Ukulele

    I dug out my ukulele the other day, after a hiatus of five years.  Back then I wasn’t playing much music and Joan bought it for me at a Costco Store in Hawaii and surprised me with it.  I started messing around with it for a while, but then wondered, “Why am I spending time learning to play the ukulele  when I already know how to play the guitar and mandolin?”  

     I put the uke aside and dug out the mandolin and guitar.  That led me to form the jam and start playing with other people again.

    So the Ukulele sat dormant for years.  Then the other day I noticed that they were going to start up a ukulele jam at the library, so feeling sorry for ignoring my uke for so long, I dug it out again and started plunking around on it again.

    I went to the Uke Jam, and was surprised at just how many local people had ukuleles lying around.  It was also interesting to see the wide range of people that showed up, everything from a very old woman (older even than me) to a couple of high school students.  One farmer had fingers so stiff that he couldn’t get his fingers to bend into position.  Most of the group were beginners.

    I was at an advantage because of my background with the guitar and mandolin.  I knew how to strum, and my fingers are used to bending around to form chords.  Many of the others really who had no experience playing a stringed instrument, struggled to get their fingers curled around and in the right position.

    I was not without problems however, because chords on the ukulele have the same finger formations as chords on the four high strings of a guitar, but the unfortunately the note that they make on the uke is different than what it would be on the guitar.  So if you form the triangular position that you would to play a “D” chord on a guitar, if played on a uke you get a “G” chord instead.

    It took a lot of concentration and transposing in my head, when we were playing the songs at the Uke Jam.  I would see that I was supposed to play a “C” chord and have to remember that that was really like playing a “G” on the guitar.  It was frustrating, but fun.  I will go back again next Friday.

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