Hello everybody, and hope you don't mind my browsing your forums occasionally.
I'm 49 and mostly played guitar on and off since my teens, firstly electric, and then as I became older a bit of finger style, Dobro, Banjo, Steel, etc, and about 8 years ago, I completely lost interest, and stopped (long story).
So, being a bit of a tech, I spent some time buying old beat up guitars, and restoring them, in the hope that my interest in playing would return, but sadly, it never did, and I just ended up with a gazillion guitars sat gathering dust.
I'd had Ukuleles that I'd never looked at twice. One an old George Formby Ukulele Banjo, which I'd had as a kid that was my Grandads, and an old solid wood Sweetone both from around the 60's, and restored both out of curiosity.
Then I saw a Kala Tenor KA-FMTE-C for sale that had a bit of damage, and thought "I could fix that" so I contacted what turned out to be a wonderful guy, and he wanted decent money for it. When you have so many guitars, they become currency, so I offered him a choice of several, and he accepted, and that was how I became a Ukulele player.
I started by downloading PDF's of old 1920's & 30's songs, and various Jazz standards, and enjoyed the chord movement a lot, so the next step was to try and play the thing like a Ukulele, not a guitar, so I jumped on to Youtube, and studied how to play various right hand techniques.
I'm still not completely hooked, as I run my own website, which takes up my time, but my Uke is sat next to me during the day, and it gets picked up quite a lot, especially of a night time when the family is in bed.
The important thing is that it's got me playing 'something' again, which has to be a good thing, but I'm still to overcome the lost interest, so it's an occasional thing, as opposed to the many hours a day I used to practise years ago.
The hardest part was not having bass strings, as you'd think having 4, instead of 6, would be easier, but it was actually harder, as it took me completely out of my comfort zone, as did the octave string, and the '5 frets up' but over time, I've managed to get my head around it, and have been able to apply a lot of guitar knowledge once I realised it was the same. Bit of a sore knuckle on my Index finger from bad strumming technique, but other than that I'm enjoying it a lot.
Bottom line is it just makes me happy when I play it.
On the guitar, I was always pushing myself to be better, which gets a bit exhausting after a while, and at some point you have to go with what you have as life is too short, but with the Uke, I don't feel any of that. It doesn't take up much space either which is handy.
I need to stop buying them though, as I can get a bit obsessive and spend more time looking for them on Ebay than I do playing them, which has to stop ha ha. I've about 6 at the last count, but the Kala is my favourite.
I won't be on here 'a lot' but hope it's ok to jump on now and then, and embrace something a bit different, that is the amazing Ukulele.
Hope my waffling hasn't bored you, and speak again soon hopefully.
I'm 49 and mostly played guitar on and off since my teens, firstly electric, and then as I became older a bit of finger style, Dobro, Banjo, Steel, etc, and about 8 years ago, I completely lost interest, and stopped (long story).
So, being a bit of a tech, I spent some time buying old beat up guitars, and restoring them, in the hope that my interest in playing would return, but sadly, it never did, and I just ended up with a gazillion guitars sat gathering dust.
I'd had Ukuleles that I'd never looked at twice. One an old George Formby Ukulele Banjo, which I'd had as a kid that was my Grandads, and an old solid wood Sweetone both from around the 60's, and restored both out of curiosity.
Then I saw a Kala Tenor KA-FMTE-C for sale that had a bit of damage, and thought "I could fix that" so I contacted what turned out to be a wonderful guy, and he wanted decent money for it. When you have so many guitars, they become currency, so I offered him a choice of several, and he accepted, and that was how I became a Ukulele player.
I started by downloading PDF's of old 1920's & 30's songs, and various Jazz standards, and enjoyed the chord movement a lot, so the next step was to try and play the thing like a Ukulele, not a guitar, so I jumped on to Youtube, and studied how to play various right hand techniques.
I'm still not completely hooked, as I run my own website, which takes up my time, but my Uke is sat next to me during the day, and it gets picked up quite a lot, especially of a night time when the family is in bed.
The important thing is that it's got me playing 'something' again, which has to be a good thing, but I'm still to overcome the lost interest, so it's an occasional thing, as opposed to the many hours a day I used to practise years ago.
The hardest part was not having bass strings, as you'd think having 4, instead of 6, would be easier, but it was actually harder, as it took me completely out of my comfort zone, as did the octave string, and the '5 frets up' but over time, I've managed to get my head around it, and have been able to apply a lot of guitar knowledge once I realised it was the same. Bit of a sore knuckle on my Index finger from bad strumming technique, but other than that I'm enjoying it a lot.
Bottom line is it just makes me happy when I play it.
On the guitar, I was always pushing myself to be better, which gets a bit exhausting after a while, and at some point you have to go with what you have as life is too short, but with the Uke, I don't feel any of that. It doesn't take up much space either which is handy.
I need to stop buying them though, as I can get a bit obsessive and spend more time looking for them on Ebay than I do playing them, which has to stop ha ha. I've about 6 at the last count, but the Kala is my favourite.
I won't be on here 'a lot' but hope it's ok to jump on now and then, and embrace something a bit different, that is the amazing Ukulele.
Hope my waffling hasn't bored you, and speak again soon hopefully.
