Why did you shift from one instrument to the uke, particularly guitar

Started playing piano about ages 12-15. I was a mediocre piano player, but could sight read and play. Dropped playing piano at 18, going off to school. At 40, I bought a used acoustic guitar at local GC. Didn't take lessons. Never really clicked. Stopped playing it a year later, sold it at age 45.

At 50 got a random web ad for uke, thought maybe I should try this instrument. 7 years later I still play a uke almost everyday. Now I have tenor, bari, and soprano ukes.

I play recorder, flute and harmonica.

I wanted an instrument that I could accompany myself singing. I tried concertina and though I enjoy playing and there are many people who accompany their own singing it didn't really work for me.

I had made three attempts in the past to learn guitar but never with much success so I wasn't going down that route again. Then I saw an ad for a beginners ukulele session and after a two hour workshop was strumming along to a couple of songs. So I bought myself a uke and after a bit of up and down, learnt Woody Guthrie's Plane Crash at Los Gatos and sang it at a local folk club and that was it! I was away. I don't do anything fancy, just simple chordal accompaniment for folk songs. I do finger pick on the slower songs but that's about it but it's enough and I'm having fun.

Like others have mentioned George Harrison and Paul McCartney (who played Uke on Ram years ago) put the uke on my radar and I was surprised how smitten I became with it. I've played guitar since high school and would never give it up but what I find so interesting is how different the guitars feel after several months of playing uke. My little grand concert guitar that used to feel small feels very substantial with a huge tone. My dreadnought feels like a battleship and is a tone monster.

I have really enjoyed this thread. I find it fasinating how so many musically talented people with decades of proficiency on other instruments have taken up the uke.

Because of this I felt I did could not contribute to this thread. But the title says "why did you shift" not "were you any good" so here is my story.

I took no music lessons nor played any instruments in my youth, my family is very non musical. No mother, father, siblings, aunts, uncles etc played any instruments. About 10 years ago I got the desire to play acoustic guitar so I bought one, took some lessons, pored over the internet, practiced regularly and made very little progress. This went on and off for a few years and I finally just stopped and played golf instead, lol.

Then two years ago I watched "The Mighty Uke" and became captivated by the sounds that were being pulled out of the instrument. I bought a uke, joined a uke jam, took a uke 101 course there and never looked back. I am so grateful to this instrument and the ukulele community as a whole because it has allowed me to finally make music, what a joy.

I started playing guitar in high school and played for many years. A couple of years back I started travelling for work a fair bit and I got interested in the uke as an easy traveling instrument. I haven't given up guitar but I have definitely become very rusty as the uke has seduced me and I only occasionally pic up the guitar these days when I am home.

I practice classical piano for several years im a student at a local jr college taking an advanced piano course every semester. Im not a music degree student, no, but just a working person learning music as a hobby and the college has an emeritus program that allows for working people or college graduates to take certain music and arts classes for free for personal enrichment. I also practice classical guitar but piano is my main instrument since that is the one I grew up on a few years in my childhood. . I have great interest in the depth and breadth piano and guitar has in terms of brilliant, diverse, and virtuosic music that it can create. Many times the music can be transcendental and otherworldly (at least that's what my emotions tell me when I listen to it).
But I've always been keenly intrigued by relatively simple instruments (or games or objects..like chess or origami for example) that despite its simplicity has a capacity of outputting some emotionally complex and brilliant music.
Ukulele is one of them. You can buy a 30 dollar brand new uke and if one has aptitude, can wield it to produce beautifully sounding music from it, in its own proper definition of what a ukulele is. . Very possible. Cant say the same for a piano or a classical guitar. You spend say $100 and you cant and will never produce beautifully sounding music in its own proper definition of a piano or guitar.
Let alone 30 dollars.
And due to that (among other things, like its cute comical pineapple look) , I found it to be a novelty instrument in my mind. An instrument I dont have to take so seriously.
But, I picked uke up recently also to have a 'sub in' for a classical guitar when I cant have one w me. I find myself sometimes waiting for my wife at the mall while she shops and I itch to practice something. For a situational example. So I figured uke would fit that well.
However I figured out the uke is its own instrument and I shouldn't treat it as a sub or lesser or easier version of the classical guitar.
Yes. Many things harder on the guitar. But many things I discovered are more difficult on the uke. Fret and string spacing for one. I need to think differently on fingering and finger pressure, and finger sliding and so forth. How to deal w positioning my body and holding it (I want to learn classical uke mind you ) and difficulties of using I, m, a fingers to stroke. And difficulties such as how the reentrant G is counterintuitive for me at this point. And how also how hard it is to find anything in standard notation (sorry, I dont want tab). Amongst other difficulties.
No. I dont want to heed suggestions of going to a baritone or tenor to compensate. I want to learn on a traditional soprano and whatever difficulties I find from it I want to face them as a challenges that are inherent of the defining ukulele instrument. Not try to facilitate myself on the instrument from the point of view from a classical guitar perspective. Although, I do not want to strum and sing on the uke but play classical solo pieces ..which may sound oxymoronic.
Anyways, I didn't leave the other instruments im still a student of piano and guitar very much so. My main itch is to practice piano and I dont think that will ever change.
However I did go from seeing ukulele as a mere novelty instrument and sub for my classical guitar practice when I am not able to, to becoming in my mind a brilliant instrument all to its own with merits and downfalls all to its own.

