On Saturday afternoons, you’ll find me making music with my friends, in a group called the Strumbles.
This is the story of how the Strumbles got started, more than ten years ago. And what the group is about, and how it works. And where that name came from.
I’m writing this partly to celebrate this amazing group. And also because I hope to inspire other people to do this, if they think it sounds like fun.
The Strumbles are much more than a ukulele group. We’re musical play, friendship, a chance to use our voices collaboratively. And, musical empowerment and skill building for a group of midlife women. Just for a start.
Most of us play ukulele and sing, with the addition of various other instruments: double bass, cajon, guitar, fiddle, piano, accordion, kazoo…
This is my version of the Strumbles story.
Three ukuleles and a bottle of wine
One Friday evening my friends Jane and Paula said, “Let’s play ukulele!”
I said, “Okay, sure!”
We had three ukuleles and a bottle of wine. Jane had some photocopied songs.
We asked my husband Matthew (who’s a multi-skilled musician) to stay away until we’d learned three chords. We didn’t want to feel too self-conscious about being beginners.
By the time Matthew showed up, an hour later, the bottle was empty and we could play three songs.
We had fun. So the next week we did it again. We hadn’t touched our ukuleles during the week, so we had to learn everything again from scratch.
Matthew joined us, playing upside down left-handed ukulele.
It was still lots of fun. It was way better than just drinking wine on a Friday evening.
After a few weeks, we could remember the chords. We all started finding more songs to play. And more people came to join us.
After six months there were eight or nine of us regularly meeting on Saturday afternoon to play ukulele. That was about as many as could fit easily in a living room.
That’s how the Strumbles got started.
This is where it all began. From left to right: Alice Bulmer, Paula Law, Jane Carmichael. The painting in the background is by Anna Fairley, another Strumble member.
The sweetness of jamming
The name showed up after a couple of years. We were invited to play at a local Environment Centre pot-luck. We called ourselves the Apple Strumbles for this food-related occasion. The name stuck, long after the delicious desserts had been consumed
Our sweet spot is jamming together, in someone’s living room, on the back porch or at a party. It’s not the same as a singalong. To me, this feels like musical play.
We can try out different strums, vocal harmonies, picking patterns, instrumental breaks.
Sonya sometimes plays accordion or piano. I play fiddle or mandolin. Matthew sometimes plays guitar, but more often he plays bass and cajon.
Anna is a creatively soulful kazoo player. I love her instrumental break on our Strumbles version of “Silly Love Songs”!
Gradually over time, a song settles into a unique arrangement, which sometimes bears little resemblance to the original recording. This has become known as “strumbling” a song.
Strumbling Downtown
We perform occasionally when we’re invited.
I think our first official gig was at an exhibition of Anna’s paintings, at the Nivara Lounge, a beloved music venue in central Hamilton (sadly, it might be closed by the time you read this).
Since then, we’ve played at birthday parties, school festivals, weddings, memorials, book launches, record releases, climate change events and more.
In 2020 the Strumbles supported Matthew’s legendary New Zealand Flying Nun band Sneaky Feelings at the release of their last CD, The Mercury Moment. That was probably our highest-profile appearance so far. The Waikato Times gave us a great review. (Thanks, Richard Swainson.)
We’ve sung on the Waikato riverbank, at the zoo, in Hamilton Gardens, at the public library, school fairs and in downtown Hamilton.
We played “Downtown” for that occasion: “Downtown, Things will be great when you’re downtown, No finer place for sure, downtown…” etc, etc.
One time when we were jamming in an empty downtown square, we got chased off by a mean City Council busking control person. Really!
One of our dreams is to play on Te Huia, the commuter train between Hamilton and Auckland. If you know who we should talk to, please let me know. We have plenty of train-themed songs.
One of our earliest appearances, at the Waikato Waldorf School fair. From left to right: Tangi, Melissa, Bethwyn, Jane, Suzanne, Anna, Alice, Sonya, Matthew. I don’t know the names of the woman and the little ones.
Learning to play, song by song
None of the Strumbles were current ukulele players when the group started. We were all learning, song by song.
Some of us (including me) can play many instruments.
Others had some musical background, e.g. Jane learned guitar at teachers’ college. Melissa started from scratch, never having played an instrument – and discovered in midlife that she has a gift for music.
I came to the Strumbles after spending many decades playing in a wide range of musical groups, from symphony orchestras to rock bands to folk dance combos to a capella singing groups.
This is the musical form that best feeds my heart and soul. Making music I love, with people I love, is the most fun thing in the world for me.
Not long after the Strumbles started, I was teaching groups of adults to play ukulele – and I discovered I loved sharing the joy of collective music making. (Which is why you’re reading this blog.)
Over the years we’ve had a few members come and go, and occasional drop-ins.
We lost one of our beloved ukulele sisters, Suzanne Weiss, to cancer in 2021, when New Zealand was locked down due to the international Covid pandemic. Other members have lost loved ones. Children have grown up, health challenges have been faced, marriages and partnerships have ended and started and ended and started…
The Strumbles sound
We’re at our best completely acoustic, without having to worry about microphones or amplifiers or sound engineers. Okay, that is my personal opinion. Others may disagree.
