GLASTONBURY, Conn. (AP) – Peyton Tiroff had enough of recess.
“It got to be boring,” the fifth-grader from Gideon Welles School said one recent Friday. “I was looking for some more exciting stuff to do.”
So instead of playing basketball or a game of tag, Peyton left his coat in the closet, took out a ukulele and strummed and sang “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” and “I Come From Alabama with a Ukulele on my Knee” while he and six other students awaited a visit from “Dr. Uke.”
Each Friday for the past five years, James Rosokoff, a dermatologist with a practice in town, packs up his Dr. Uke van and heads out to the school for fifth- and sixth-graders. After unloading ukuleles and sheet music from his van and onto a cart, Rosokoff spends the next few hours showing students the magic and fun of playing the four-string instrument.
With Rosokoff conducting with his ukulele and music put up on an overhead projector, the students gather each Friday to strum familiar tunes with different lyrics. Much of the time is spent making parodies of songs, like a fast-food version of “Down by the Riverside” with the lyrics, “McDonald’s is your kind of place, hamburgers in your face. French Fries up your nose, mustard between your toes.”
“There’s no other instrument like it,” fifth-grader Kristine Dudus said. “It’s easy and it’s fun to play, especially some of the songs we get to do. And you get to meet other classmates and make friends.”
As the side of his van – next to the artwork of a ukulele with a stethoscope – attests, “it’s the most fun you’ll ever have with four strings.”
Rosokoff never seems to tire of loading and unloading the van and bringing the distinctive instrument to any student who wants to learn.
“It’s all about music education,” said Rosokoff, who volunteers his services. “That’s what I enjoy imparting to others. They love to play. It’s one of the easiest instruments to learn. It’s not a toy. It’s not a prop, as one thinks of Tiny Tim. Anyone and everyone can play the ukulele.”
At the beginning of each school year, Rosokoff and teacher Candi Hine introduce all fifth-graders to the ukulele. Hine, who uses the ukulele regularly in her classroom, said the school received dozens of ukuleles with a grant from the PTO.
One of Rosokoff’s students is 11-year-old Carissa Gaghan. In 2005, Carissa, her brother, Billy, and their parents competed in the CBS reality show “The Amazing Race,” where contestants travel around the world. So when the group plays “Amazing Grace” on the ukulele, they sometimes drop the G from Grace in honor of Carissa.
At the beginning of each school year, Rosokoff and teacher Candi Hine introduce all fifth-graders to the ukulele. Hine, who uses the ukulele regularly in her classroom, said the school received dozens of ukuleles with a grant from the PTO.
“Playing and singing together is a fun, relaxing way to learn,” she said. “The kids love it.”
Hine uses the ukulele to make up songs and sea chanteys to teach subjects from science to American history.
When he’s not at his practice, Rosokoff, 60, can be seen wheeling his cart into adult education courses, teaching senior citizens and directing the Glastonbury Ukulele Band, a group made up of residents in their 60s, 70s and 80s, along with sixth-graders from the school. The group has performed several times at fundraisers, parties and at the Manchester Bicentennial Band Shell. He also runs the Glastonbury Ukulele Club, which meets every month.
And the ukulele appears to be a universal instrument. Last month, Rosokoff’s Web site – www.doctoruke.com – got hits from places like Italy, New Zealand, Romania, Thailand and Japan. About 40 different countries used the website in March, and over the first few days in April, people from more than 20 countries have logged on.
AP-ES-04-10-07 1303EDT
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