I started with keyboard but sold it to concentrate on guitar. This was in my teens. Many many hours of practice and probably just as many guitars from fender strats to Gibson Les Paul's on the electric side to Martin D28, HD28 and 00028EC etc now a rare Martin killer that hardly sees light. No electric in my possession now.

5 years ago I got a bit fed up with it all and looked into something new. An impulse purchase of a cheap ukulele and that was me hooked. Apart from a stop start I had a year off but now it's firmly seated as the favourite. So easy to keep near by and transport compared to guitar.

I've been around the block a few times. Started playing tin whistle at 14, lasted about 2 months. Went on to try harmonica, I nearly passed out, that was the end of that. At 16 I picked up guitar, made one whilst still at school. I wasn't very serious, practicing was . . . optional. Made another guitar at 18. At 20 I went to study instrument making formally. 26 I took up the violin, it hurt my neck, that was the end of that. Played alto recorder for about a year in my late 30's. Somewhere along the line I tried piano for a week. In my mid 40's I tried violin again, that hurt my neck just as it did before. Then I wanted to play the lute. Made one and played it for around 6 months. Then came a renaissance guitar, which is where the ukulele came in. They are very similar. A few folk on youtube, who were lute players, were also playing the uke. I thought I would join them. I'll never go back to violin or tin whistle or harmonica or piano or alto recorder. I almost bought a trumpet 6 months ago but thankfully my powers of resistance were too strong for it.

I picked up uke cuz I heard I'd get laid.
I keep trying to get it to work... but I must be doing it wrong.

To be honest, I picked up uke because I was unhappy with what I was doing with guitar, and saw what Sungha Jung was doing. I couldn't quite figure out how to get from strumming/accompany style stuff to a more finger style kinda thing. I tried classical, but maybe my teacher was bad.

But saw Sungha started on a uke, as you can see it on the wall in his very tiny kid videos. I thought about it.. and every thing else.. to learn to be complex you start with the simple, and then build, so going from 6 to 4 made things soo much easier to wrap my head around. Also.. smaller hands are more comfortable on shorter scale.

Michael N. said:

I've been around the block a few times. Started playing tin whistle at 14, lasted about 2 months. Went on to try harmonica, I nearly passed out, that was the end of that. At 16 I picked up guitar, made one whilst still at school. I wasn't very serious, practicing was . . . optional. Made another guitar at 18. At 20 I went to study instrument making formally. 26 I took up the violin, it hurt my neck, that was the end of that. Played alto recorder for about a year in my late 30's. Somewhere along the line I tried piano for a week. In my mid 40's I tried violin again, that hurt my neck just as it did before. Then I wanted to play the lute. Made one and played it for around 6 months. Then came a renaissance guitar, which is where the ukulele came in. They are very similar. A few folk on youtube, who were lute players, were also playing the uke. I thought I would join them. I'll never go back to violin or tin whistle or harmonica or piano or alto recorder. I almost bought a trumpet 6 months ago but thankfully my powers of resistance were too strong for it.

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My two cents, it may help some. The fiddle has been the cause of a lot of neck and back pain for many. Now, I just hook a loop around the lower bout. This solution won't get anyone a seat in an orchestra but it's fine for just sawing away on simple tunes.

I haven't given up any instruments just added one more to the heap.

I go back and forth between uke and guitar (and autoharp too). It depends on the song.

I may want to pick up erhu someday.

I'll admit it - I've been a LONG time living room venue guitar player, and during some 7 decades have added to the guitars (Martin/Taylor/Fender), harps (harmonicas) of all the major keys, a couple of keyboards, about a half dozen pennywhistle/tinwhistle, a fiddle and a violin ( I play a violin when wearing shoes, a fiddle when I'm shoeless - it's a li'l joke.) So, I'm familiar with several types of instruments.

At one of my amateur radio club meetings, a member expressed that he had a desire to learn the ukulele. I took that thought home with me, with the intention of doing some research on the subject, to present to him at the next meeting, because as far as I know, he has no intimacy with any instrument, or squirrel.

I viewed the forums, I researched the ukes and their reviews, I listened to and watched YouTube videos, and after doing all that, because of players like Honoka & Azita, Jake and others, I decided that perhaps I should buy one to see whether or not I'd enjoy playing one.

