{"id":605125,"date":"2026-04-14T00:09:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T00:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/605125\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T00:09:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T00:09:16","slug":"sunshine-coast-ukulele-clubs-600-members-may-be-strumming-their-way-to-better-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/605125\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunshine Coast ukulele club’s 600 members may be strumming their way to better health"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s mid-week and mid-morning at this Queensland RSL club \u2014 but it might as well be a Saturday night.<\/p>\n

The place is packed and rocking.<\/p>\n

About 100 people, many with ukuleles in hand, are singing as one.<\/p>\n

“I love the connection and I love that people come and watch us and they get a little piece of joy for the week \u2014 we all do,” Vanessa Schmidt said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Vanessa Schmidt says the club brings joy to her week. (ABC Sunshine Coast: Jessica Ross)<\/p>\n

Ms Schmidt is part of the Parkbench Ukulele Players.<\/p>\n

As the name suggests, the group formed at a park 12 years ago, in Tewantin on the Sunshine Coast.<\/p>\n

“Just a few of my friends wanted to learn the ukulele and we were all struggling a bit so we decided to go to the local park and meet once a week,” founding member Lin Nolan said.<\/p>\n

“We’ve grown from just five and now we have 600 members.”\"Seven<\/p>\n

Group members now meet weekly at their local RSL club after outgrowing previous venues. (ABC Sunshine Coast: Jessica Ross)<\/p>\n

Ms Nolan’s husband Terry said since then, the group had changed venues and had technology upgrades.<\/p>\n

“We started off on paper with the songs and it got to the stage where I’d need a ream of paper every week,” Mr Nolan said.<\/p>\n

“I said, ‘No, that’s not going to happen, go and buy yourselves an iPad or a tablet and I’ll give you the music in a format you can put onto it.’<\/p>\n

“It just took off from there.”\"A<\/p>\n

Many of the members now use tablets to follow along with the songs.\u00a0 (ABC Sunshine Coast: Jessica Ross)<\/p>\n

Added bonus for the brain<\/p>\n

The club plays a wide range of genres, including rockabilly, country, bluegrass and modern rock.<\/p>\n

Most of the songs have only three or four chords, making them easier to play.<\/p>\n

“It’s a great sense of community and fun \u2014 we’re very relaxed about the playing,” Ms Nolan said.<\/p>\n

“It’s more about getting together, singing and enjoying music.”<\/p>\n

\"Women<\/p>\n

Beginners through to advanced players enjoy getting together each week. (ABC Sunshine Coast: Jessica Ross)<\/p>\n

A recent study by Monash University examined the impact of listening to and playing music by following more than 10,000 people aged over 70 across a 10-year period.<\/p>\n

The study found those who frequently listened to music had decreased their risk of getting dementia by 39 per cent, compared to those who rarely did.<\/p>\n

Playing an instrument was associated with a 35 per cent reduction in risk.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

There is no requirement to play an instrument, with people encouraged to come along to listen, sing or dance.\u00a0 (ABC Sunshine Coast: Jessica Ross)<\/p>\n

Senior author Joanne Ryan said with no cure for dementia, preventing or delaying its onset was critical.<\/p>\n

“We can’t say that if somebody starts listening to music \u2026 that will actually stop them developing dementia,” Professor Ryan said.<\/p>\n

“But music is like a whole brain workout.<\/p>\n

“We know from studies where they’ve taken images of somebody’s brain as they’re listening to music that a whole range of regions are activated.”<\/p>\n

The professor said music could also reduce stress and calm the mind.<\/p>\n

“It can help reduce things like depression as well. It can also slow your heart rate,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It has multiple benefits on different systems in our bodies, and we think that cumulative benefit is what’s helping reduce the risk of dementia.”<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/p>\n

Lin and Terry Nolan, pictured right, organise the equipment and songs for the meet-ups. (ABC Sunshine Coast: Jessica Ross)<\/p>\n

That rings true for Ms Nolan, now aged 77, who said playing and listening to music helped keep her brain active.<\/p>\n

“You have to remember the songs and you have to try and remember the chords,” she said.<\/p>\n

“And just getting together, I think, is so important for mental health.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It’s mid-week and mid-morning at this Queensland RSL club \u2014 but it might as well be a Saturday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":605126,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,286760,9757,22155,134,136,91059,294510,294511,294508,294509],"class_list":{"0":"post-605125","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-community-group","11":"tag-dementia","12":"tag-dementia-prevention","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-music","15":"tag-music-therapy","16":"tag-parkbench-ukulele-players","17":"tag-tewantin","18":"tag-ukulele","19":"tag-ukulele-club"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=605125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}