Get to know Yukee on CBeebies

Follow the adventures of Yukee, a six-year-old ukulele-playing girl exploring a magical garden filled with musical animal friends.

Yukee is the hero and the centre of all of the stories. She’s six and is learning her first instrument - a beautiful red ukulele. Yukee’s uke is her pride and joy and she takes it everywhere with her. Yukee is a musical soul. She loves sound of all kinds - from the rhythmic pitter-patter of raindrops to the wheezy rustling of wind through trees. To Yukee, everything is musical. And everything is music!

TapTap is a beat-bashing woodpecker. She lives in the branches of the biggest tree in the garden and spends all day, every day, bashing out the most amazing rhythms. TapTap is the rhythm queen. All that pecking, however, may have loosened a few screws in TapTap’s feathery head. She has a uniquely upside down view of the world, and very much goes her own way.

Toad is a double-bass playing toad. Toad is a toad with history. Once upon a time he laid down basslines in local jazz trio “Two Frogs And A Toad”, touring tree stump stages in gardens up and down the street. Toad’s touring days are finished now but he still carries himself like a puffed up old pro. Under his gruff exterior, there’s a heart of gold and a grand sense of humour.

Sonny is semi-nocturnal accordion playing fox. He loves rummaging in the neighborhood bins in the evening, looking for things that make interesting noises. Sonny is a sound scavenger. If he finds an object that rattles or parps or honks… and has no obvious owner… then he is very likely to wheel it back to his caravan, where he has a growing collection of noisy things.

Twinkle is the zen Earth Mother of the garden… most of the time. Twinkle’s musical specialty is all things twinkling and chiming. Twinkle spends most of her time twinkling about in the garden, leading yoga sessions and flitting about with her windchimes. She loves nothing more than digging around in her vegetable patch or sitting down with a nice cup of tea!

The show is a series about the sheer joy of making a noise with friends and reminds us that ‘music is for everyone’, as well as having themes of community, friendship, and cooperation at its heart. Yukee offers young audiences a gentle, child-centred introduction to music education and exposes them to simple, yet fundamental musical concepts that will form a strong foundation for lifelong learning and enjoyment of music - beat, rhythm, pitch, tempo, timbre, form, dynamics, expression and style.

Read the full article on BBC Media Centre. 

Yukee aired on CBeebies on Monday 5th February. You can watch full episodes on BBC iPlayer.

Rio, from Andy and the Band, teaches you how to play two simple chords on the ukulele! Learn the strings, find the frets and master the C Major and A Minor chords in this easy tutorial: How to play the ukulele with Rio.

Throughout its 130-year-old history, the ukulele has often been underrated – for many, this tiny four stringed instrument is a musical joke, a plastic toy or a cheap airport souvenir, but in fact, some of the world’s greatest musicians have played and ired it, and it has enduring associations with the struggle for Hawaiian independence since its arrival on the islands from Madeira in the late 19th century. The ukulele is also surprisingly versatile and musicians are forever involved in the challenge of expanding its repertoire, from Bach to ukulele concertos to jazz.

Something for the grown-ups, listen to this episode of The Forum on BBC Sounds and discover the wonderful history of the ukulele. 

Find games, quizzes, puzzles and songs to enjoy together on the CBeebies website.