My ukulele story…
I’ve played the guitar on and off for years with mediocre success. I’ve always liked it, but never felt I could get past that “pretty good” stage, you know? I would play for hours on end - loving every minute of it, mind you - but not feeling like I was improving like I wanted to.
Then about three years ago, I happened to come across something ukulele-related on the net. I’d of course seen and heard the uke before, but never gave it much thought. However, it somehow grabbed my interest. This I saw this video of Alison Young singing her song, “Satellite”, and just thought it was great. It was so simple and charming that I considered picking up the uke. Unfortunately, consider was all I did at the time.
Fast forward to September of 2006 when Jake Shimabukuro’s “Gently Weeps” video was making the rounds again. In general, his style doesn’t match my interest, but there’s no denying that he’s a very impressive and talented player. I knew that I wanted to get a uke and give it a try.
So, I bought a school-bus yellow Mahalo U-30 and Jumpin’ Jim’s Tips and Tunes and started learning. I picked up the basics pretty quickly because of my experience with the guitar. The Mahalo has some intonation problems, but I got used to it - it’s not too bad considering the price (about $25). I put Aquila Nylgut strings on it, which helped the overall tone and playability.
Then for Christmas 2006 I got a concert Flea (Natural color). Wow, what a great little uke! Sounds great, easy to play, and excellent intonation. Since getting it, I haven’t really felt the need to get another uke yet. I’m interested in a few (namely a Hamano soprano), but not interested enough to click the “Buy it now” button.
I’m playing just about any song I like that I can find the chords for. However, I tend to lean more toward older jazz and noir songs from the 20’s-40’s. These are the classics, and generally sound good on the uke. Even though this music comes from before my time, I believe it makes up a majority of the best music that America has produced.
Anyway, there’s my uke story.
Thanks,
Jason