So I’m walking along the street when I meet up with a friend who jokingly asks me if I had been practicing my ukulele playing. I truthfully answered that I play it every single day – as I do, but later as I was thinking about it, I began thinking about my relationship to the instrument, and to its music. What follows are my thoughts.
I leave my ukulele out and accessible at all times. It sits there looking shiny and pretty, and looking as though it could potentially play anything – (had I enough talent). I always feel compelled to pick it up whenever I have a free moment – sometimes only to strum it a few times before putting it back down, but usually it grabs me and I end up flipping through my music and playing whatever hits my fancy at the time.
I always seem to have a favorite song. It changes frequently, sometimes daily or upon a moments notice. Sometimes it is because of the mood I’m in, sometimes because I become enthralled by a particular sequence of chords, and sometimes because I like the way my fingers seem to reach around and sort of “dance” from one chord to the next. Sometimes I simply and slowly strum one chord after the next -- one strum for each chord. Simple things like moving from a G chord to a G7 are fascinating to me – what a different sound from only moving one note!
And finger-picking! So frustrating but so beautiful in certain songs (Like "Vincent").
I am amazed by the simplest of things. Sometimes it is the background of the composer of the song that moves me (like "Smile" or "This Is My Song" by Charlie Chaplin), or the poetry of a song (like "Catch The Wind" by Dylan and Donovan), or the strange jumps that a song makes from one passage to another (as in a lot of Beatles songs), or the child-like thoughts that are sung (like those in "Christopher Robin"), or the sweet naiveté of popular music from the 40’s (as in "Dream A Little Dream Of Me"), or the ones that take me back to a younger me, or, or, or...
The ukulele makes it easy to take a myriad of mind trips to different places and times, and if you listen – real hard- and play -very, very- slowly, you can feel yourself melt into the sounds, the series of a particular set of chords, or even into a single note. Sometimes the sound of a few notes played together is just so beautiful.
So to my friend, the answer to your question may actually be “No, I don’t practice everyday, but I do fall in love and spend a little time with that little instrument every time I walk by it.”
I can’t help myself.
My uke and I have a relationship. To me its not just a piece of wood with strings, it is a very special way to move far beyond myself and to touch a lot of thoughts, memories, and dreams.
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Interested in starting your own Ukulele Group? Here's a little piece I wrote may may give you a few ideas:
I leave my ukulele out and accessible at all times. It sits there looking shiny and pretty, and looking as though it could potentially play anything – (had I enough talent). I always feel compelled to pick it up whenever I have a free moment – sometimes only to strum it a few times before putting it back down, but usually it grabs me and I end up flipping through my music and playing whatever hits my fancy at the time.
I always seem to have a favorite song. It changes frequently, sometimes daily or upon a moments notice. Sometimes it is because of the mood I’m in, sometimes because I become enthralled by a particular sequence of chords, and sometimes because I like the way my fingers seem to reach around and sort of “dance” from one chord to the next. Sometimes I simply and slowly strum one chord after the next -- one strum for each chord. Simple things like moving from a G chord to a G7 are fascinating to me – what a different sound from only moving one note!
And finger-picking! So frustrating but so beautiful in certain songs (Like "Vincent").
I am amazed by the simplest of things. Sometimes it is the background of the composer of the song that moves me (like "Smile" or "This Is My Song" by Charlie Chaplin), or the poetry of a song (like "Catch The Wind" by Dylan and Donovan), or the strange jumps that a song makes from one passage to another (as in a lot of Beatles songs), or the child-like thoughts that are sung (like those in "Christopher Robin"), or the sweet naiveté of popular music from the 40’s (as in "Dream A Little Dream Of Me"), or the ones that take me back to a younger me, or, or, or...
The ukulele makes it easy to take a myriad of mind trips to different places and times, and if you listen – real hard- and play -very, very- slowly, you can feel yourself melt into the sounds, the series of a particular set of chords, or even into a single note. Sometimes the sound of a few notes played together is just so beautiful.
So to my friend, the answer to your question may actually be “No, I don’t practice everyday, but I do fall in love and spend a little time with that little instrument every time I walk by it.”
I can’t help myself.
My uke and I have a relationship. To me its not just a piece of wood with strings, it is a very special way to move far beyond myself and to touch a lot of thoughts, memories, and dreams.
__________________________________________________
Interested in starting your own Ukulele Group? Here's a little piece I wrote may may give you a few ideas:
starting_a_ukulele_group.pdf | |
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