Where do they go?

Interesting to read the 'Just strummers' view highlighted by choirguy. I hadn't noticed this. I always felt ukulele players were void of competition. Sort of an ex guitar player, a player since my teens and keeping one as a just in case, I thought that was limited to the guitar world. You know, how many guitarists does it take to change a lightbulb? One to change it and four to say they could have done it better. Play what makes you happy I say. It's a happy instrument.

Me? I started ukulele in 2011. I quit playing for a year as I re kindled my interest in guitar but I'm back for good. Hobbies come and go and with it the forum interest goes.

ubulele said:

WARNING: pissy post

I'm mostly a "play for myself" type because the music I like is too passé for most other people (even the nursing home crowd) to want to listen to, no matter how well performed. I have no interest in playing the music which everyone else plays nowadays, which is what I'd have to do if I joined a group. I also have a low tolerance for first position hell and sour tunings, among other annoyances. I'm surprised I haven't abandoned ukes by now, returning to the other instruments I've been neglecting; instead I seemed to have grown a bit fixated on them.

The approach I'm now taking to the uke, stressing relative patterns, is too different from the usual approach for most learners, so my attempts to discuss aspects of it here mostly get no reaction, or just the typical "we don't need no steenking theory" hostility. So many UUers have neglected picking up the rudiments of music that discussions end up pitched to the lowest common denominator—hard to address anything much beyond the basics with that limitation.

I've considered starting a site or blog for my meatier outpourings, to explore topics with a progressively prepared, more engaged audience, where the information would remain organized and easily found. But I don't foresee a personal payoff commensurate with the effort. Time to play more and write less!

So I'm now mostly content to be a lurker, a passive consumer, using the forum to keep abreast of new developments in gear, scanning the Seasons for songs I might like to learn, occasionally picking up a tip or two, and trading messages one-on-one without flak from the peanut gallery. When the mentor bug strikes, I usually quash it myself—I've been told often enough, "We don't need to know that." Alrighty, then.

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Very understandable, pithy post, ubu, and, I agree with you that playing one's favorites is the best part of music. ld:

Choirguy said:

I teach ukulele to over 370 students a year...they don't really have a choice in the matter. But I can tell you that about 30-40 run with it (about 10%), and another 40% learn the basics well enough to be able to pick up the instrument again in the future.

Rollie, I commend you for your work in helping others to learn the instrument...don't take their loss of interest personally. Teach them the basics, try to make it fun, and give them the ability to come back to it on their own in the future...whether we are talking about kids or adults.

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Thank you for the kind words Chris. I've been cast into this role, as you know, and I wish that they would find a real ukulele instructor, but I guess I'm as good as they can get right now. Seriously, I was quite surprised when the mother of my one paying student called and said that they could not find anyone else. I keep asking around for them, in the hopes that I can pass her off to someone who might be better suited as a teacher, but so far I haven't found anyone for them either. Anyway, this afternoon I had her here for a lesson and I plugged my uke into a guitar amp, cranked in some reverb, a little extra sustain, and some echo, then let her wail away at it. She left wanting to come back for more. I promised her that if she learned how to play "One Toke Over The Line" loud and clear by next week, that we could crank up the volume enough to blast her mother out of the room and chase her upstairs. Here's hoping. But at least for my student, I think that taking lessons is what keeps her going. The knowledge that every week she is going to come to my house and I'm going to have her show me what she has been working on all week is part of her motivation.

Uk3player78 said:

Interesting to read the 'Just strummers' view highlighted by choirguy. I hadn't noticed this. I always felt ukulele players were void of competition.

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I've heard it said often times, especially by pickers and grinners, "if all you want to do is strum and sing three chord songs that's fine, but it you want to go beyond that, you need to do this or that." I always felt that inferred that one does not have to be very proficient to strum and sing songs. I actually used to take a bit of offense to that early on, but after a while I decided that people who do not strum and sing are living in a whole different world than I am and have no idea what I'm doing and what it takes to do it. Besides, it isn't any harder to play a four chord song than it is to play a three chord song, so right there shows that they don't know what they are talking about.

ubulele said:

WARNING: pissy post

I'm mostly a "play for myself" type because the music I like is too passé for most other people (even the nursing home crowd) to want to listen to, no matter how well performed. I have no interest in playing the music which everyone else plays nowadays, which is what I'd have to do if I joined a group. I also have a low tolerance for first position hell and sour tunings, among other annoyances. I'm surprised I haven't abandoned ukes by now, returning to the other instruments I've been neglecting; instead I seemed to have grown a bit fixated on them.

The approach I'm now taking to the uke, stressing relative patterns, is too different from the usual approach for most learners, so my attempts to discuss aspects of it here mostly get no reaction, or just the typical "we don't need no steenking theory" hostility. So many UUers have neglected picking up the rudiments of music that discussions end up pitched to the lowest common denominator—hard to address anything much beyond the basics with that limitation.