But that means if we’re playing outside, we need to find ourselves a hard wall to stand in front, for reverb. The Kitchen Garden at Hamilton Gardens suits us pretty well. We’ve played there for the Scarecrow Festival quite a few times.
A few years ago we got ourself a Myrtle Eartrumpet condenser microphone. Myrtle looks very cool, but she didn’t solve all our amplification requirements.
Having a bass player makes a huge difference to our group sound. Everyone can hear the rhythm much better.
We didn’t have a bass at the beginning. That all changed when I brought home a double bass (also called an upright bass) for Matthew on his birthday.
Matthew is a skilled guitarist who plays many instruments, including bass guitar. He’d never played an upright bass before. But he had a lot of fun learning. He combines the bass with a cajon box drum for a stronger beat.
Strumbles at the Nivara Lounge with Myrtle, our charismatic microphone. From left: Anna, Jane, Bethwyn, Melissa, Suzanne, Tangi, Matthew, Alice, Sonya.
Playing the songs we love
We take turns bringing music to the group. Sometimes a new song turns out to be surprisingly easy – three chords and a simple strum.
Sometimes it might be trickier. Like “Peace Train”, by Cat Stevens. That one took us a couple of years, but we got there.
“Life on Mars”, by David Bowie, has so many chords that we won’t be performing it any time soon. But it’s fun to play.
It’s such joy to be able to play a song that lights you up.
I love playing Beatles. “Drive My Car”, “We Can Work It Out”, “Here Comes The Sun” and much more.
I‘ve come to appreciate Abba through playing “Fernando” and “Waterloo” on ukulele.
I love Gillian Welch’s “Miss Ohio”, a deadpan ballad about a badly behaved woman. “She says ‘I wanna do right, but not right now.’ ”
And David Bowie’s “Heroes”. And “Closer to Fine”, by the Indigo Girls.
This is where the name came from. The Apple Strumbles, playing at the Plastic Free Potluck Tea at Waikato Environment Centre (it’s now called Go Eco).
The sound of my voice
Another blessing I’ve received from the Strumbles has been singing regularly, which has helped me get into better relationship with my voice.
I’ve always loved singing, especially vocal harmonies. But it’s been a long journey for me to get used to singing in front of people. There has been so much judgement and shame; critics inside and out.
The ukulele has been an important part of this process for me.
While I’m playing, there are so many other things to think about that my inner critic gets distracted.
For me, the ukulele works better than the guitar for learning to sing. A guitar is louder, so it’s more likely to drown my voice out. And, with a guitar there’s more external expectation that you will be at a particular level of skill.
Whereas the ukulele is so small and not-serious that it slips under the ego radar for me. I can lose my self-consciousness.
Worlds of songs
There’s no end to the music. Every couple of weeks someone will bring along a great new song or two. We don’t know what will work until we try it.
We have a tendency towards 1980s music, but that’s not a hard and fast rule.
Early in the first year, Jane brought along “Teardrops”, by Womack & Womack. It seemed like a most unlikely song for a ukulele group, but it sounded great when we played it. That’s when I knew we had something special going on.
Organising the music is an art form. Everyone has a different way of doing this. But we’re all currently using paper and folders.
I spend enough of my life on screen; I appreciate a space where I’m offline.
I have five large ring binders full of songs. One is for Beatles, one is New Zealand songs, and two are A-Z general folders.
The fifth folder is the current playlist. It includes “The Heater” by Don McGlashan/The Muttonbirds, and “Room That Echoes” by Margaret Urlich/ Peking Man (both contributed by Tangi), “Wichita Lineman” and “Come Together” by The Beatles (from Matthew), “Night Ride Home”, by Joni Mitchell and “Make Way For Love”, by Marlon Williams (both from Jane), “Head Over Heels”, by Tears for Fears and “Cloudbusting”, by Kate Bush (from Anna), “If I Fell”, by The Beatles (Sonya), and a beautiful Tongan song, “Katinia” (from Elly).
And that’s just the first few pages!
Hamilton Gardens Scarecrow Festival 2020. From left: Jane, Alice, Elly, Melissa (at back), Suzanne, Tangi, Matthew.
When you come back home
One year we had fun and challenge learning songs by New Zealand 1980s music/ comedy group The Front Lawn, to celebrate the release of Matthew’s book Songs From The Front Lawn (Bloomsbury, 2023.
“When they all want to turn you down
Like the sound on their TV set
There’s one place that you’re welcome to
Where everything you say, well, it’s all up to you…”
“When You Come Back Home,” The Front Lawn
And then one Saturday Melissa brought along “Stumblin’ In”, with Suzi Quatro and Chris Norman.
Bullseye. Our theme song!
“Our love is alive
And so we begin
Foolishly laying our hearts on the table
Strumbling in…”
“The life I love is making music with my friends.” – Willie Nelson
In gratitude to all Strumbles, past and present:
Jane Carmichael Matthew Bannister Tangi Habib Anna Fairley Melissa Hackell Sonya Mitchell Elly Latu Barbara Kinzett Chelsee Waterfall Alice Bulmer Bethwyn Rakotoniaina, Paula Law
and Suzanne Weiss RIP
More reading…
How to sing while playing ukulele
Not Just a Tiny Guitar: My Love Letter To The Ukulele
The Joy of Singing: How To Find Your Own Singing Voice
Ukulele Adventures – What’s Next After the Beginner Basics
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