“Uke” can do it!

I love music and  have always loved the idea of playing a musical instrument. I remember when I was younger and was deeply enamored with the guitar. I remembered saving up my lunch and commute money to buy my very first guitar and it was really love at first strum. I didn’t know anything about the guitar except that I wanted to learn how to play it. So I read up about it and practiced 4-5hrs a day after finishing all my school work. Now many years (getting married, becoming a parent) and several guitars later, I do not have as much time for music as before so my time spent with my guitars naturally diminished as with my proficiency with it.

About a month ago, on a whim, I said to myself I want to learn something new and decided why not the ukulele. I figured it was small, had only four strings and once I figured out the chords, it shouldn’t be too difficult to learn (Boy, was I wrong!) . So I got myself a Ukulele Manila’s UMC-DLX concert sized ukulele. It is an awesome locally made all solid acacia concert sized ukulele from Ukulele Manila (www.ukulelemanila.com) and searched online for the tuning, chords and songs to play. It wasn’t as easy as I thought. Years of playing the guitar had left permanent muscle memory on my fingers so I had to really consciously learn the basic chords from scratch.  Lo and behold, I find myself enjoying the ukulele tremendously, So much so that I requested my uncle to purchase a aNueNue Lani III Koa Tenor CE ukulele (http://www.anuenue-uke.com/en/) It’s an entry level Taiwanese made tenor-sized ukulele with laminated koa body and a mahogany neck and  rosewood fingerboard and bridge. It’s equipped with a passive Fishman under-saddle pickup. The all solid acacia UMC-DLX is louder and sounds brighter than the aNueNue Lani III. I think the all solid wood construction has a lot to do it with but the aNueNue Lani III has a nice mellow tone to it that is just so warm and balanced.  Plus the bigger fret spacing makes it easier for me to play.

So far a month and a half ( and 2 ukuleles) into my ukulele madness, I am still learning it, managing to spend a few minutes each day  learning how to play it. Much to my delight, I discovered that the 4 or 5 chords I need to learn to play most songs are not that difficult to learn nor does it require to much finger contortions. I am still at the basic beginner stage and is still very far from being proficient with it but MAN! The ukulele has rekindled my love for music and creating/playing music. Maybe it’s because it looks like a toy and is sized like one makes it so much fun. So if I can do it, “uke” can do it too! 😀