Why I Play the Ukulele

Life got really hard. I had to sell my beautiful Gibson guitar to pay the mortgage. I never played it anyway. Then the jazz bass was the next to go. I still miss that one. My string bass started to come unglued.

I did start playing my dulcimer at sessions at an Irish pub. That really inspired me but then I moved away.

I’m living in a camper now and there is just nowhere that is comfortable to sit and play my dulcimer. I have no lap anymore and no comfortable chair. It’s just too long to even fit any way except one direction. I almost gave up playing it.

I was browsing around on YouTube recently and discovered people playing the ukulele. I always picture some dopey guy singing some sappy song with a uke. True, there are those around, but these guys were playing bluegrass, and swing and jazz. It just was too exciting.

The ukulele is a small instrument, even small enough to fit in my lap while I’m sitting at the computer. It’s also a very inexpensive instrument. It’s a perfect instrument to try out without spending a lot of money. (It’s great for kids too. It’s easier to handle that a big guitar). I just had to try one.

After posting on Facebook that I wanted a ukulele, a relative of mine said she had an old one that she would give me. We finally got to meet up and she handed me a very old Harmony soprano ukulele. It is really an antique. They were made in the early 1900s and this one must have been one of the first.  It had a couple of cracks in it. I did a sloppy patch job just to keep it from cracking more. The strings are ancient, maybe as old as the ukulele itself. New strings are on the list.

I needed to learn chords so I picked a couple of tunes I already knew. I’m working on After You’ve Gone, a 1918 swing tune and Ukulele Lady, made popular by the Kweskin Jug Band. Some of the bluegrass players on the videos were using a banjo technique called clawhammer style. I want to be able to play bluegrass with my sister so I’m working on that. She taped some tunes for me so I play them and try to play along. I really am having fun learning to play this instrument.

I also discovered a fantastic group called the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain or UOGB. They play all sorts of music including rock. They do ham it up but my favorite videos are the ones where they are just jamming in the back room. They are fantastic musicians.

Now that I’ve had a ukulele in my hands and know that I really want to play one, I need to save up my money and get a tenor, although I'd take anything that comes my way. The soprano is just a bit small for my huge hands (see the video above), and the one I have is really an antique and should be preserved. I’ve also discovered that the uke can be tuned in different tunings and that is easier if a spare instrument is used. And, of course, I’ll have to get a bass ukulele, or Ubass, one day so I can get back to my first love, the bass.