Plan to set little fingers plucking

By JULIE MIDDLETON

Legendary steel guitar player Bill Sevesi wants the plinky-plunky ukulele to become the new recorder among New Zealand's intermediate school kids.

And he's beginning to see that long-held dream realised. At his local intermediate, Mt Roskill, 30 pupils got together yesterday for their second group lesson on the instrument, whose name in Hawaiian roughly translates as "dancing flea".

Sevesi, a spry 80-year-old whose long fingers are still nimble, eventually wants kids strumming ukuleles and uncovering their musical bents in classrooms from Kaitaia to Invercargill.

"Talent in this country is bubbling like a volcano," he says.

The school agreed to kickstart the programme by buying 30 ukuleles.

Run by teacher Kevin Fogarty with input from Sevesi, it's aimed at those with no musical experience.

The ukulele's four-string chords are simple to learn - "you can get fantastic sounds with just one finger", says Sevesi - easier for little hands to grasp than guitars and at about $30 each, far cheaper.

And you can sing along to a ukulele, unlike a recorder, the instrument usually taught first at school.

So the first two simple songs taught were Happy Birthday - Sevesi is tickled by the idea of kids serenading their parents - and Deep in the Heart of Texas.

The ukulele, introduced to Hawaii by a Portuguese immigrant in the 1870s, might seem cheesy but is gaining street cred.

The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, described as "subversive, rare and precious" and "genre-crashing" by various gobsmacked reviewers, is about to release another CD, called The Secret of Life.

At a British concert last year, Sir Paul McCartney played Something, in memory of Beatle colleague George Harrison, on Harrison's own ukulele. The Dulux paint advertisement, set to Somewhere Over the Rainbow, features a strummed ukulele.

But Sevesi admits he's no longer up to co-ordinating a nationwide programme, so he approached Mr Fogarty, who started playing the ukulele at 10 before progressing to mandolin and guitar.

In 1980 he was in Kiwi band The Knobz, which had a hit with Culture?, a sarky response to a 40 per cent tax on popular music proposed by the Muldoon Government. The song sat in the charts for 28 weeks.

After the band broke up Mr Fogarty returned to the classroom.

Former Australasian Performing Right Association head Mike Chunn is also a keen supporter, and hopes to get corporate funding for the programme through his music education trust, Play It Strange.

Mr Fogarty and Sevesi hope people will donate unused ukuleles or guitars to the programme. Mt Roskill Intermediate School can be contacted on (09) 620-8508.

Bill Sevesi - guitar man

* Born in Tonga 80 years ago, and came to Auckland aged 9. Lives in Mt Roskill with wife Vika.

* Has made more than 20 records since 1942 and written more than 200 songs.

* Drew enormous crowds to dance halls in the 1960s and 1970s with his trademark haunting melodies.

* Collaborator with country singer Tex Morton, Samoan jazz singer Mavis Rivers, entrepreneur Phil Warren and many others.

* Was the first to record the Yandall sisters and singer Annie Crummer.

* Has never found a steel guitar that suits his style, so makes his own.

* Awarded a Queen's Service Medal for public service in 1995, and is named in the steel guitar hall of fame in St Louis, Missouri.