Uke Update

In case anyone was wondering... I'm still spending a delightful amount of time most days playing the ukulele. I play until my finger pads hurt, or my voice gives up. As proof/accountability, here are two little songs I recorded today. First, Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah. Second, The House of the Rising Sun. I haven't tried to figure out strumming patterns yet, so these recordings are just chords with singing. I dug out my guitar capo for Hallelujah so I wouldn't have to split the octave, but the notes sounded a little bit off, so maybe that wasn't a great idea. One day I'll learn (remember) how to change keys so that I can just play it in a different key, but that day is not today. Also, for fair warning, there's one pretty bum chord near the end of Rising Sun. Oops. I'm not going to feel too bad about it... I've been playing for a grand total of 9 days.

My Ukulele

I am now the proud owner of my very own ukulele, and this makes me inordinately happy.

Way back in 1999, I bought myself an acoustic guitar. I don't recall if the purchase was an "I'm heading off to college and a guitar seems like the thing to have" event, or if it was inspired by Amrys playing her guitar in the kitchen of Random, helping us all to breathe, sing, and relax for a little while. I learned about Radiohead from Amrys, and we would sing Radiohead and Tom Petty and the Indigo Girls until her fingers hurt and our hearts were lighter. I loved hearing the clasps on her case as she opened it; good things were in store.

I don't know what prompted the 1999 guitar purchase, but I have faithfully toted my guitar to all of my various homes over the years (over 20 of them in that time, actually). And yet, I still can not play it. At all. My fingers are clumsy, my hands are small, my arms are short; holding my guitar never felt good, and I never managed to make nice sounds come out of it. So, I have toted the guitar from state to state, home to home, but mostly as a reminder of that thing that I haven't learned to do, rather than a source of joy.

This past weekend Alicja brought her travel ukulele along when she stayed with me. I drove as she strummed, and we sang along as we made our way up to CT for a night. When we got there she showed me a website with chords for a massive number of songs and let me experiment with her ukulele. Quickly, I could muddle along well enough to make music, and to sing along. I'd found my instrument.

Now, as my "Year of Adventure" commences, it is a time for new experiences. After grading my last set of final exams in record non-procrastinating time, I decided to reward myself with my very own ukulele. I made my way to an open Guitar Center (harder than you might imagine), explained to the salesperson what I needed, and shortly thereafter walked out with a uke, a case, and a warranty (so I can bring it along on adventures without worrying about bruising it). My heart is already a little bit more buoyant. I look forward to toting this little instrument along on many of my upcoming adventures.