Laughing Abe's Rainbow Ukulele System

Laughing Abe describes a simple solution to making music education fun again using colour and the ukulele. He shares his journey from an engineer to a musical explorer and tells the audience about his colour-coded ukulele that he uses to teach children across Cape Town. Abe van den Berg is a ukulele and classical guitar teacher, learning experience designer at Mobile Music Academy, and the creator of Laughing Abe - a musical education superhero who promotes kind learning with visual support.

He won a grant to study Mechanical Engineering at the University of Stellenbosch after his team won the National Technology Olympiad in 2006 and, after graduating, furthered his studies in music, languages, and creative arts while travelling. 

Abe has played double bass in various orchestras including the National Youth Orchestra, in 2009, and developed his own ukulele teaching method in 2017.  He’s determined to make learning to play the ukulele and other musical instruments fun and engaging and wants to create a more inclusive education system with visual support. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local communit