Not wanting to invest too many sheckles, I visited my favorite store, Amazon, looked up ukuleles, found the one with 4.8* average reviews from over 300 verified purchasers (twenty-eight pages of 5* reviews) , with a seller review of 100%, and bought the Lohanu concert uke, knowing that I could return it to Amazon if I had any misgivings.

Well, guess what? I'm a member of the Ukulele Underground forum so it would appear that I've been uke-smitten. In fact, I now have a Lohanu tenor size as well. Looks like my case of Instrument Acquisition Syndrome is alive and well.

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

...now all I have to do is get my fellow amateur radio club member on the uke bandwagon...

CeeJay said:

I started playing the ukulele (soprano, cos in the UKuey UK that's all there was !!) in 1970ish, I then wanted to try the guitar as there was one around the house , then I had piano lessons for three years ...then I stopped playing piano in 1980 , carried on with guitar and uke (banjo uke only) as a sort of vaguely in the background sort of hobby thing...got a keyboard in 1995......then suddenly wanted a yuke again and got one in 2000 and a harmonica which I took to,then in 2011 piano accordion , ( 4 to date !!) , 5 string Banjo, Mandolin, 2012 single row melodeon (Cajun Accordion to those across the pond)then a rest until this year Tenor Banjo,both tunings C and G , tin whistle and vilioliolinfiddle...still play the uke as well....I must be doing it ass backwards lol....... By the way this ain't a brag a simple statement of fact ...I'm utter crap at all them as well....lol. Always played in my on company until 2008 and then got a geetar buddy (the most indispensible learning and developmental tool)and discovered ..hey I'm not utter crap....just crap....

Cheers.

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That's funny!

AndieZ said:

What's your difficulty with the guitar? You seem to prefer the uke except for the guitar's tone.

I actually fine nylon guitar easier to play than steel strings on every point you mention. It was also my first guitar but I was about 7 and kept it til i was 28 when Qantas smashed it but i didn't do a lot with it in the preceding years.

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Interesting - I started as a teenager with a Gibson Les Paul, which of course had steel strings. But because it was heavy, as a solid body, plus one had to shlep along an amplifier with it wherever one went, I traded it in (dumb kid) for a nylon string classical guitar after seeing and hearing Andreas Segovia. However, there were no classical guitar teachers to be found in my area, so my decision was flawed. Live and learn.

I have performed as a mediocre guitarist and a pretty good percussionist. I started playing uke because I was pretty sure that no one would ever ask me to join a band or perform or rehearse for a gig...so far, I'm right. And very happy about that!

spookelele said:

I picked up uke cuz I heard I'd get laid.
I keep trying to get it to work... but I must be doing it wrong.

To be honest, I picked up uke because I was unhappy with what I was doing with guitar, and saw what Sungha Jung was doing. I couldn't quite figure out how to get from strumming/accompany style stuff to a more finger style kinda thing. I tried classical, but maybe my teacher was bad.

But saw Sungha started on a uke, as you can see it on the wall in his very tiny kid videos. I thought about it.. and every thing else.. to learn to be complex you start with the simple, and then build, so going from 6 to 4 made things soo much easier to wrap my head around. Also.. smaller hands are more comfortable on shorter scale.

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The reason why you didn't get what you wanted has to do with G strings...

Tommy Jimmy said:

My two cents, it may help some. The fiddle has been the cause of a lot of neck and back pain for many. Now, I just hook a loop around the lower bout. This solution won't get anyone a seat in an orchestra but it's fine for just sawing away on simple tunes.

I haven't given up any instruments just added one more to the heap.View attachment 95859

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Simple solutions are awesome problem solvers. Thanks for the tip.

Started playing guitar 50 years ago, played in a couple of garage bands in high school. Played a lot if wooden music in college in the late 60's/early 70's. Sold all but one guitar, got my first electric back (great story). Late 90's joined a worship team at church to play for the youth. Needed a bass player so I volunteered. Got a real education on exactly what it means to play bass. 2007 was looking at guitars on eBay and Over the Rainbow was playing on the radio. Checked out ukulele chords and found they were the same shape, bought a KoAloha soprano from MGM.

I will occasionally play the guitar, but to be honest, playing the ukulele is easier. I don't have to work as hard to figure out songs and people are generally blown away by what I can do on a ukulele, despite my low level of expertise. I play a number of Jake's songs, or similar, and sometimes just simple instrumentals based off of chords. Truth is, any semi-competent bluegrass or classical guitarist could put me to shame.

So I am having more fun, with less talent, and less effort, so why would I bust my rear only to subject myself to be a 1 in 10,000,000 guitar player that will always be compared to the work of the original artist.

John