About Stuart Butterworth BA (Hons) PGCE
Stuart takes a ‘Music for All’ approach in everything he does and loves teaching the ukulele to his 100-plus students each week. His groups range from 15 – 50 students in number, and age wise, 8 – 80+. Collectively, Stuart’s students form clan D.U.K.E.S. (Dumfries and Galloway Ukulele Strummers and Singers). He teaches all levels from beginner to advanced.
Stuart directs two hours of contrasting learning and jamming opportunities: DUKES Easy Peasy Hour and DUKES Jam. In Stuart’s ukulele band – ‘A Touch of Purple’ members learn how to: a) create a ukulele orchestra arrangement of a selected song with differentiated ukulele and vocal parts and b) get these songs performance-ready.
For more info on DUKES, please click HERE.
He has taught ukulele in Dumfries Prison to mixed groups of prisoners, prison officers and agency workers and the project featured in the SPS inspection report as being of benefit to relationships between prisoners and staff. Prisoners could regularly be witnessed helping officers to play tricky chords, perhaps understandably so, as they seemed to have more time to practise than the staff! After release, one prisoner even came back into prison to attend the final session of the course and to receive his certificate.
Formerly a Director of Music and Head of Expressive Arts in Secondary schools and a guest lecturer on P.G.C.E. teacher-training courses, Stuart currently lives on the beautiful Solway coast in south-west Scotland with his wife, children, grandchildren and Herbie and Coco the Cavapoochons!
Why the Ukulele?
Enrolment
Download our handy intro to all things ukulele:
Download our DUKES enrolment form:
D.U.K.E.S. Performing Opportunities
D.U.K.E.S. (Dumfries and Galloway Ukulele Strummers and Singers) members are encouraged to make their own performing opportunities.
Several of our members have formed their own mini-groups and enjoy giving performances in care homes, hospitals and at Rural meetings and the like.
More ambitious members love to perform solo or as part of a duo at open mics and as part of larger-scale concerts.
These musical endeavours are great for spreading the ukulele gospel, advertising the existence of D.U.K.E.S., helping to build a strummer's confidence and as valuable learning experiences in their own right.
A Touch of Purple (A.T.O.P)
This is D.U.K.E.S. official gigging band. Comprising fifteen to twenty players who play and sing in multiple parts, A.T.O.P. have performed at The Ukulele Festival of Scotland (2018 and 2019) and at The Theatre Royal, Dumfries (June, 2019).