The Brain Plasticity Ukulele Collective is 11 years old in 2026. It is made up of lifelong musicians and those who have taken up a musical instrument later on in life (that
instrument not always being the uke!). As we age the brain needs all the help it can get. We all know that to be true, but here’s the medical/technical bit interwoven with the rock n roll bit:
Brain plasticity (neuroplasticity) is the brain’s ability to reorganize its structure, functions, and connections throughout life. It is critical because it enables learning new
skills (like music as a language etc), memory formation remembering chords and scales), adapting to new environments one might argue that learning to improvise if
you’ve spent a lifetime as a classical musicians falls into his category), and recovering from injuries like strokes – in fact, the collective’s director Mike Brooks has done this
very thing,: recovered from a brain injury 30 years ago which left him unable to walk properly for 18 months. Plasticity allows the brain to bypass damaged areas and
maintain cognitive health – but we must help our own brain to do this. The collective makes music but it also makes our brains work better. Remain more
plastic. It’s called neuro genesis. Every time we play, we laugh, we learn and we plasticize our brains – you can’t see the plasticity happening: but you hear the fruits of it.