Hello from Seattle WA

itsmemattchung

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Location
Seattle, WA
Hey Everyone,
I'm Matt and I'm 29 and currently living in Seattle (Washington), where I work at Amazon as a software engineer and where I live with my wife and our two fur children: Metric (German Shepherd) and Mushroom (a mini Australian) shepherd. I had picked up the ukulele close to two years ago, when I wanted to surprise my then girlfriend (now wife) by proposing to her while singing and playing the ukulele. I was able to learn (through a series of YouTube videos) just enough basics—four major chords and island strum–to play "Can't help falling in Love" by Elvis.

maxella me uke.jpg

Fast forward two years later.

I had noticed my ukulele collecting dust in the corner of my bedroom and I decided to pick it back up after being asked 2 months ago by my wife to play at our wedding (a month ago). I was a bit rusty, so I found a local ukulele instructor who helped me practice "Lean on me", the song that I strummed and sang with my family on the day of our wedding.

Now that the wedding is over, I decided to continue learning the ukulele, taking weekly 1 on 1 lessons with the same instructor. In addition to these lessons, I've invested in reading some books on music theory (music theory[1] opened my eyes and ears up to understanding what I'm actually doing) but also the watching videos and practicing lessons from ukuleleunderground.com (I signed up for UU+).

Looking forward to learning the ukulele!



[1] My first introduction to music theory was through a YouTube channel called Michael New: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNBiLBQrKrnvwcVRD5fS8aA
 
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Howdy!

I used to live in Seattle (Ballard) and loved it. I'm in the UK now and even run a uke fest (northernuke.com).
Every time I get back to Seattle, I take my uke to nerdy places like Golden Gardens or Gasworks Park to play.

I am also a MASSIVE fan of Dusty Strings in Fremont. They have such great instruments and strings. They've always hooked me up with what I need.

Anywho - WELCOME!
great to see you here on UU.

Mary Agnes Krell
american nerd in England
 
Welcome!

I used to live on Queen Anne hill and then on Phinney Ridge overlooking the lake. Still a bit homesick for Seattle. Great to have you in the forums!

Victor
 
Howdy!

I used to live in Seattle (Ballard) and loved it. I'm in the UK now and even run a uke fest (northernuke.com).
Every time I get back to Seattle, I take my uke to nerdy places like Golden Gardens or Gasworks Park to play.

What a small world! Looks like you and I swapped places—just before moving to Seattle, I was living in London (New Malden), where my wife was born and raised. We'll be out there this Christmas so I'll check out your website; would be awesome to play some ukulele with others while I'm out there.


Howdy!
I am also a MASSIVE fan of Dusty Strings in Fremont. They have such great instruments and strings. They've always hooked me up with what I need.

I've never heard of Dusty Strings but Fremont is only about a 10 minute drive from our house so I'll be sure to check them out since I'm looking for a ukulele shop to upgrade my Ukulele that I've had for the last couple years.
 
Welcome!

Still a bit homesick for Seattle.

Victor

I definitely feel more at home, here in Seattle.

I checked your about me page and it looks like you are now living in Los Angeles; I used to work in Santa Monica and Sherman Oaks for many years. Hopefully the weather is cooling down back home.
 
Learning Ben E King's Stand by me by following the lesson's from ukuleleunderground.com UU+ website.

Here it is:

 
Great ukulele story!
I love Seattle, though I haven't visited in years.
Welcome to the forum.
 
I was just in Seattle on vacation in July. A lovely place. We stumbled upon Dusty Strings after finding the Fremont Troll (which was also very cool).
Check out Uncle Rod / STRUM
 
Check out Uncle Rod / STRUM

I googled for Uncle Rod and the top hit that surfaced in the results was "Uncle Rod's Ukulele Bootcamp"[1]. But this didn't seem like the correct page since there's no obvious connection to Seattle. So after some additional searching, I think I found the page you are referring to: Seattle's Totally Realxed Ukulele Musicians[2]. Is this correct? This group looks pretty active and I'm bummed out that I missed their last event for the summer that occurred two days ago.

[1] Uncle Rod's Ukulele Bootcamp
[2] STRUM
 
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