that are already around Wilmington, too…I think we definitely have that kind of costal culture here. It’s a very simple instrument to learn. And we’re in a university culture—people are already trying to learn new things and stuff. 

Q: How does the Hawaiian culture that comes with ukulele affect you?

A: It’s a very traditional instrument [in Hawaii]. Music is pretty essential to [people in Hawaii]. I’d like to bring that to my life and around campus.

Q: Have you ever played the ukulele in a band/show?

A: Not yet. I’ve thought about open mic night at Katy’s [Bar and Grill]. I thought about going to that at some point myself. I actually kind of want to do something like that with the Ukulele Club. There are ukulele orchestras. I’ve heard that Chapel Hill has a ukulele club. They apparently play together. I want to at least learn some simple songs we can all play. Maybe even a flash mob. Don’t tell anybody though.  

Q: What made you decide to have the club?

A: I’m always interested in meeting new people and making new friends, and people who come out to ukulele would have a cool attitude and personality if they have that interest. I also like teaching people things. I’m looking forward to learning from others.

Q: Tell me about the process of getting the club started.

A: At points, last semester in the spring semester, I had more work for the Ukulele Club than I did for schoolwork with my 14 credit hours. I was in pretty easy classes. It takes a lot; you have to put together a constitution. It’s very long – you have to go into things you wouldn’t think about…Luckily I had the help of another buddy who helped me last year, Ben McFalls. He’s the vice president. He helped me do a lot of the paper work. 

Q: How was the interest meeting on Tuesday, September 24?

A: The first one was really awesome. We probably had 30 people come out to it. It was a bunch of really talented kids—people who already had ukuleles. And there were a lot of singers—it was actually a great surprise… There was a group of probably like five kids that stayed afterward, and we just started playing songs together, and we already sounded really good. I’m really looking forward to it…the next meeting is Wednesday, the 16th at 8 [p.m.] in the Azalea Coast Room.

Q: Describe what you want club meetings to look like for the future.

A: We’re still working out how often we’ll have meetings and where—twice a month at a minimum…Some meetings will be less formal than others, like a jam session. I want [us] to teach each other different things. It’s going to be hard to see who comes out and where the skill levels are. Maybe learn one song per meeting, and if as many people who sign up seem to be interested, we’ll probably break out into smaller groups. People with more skill will teach the less experienced players.

Q: Do your club members have access to ukuleles for practice?

A: We’re working on that right now. There’s a lot of school funding you can get as an official student organization. We’ll hopefully figure that out in the next couple weeks. I’ve been telling people that you don’t necessarily need a ukulele to be a part of the club. I’d like to pick up, like, 5-10 ukuleles. You can get a good amount of funds, and ukuleles being like 40 bucks apiece, it shouldn’t be too hard to pick up some ukuleles for the club.

Q: What about your ukulele?

A: Yeah, I have an eight-string. Most ukuleles are four-strings. It’s a concert size. A lot of traditional ukulele players in Hawaii would have an eight-string. It gives me good back up when I’m singing or something. And I have my four-string as back up—that was my first ukulele, the original. 

Q: What do you want the Ukulele Club to be for UNCW?  What legacy will it leave when you graduate?

A: I see Ukulele Club as more of a movement than more of a club on the UNCW campus and maybe Wilmington as a whole. I kind of want to get to a point where I can play songs together and kind of play songs like a lot of those big ukulele groups have, and just spread those good vibes around campus. After I leave, I’d say the Ukulele Club is still in the day-to-day background music.