I've considered starting a site or blog for my meatier outpourings, to explore topics with a progressively prepared, more engaged audience, where the information would remain organized and easily found. But I don't foresee a personal payoff commensurate with the effort. Time to play more and write less!

So I'm now mostly content to be a lurker, a passive consumer, using the forum to keep abreast of new developments in gear, scanning the Seasons for songs I might like to learn, occasionally picking up a tip or two, and trading messages one-on-one without flak from the peanut gallery. When the mentor bug strikes, I usually quash it myself—I've been told often enough, "We don't need to know that." Alrighty, then.

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I think that you underestimate the appreciation for your contributions. You shouldn't let a few snarkers stop you from sharing.

Debussychopin said:

Try playing classical repertoire transcribed for the ukulele on a soprano. That's what I solely practice. Classical guitar fingerpicking technique on a small fretboard.

It is a challenge and that's what pushes me onto uke. Other than that I have no other interest in it. The occasional forum visit, may be I'm compelled to post. I used to be all into a uke brand and collection and trying out different makes. You know what, I'm more interested in developing skill on a laminate makala than just strum on a kamaka.

Also, piano is my main passion. Everything about it.

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Oh , i like classical guitar too forgot to mention.
Can't be jus strummin on that ya know, lol

Choirguy said:

There has been a hint lately of a condescending tone towards people that "just" strum and sing. I would hope that isn't the case, as getting together to strum and sing is a central part of all of the ukulele jams I have attended and seen online. Furthermore, strumming inevitably leads to other things, such as playing with chord melody, finger picking, etc.

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I fingerpick, but wish I could strum and sing. I'm definitely not a singer, no matter how much I might want to be, and my fingers, after some injuries, limit what I can play, so many chords are out.

We might not all be playing the same styles or going in the same directions, but the reasons are many, (far beyond just what I mentioned), but I don't think I've seen people with a condescending tone towards any particular approach. Maybe I missed those posts, though, since I've been having technology issues on my end.

Glad to hear that you played for some vets. I'm sure they enjoyed it.

Rllink said:

I think that you underestimate the appreciation for your contributions. You shouldn't let a few snarkers stop you from sharing.

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I vote for what Rllink said above. OK music theory is something I normally find dry, difficult, baffling and boring; however if someone takes the time and trouble to try to post something useful about it then those that complain instead of just passing the topic by must surely be 'plonkers' and their comments near worthless.

They came to Clearwater! We just had over 20 beginners in a free workshop, then 20 more advanced beginners in the 2nd workshop, in one evening. And it was way under promoted.

Ubelele, I always enjoy your posts. The longer I play, the more I get out of them. I respect all the different paths that ukulele folks take. To each his own. Some folks want to dive deeper. Some want to splash about. Often folks will come back to the info when they reach a point where they feel a need for the info. It's like Booli's tech posts. Mostly they're over my head, but sometimes you come to a point where you need to know and how great is it that someone with that expertise shares solutions with you. That's the great thing about UU. You can enjoy it on whatever level you are at. I also get inspiration from watching other people playing, like the seasonistas. They expose me to music I may have forgotten or genres that I had not previously been exposed to. A tip here, a tip there, can lead you to places you never expected.

Debussychopin said:

Oh , i like classical guitar too forgot to mention.
Can't be jus strummin on that ya know, lol

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That sort of touched my funny bone, because it was my friend's classical guitar that scared me into playing the ukulele instead.

Rllink said:

That sort of touched my funny bone, because it was my friend's classical guitar that scared me into playing the ukulele instead.

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I started on classical in my late teens, never learned much beyond a few etudes, arpeggio patterns, and how to read a treble clef. I tried picking it back up a few times in my late 20s.

In 2008 I discovered ukulele and was in love with the entirety of the instrument. However I was living in a situation where I took a lot of grief for being happy about playing my ukes (and actually any little thing that made me happy got me stomped on). My mom let me play her Martin bari, but back then there wasn't much in the way of tabs that I was interested in for baritone, and she said I couldn't put GCEA tuning strings on because then she couldn't play it, but she never played it and seldom played her violins. I got so much grief for buying a soprano, a concert and a tenor because I wanted a shorter scale in standard tuning. She was also angry that I put her bari in a really nice hard case instead of the old original chipboard case, because it was valuable, and also earthquakes. Crazy people are so difficult.

When I moved the stress to pay rent put me in a job that had me at a keyboard 10 hours a day, so as much as I wanted to play more, it hurt! so I couldn't get up much momentum, but at least I enjoyed the forum. Then all the cool kids started leaving, and it wasn't as warm and fuzzy feeling. I lost a lot of my joy with ukulele for a lot of reasons, and went to Facebook to play stupid games and eventually took up guitar instead, since I realized I really wanted to play steel string acoustic, and I had switched to a better job and also made more money.

