A gentle dusting of snow fell on the evening of Wednesday Feb. 12 as more than two dozen students filed into the large community room at Warwick Public Library. Each was holding a case, and inside each case was a small ukulele. The instruments came in many colors: light and dark wood finishes but also bright red, deep green, electric blue, and hot pink. Some were old, some were borrowed, and some were bought specifically for the Introduction to Ukulele course offered this winter at the library.

Every Wednesday for four weeks, the group meets to learn the basics of the instrument: how to make chords, strum, read tabs, play simple melodies, and sing while playing.

Some of the students are seniors, some are adults, and some are as young as ten. Many are from Warwick but some come from Cranston and other adjacent cities and towns. About three quarters of the students are women. Just about everyone from the first week returned for the second class, and one or two new faces also appeared.

Songs are learned quickly. In the first hour-long workshop, the group got through “The Itsy Bitsy Spider,” “You Are My Sunshine,” and “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands.” In the second week they covered “Happy Birthday” and Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline.”

The workshop is led by Dean Plowman. Dressed in black slacks, a cordovan sweater, and a woven fedora, he speaks to the assembled group through a lightly crackling headset microphone that allows him to speak and play at the same time.

“My first instrument as a youth was actually mandolin,” Plowman says. “But then of course the Beatles came around and the Rolling Stones and I switched to guitar.”

Then came ukulele and banjo, the latter of which he plays in a local Dixieland band.

“String instruments are all pretty similar,” he says before breaking into a laugh. “Well, you don’t want to hear me play the violin.”

For Plowman, music was always a side project. Before retiring a few years ago, he worked as an electrical engineer and also taught engineering to students at Johnson and Wales University, CCRI, Bryant University, and New England Tech.

A few years ago, he contacted the Greenville Library about running a ukulele workshop–he runs those in the summer–and last year brought the idea to Warwick. He also brings his musical passion to the seniors of Greenville at the Village at Waterman Lake.

The history of the ukulele is fascinating. While many associate it with Hawaii and Hawaiian music, according to Ukulele Magazine the ukulele is a hybrid of two Portuguese instruments called the machête and the rajão. In the 1880s, the Portuguese island of Madeira was full of poverty and drought, so sugar plantations in Hawaii began hiring desperate workers from Madeira, who brought their instruments with them and performed on the streets of Honolulu. Once their contracts with the sugar plantations expired, three of them set up shop in Hawaii as guitar makers, and the ukulele was born.

Of the common plucked string instruments, Plowman says the ukulele is easiest for beginners to pick up because it only has four strings. New students are given clip-on tuners that allow them to get those strings sounding right. Entry-level ukuleles aren’t expensive, but Plowman warns that the cheap ones will slip out of tune at the first possible opportunity.

During the second workshop, one student inquired about the callouses she was developing on her fingers from practicing. Plowman got excited. “You will get callouses! They will last two weeks. Then you’ll never feel them again.”

In the back of the workshop sit three helpers, students who took the course last year and kept practicing once the workshops were over. One of the apprentices is Wil Gregersen, the Library’s Community Services Librarian and Adult Events Impresario. It’s Gregersen who worked with Plowman to bring the workshop to Warwick.

Gregersen believes that free adult programs draw the best crowds.

“With ticketed events, sometimes you have a hard day at work or you’re tired and you don’t feel like going, but you force yourself because you already have a ticket. With a free course, the people who come are all here because they really want to be.”

“I like giving back to the community,” Plowman says, “and people seem to love it.” For those who want to know more about ukulele music, Plowman’s current favorite is Jake Shimabukuro, who he saw perform at the Park Theatre in Cranston last October. “He plays the ukulele like he’s Eddie Van Halen,” Plowman raves.

And for those who want to hear more music, the Library has several musical events coming up, including a four-week course on the history of country music and a concert featuring Scottish fiddler Louise Bichan.