The Tarble Arts Center Atrium was full Monday night as students, faculty, staff and community members learned something new: how to play the ukulele.

“Homebrew Ukuleles Union: A Free Ukulele Workshop and Sing-Along” was a special program hosted by the Tarble to celebrate the opening of their latest exhibit.

“Guit(Art): Guitars from Mark Rubel’s Collection,” which opened Aug. 25 and runs through Sept. 30.

Molly Elvert, a senior music education major, said she decided to attend because of her interest in teaching the instrument in her future classroom.

“I am excited to see the ensemble play because I have friends in it and also to see the whole process from learning to play to the sing-along.” Elvert said.

The ensemble Elvert spoke of is the Homebrew Ukulele Union, which is composed of Matthew Thibeault, a music education professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and his students in his Designing Musical Experiences.

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign alumni and community members were also a part of the union.

The group taught the workshop, distributed instruments and led the sing-along. The class focused on the process of building a ukulele and learning to play and teach it.

“The class actually starts this Friday, so we haven’t actually built our new ukuleles yet, but it is from a kit and something we can do in five to six sessions” Thibeault said. “A new type of excitement starts to emerge as you learn to play and understand why it makes a certain sound because you sanded the neck yourself.”

Robby Shellard, a senior music education major at the U of I , said Thibeault’s class has not started yet, but he had the professor for other classes in the past and decided to help with the workshop at Eastern.

“I heard a lot of cool things about the class and think it is a cool way to explore teaching this type of instrument,” Shellard said.

Shellard, who knows how to play the ukulele, brought his own to the event, which he nicknamed his “Frankenukulele” because it is originally from Hawaii but has since been modified by Shellard.

“That is what’s cool about the class; it is both people who know how to play and those who don’t.” Shellard said. “We get to teach and learn from each other.”

After going through chords and talking about different ukulele techniques, the group and audience had an hour-long sing-along.

They sang songs such as “You can’t always get what you want” and “Lean on me.” They ended with the “Hey Jude.”

“That is always our finale song,” Thibaeult said. “Everybody loves to sing it, and it is so much fun.”

Amy Wywialowski can be reached at 581-2812 or alwywialowski@eiu.edu.