Then my mom died and everything I wanted to do took a back seat to cleaning up all the fallout from executing an estate for over a year, plus massive grief. Ukuleles still held little interest for me, even my guitars didn't sway the grief much and I'm studying acoustic blues, go figure.

I think life just keeps happening, not always so much in a good way for people, and they have to prioritize, and forum use is eliminated. Or people lurk for some distraction, but don't have the inclination to post.

I just renewed my UUU subscription, mostly to help the guys, and I have a couple of good ukes to try to get back to playing when my hands need a break from long scales and steel strings. I'll be selling off the rest on Craigslist this summer.

I really enjoy all the guitar forums, people are nice there, and I have yet to run into anyone making fun of ukulele, and I recognize a lot of old UU forum names in AGF, UMGF, etc., lol. But I use them for research or reference instead of social connection, like right now I'm looking for an OM cedar over rosewood Bedell with a cutaway. But I figure my time is better spent actually studying theory and technique and playing my instruments, instead of talking about playing them.

Sano and Tony and Booli and Kurt and Nickie and Marielle, great to see you posting!

A friend of mine retired and took up classical guitar, and when I retired he tried to get me to take it up as well. So I dug out my wife's guitar and hung around with him and his classical guitar friends for month or so. But after a month I decided that they called classical guitar a discipline for a reason. I'm to old for discipline, so I took up the ukulele instead.

Teek said:

I started on classical in my late teens...

In 2008 I discovered ukulele and was in love with the entirety of the instrument....

Sano and Tony and Booli and Kurt and Nickie and Marielle, great to see you posting!

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TK,

Thanks for telling your story. I wondered why you had not been on UU much over the past year.

I've missed reading your posts. I always learned something from your comments.

Sorry for your troubles. It's nice to see you posting again too, and thanks for the kind words.

Rllink said:

A friend of mine retired and took up classical guitar, and when I retired he tried to get me to take it up as well. So I dug out my wife's guitar and hung around with him and his classical guitar friends for month or so. But after a month I decided that they called classical guitar a discipline for a reason. I'm to old for discipline, so I took up the ukulele instead.

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Ha Ha - that reminds me of the joke of folks traveling down the road, and when they came to a fork in the road that said "bear left", (ba-dum-bum) - They went home....

Not that you gave up Rollie, so please dont take it the wrong way, I was alluding to quite the opposite - I've always enjoyed reading your comments here and glad that you are still here on UU.

Welcome back Teek! Glad you're overcoming.
I've missed your posts.

Rllink said:

A friend of mine retired and took up classical guitar, and when I retired he tried to get me to take it up as well. So I dug out my wife's guitar and hung around with him and his classical guitar friends for month or so. But after a month I decided that they called classical guitar a discipline for a reason. I'm to old for discipline, so I took up the ukulele instead.

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Ukulele is a discipline too I'm sure you already know. And there are some things on uke that is more difficult than done on classical guitar. I'm sure you know that already too.

Debussychopin said:

Ukulele is a discipline too I'm sure you already know. And there are some things on uke that is more difficult than done on classical guitar. I'm sure you know that already too.

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Yes, I'm sure that it is, if that is what you want it to be. I think however that the ukulele has a much broader application than classical guitar does. Anyway, I have a lot of fun playing the ukulele. I wanted to be able to play songs like Five Green and Speckled Frogs for kids, Sixties and seventies rock around the bon fire with my neighbors on summer evenings, and protest songs for my old retired hippie friends. It isn't that I thought that Classical guitar was not worthy or too much for me, it is just that classical guitar does not really lend itself to that.

Anyway, back to the original point of the thread, there were a number of people here when I first started who were out doing lots of gigs or busking, posting pictures of themselves and their equipment, talking about it, and most of them have moved on. They were actually applying their music and their talents, and that was the direction I wanted to go as well. I was getting a lot from their posts. I miss that. I realize that for many, their interest comes and goes and comes back again as life and other interests gets in the way. But the people I'm talking about were so involved with what they were doing that I find it hard to think that they just gave it up, so I wonder where they are now? Did they just decide that forums were not their thing? Did they find another forum to contribute? Did they start their own web pages? Did they all move to facebook, as someone suggested? Are they still here but have decided not to post anymore? I'm just wondering.

Rllink, I think forum interest can wax and wane as life gets in the way. I think they are still out there doing their ukulele thing, but just don't feel the urge to post. For me, it's like uke group participation. I sometimes tire of it. Playing songs I don't like much for the most part. When I've had enough for a bit, I take a sabbatical and hunker down and focus on my personal uke interests. So I'm still actively ukeing, just not participating in a particular aspect.

*fights way from dark odd closet*

Somewhere in the back of a strange very large closet with all the missing socks is where they all go...

*heads back to dark closet with large wheel of cheese*

I seem to remember that name, used to post regularly when I first joined up here, hope all is well with you.