My 2017 Ukulele Journey

Thanks for opening this, Brenda. Wonderful topic idea. Dasoul, I'd love to see some of your work.
2017 was the beginning of performances in ALFs by our ensemble, the Ladies of Uke. We lost two of the original members, one quit (we are still friends), and one disappeared mysteriously. Drama, drama. We picked up a new member. We've played several open mics, and three private parties. and a library fund raiser. Our rehearsals in one another's homes has helped us form a stronger bond, we were all friends before TBUS. We began to use iPad for songs rather than paper music sheets.
We've learned a lot about collaborating and listening to each other.
In 2017, myself being liaison, TBUS began to form a relationship with the UKC, which I believe might be our most important one. This year I found out what hard work it is to put on a successful ukulele festival. I became the official new member greeter for TBUS. We started our new MUM (Making Ukulele Music) kids summer camps with the library system, in which I got to volunteer. TBUS became a sponsor of WMNF's Uke It Out, a one day festival of ukulele madness and mayhem, which raised over $4600 for the radio station. We also put on the John Lennon birthday tribute concert which raised over $1200 for Metropolitan Ministries.
And I actually wrote two songs worth performing!
And after 3 years, we ended our Saturday Evening Jam Session. It was way too much work.

2018 will involve real work in a pilot program with the UKC, more performances, setting up a practice studio, and maybe adding a 5th member to the Ladies of Uke. I'm planning to progress my chord melody and Campanella skills.

I wish all of you a wonderful holiday season!
 
Thanks for opening this, Brenda. Wonderful topic idea. Dasoul, I'd love to see some of your work.
2017 was the beginning of performances in ALFs by our ensemble, the Ladies of Uke. We lost two of the original members, one quit (we are still friends), and one disappeared mysteriously. Drama, drama. We picked up a new member. We've played several open mics, and three private parties. and a library fund raiser. Our rehearsals in one another's homes has helped us form a stronger bond, we were all friends before TBUS. We began to use iPad for songs rather than paper music sheets.
We've learned a lot about collaborating and listening to each other.
In 2017, myself being liaison, TBUS began to form a relationship with the UKC, which I believe might be our most important one. This year I found out what hard work it is to put on a successful ukulele festival. I became the official new member greeter for TBUS. We started our new MUM (Making Ukulele Music) kids summer camps with the library system, in which I got to volunteer. TBUS became a sponsor of WMNF's Uke It Out, a one day festival of ukulele madness and mayhem, which raised over $4600 for the radio station. We also put on the John Lennon birthday tribute concert which raised over $1200 for Metropolitan Ministries.
And I actually wrote two songs worth performing!
And after 3 years, we ended our Saturday Evening Jam Session. It was way too much work.

2018 will involve real work in a pilot program with the UKC, more performances, setting up a practice studio, and maybe adding a 5th member to the Ladies of Uke. I'm planning to progress my chord melody and Campanella skills.

I wish all of you a wonderful holiday season!

Wow! I wish I lived near Tampa Bay! Or you and all your friends lived near me. What a great ukulele year for all of you.
 
Some very nice lookin ukes, dasoul. I especially like the last one, the double bout uke....nice wood.
 
I received a ukulele as a gift in about July of 2016 and it sat in the house for about a year before I finally got around to trying it. So 2017 has really been the start of my uke journey. I was really lucky to find a ukulele circle that meets over lunch just 2 blocks from my work so I've been really enjoying joining them once a week. It's a great and fun break in the middle of the day, and the middle of the week. A new ukulele is currently in shipping on it's way for me and I'm looking forward to trying to private lessons in the new year. I'm really looking forward to continuing to learn and improve on the uke, and I really appreciate having music back in my life. (I was a trumpet player for 15 years, but stopped a decade ago.)

Best of luck to everyone for 2018!
 
I have been teaching ukulele to a friend of mine last 14 months. We really enjoy it. He improve very fast. We've done 3 chord melodies. Now he is practicing Old Black Joe. I am strummer on my guitar and ukulele but it is very good opportunity to learn and play solos to me too.
 
Very unique looking ukes you got there! Were they built by you?

Thank you. Yes, I built them. As I mentioned earlier in the thread, my ukulele journey in 2017 has involved getting my feet wet with building. It has been a lot of fun and very rewarding trying something new and learning more with each instrument.
 
Here's a link to an album I've been putting together as I go. I'm always looking for feedback. I'd love to hear any you may have.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fkkeyrtlxyzzdzc/AADv2_sasWLjyWz0Mzq8dDMxa?dl=0

Creative and beautiful. What woods did you use on the last one? Have you done a lot of woodworking before? I'm impressed. I would think it's hard to get the bending and slicing the tops down. Don't know if they're solid woods, laminates or both, but they are really pretty and the designs are creative. I really like the tuning peg setups on a couple of them just because they're different.
 
Creative and beautiful. What woods did you use on the last one? Have you done a lot of woodworking before? I'm impressed. I would think it's hard to get the bending and slicing the tops down. Don't know if they're solid woods, laminates or both, but they are really pretty and the designs are creative. I really like the tuning peg setups on a couple of them just because they're different.

Thank you. The last one is Cherry wood for the body; Maple for the neck; and Walnut for the binding, fretboard, bridge and tuner pegheads. Woodworking has been another hobby for a few years, so I'm definitely comfortable with it, but I had never attempted making an instrument until about a year ago. Bending the wood and getting everything down thin definitely takes some trying (I'm still learning a lot, but tips on this forum and from other builders on YouTube have been invaluable). It took me quite a while to get up the nerve to actually try bending. I kind of baby-stepped my way along from solid-body to the semi-hollow tahitian style, to actual acoustic ukes. They're all solid wood. It's a lot easier for me to get some solid hardwood than finding laminate thin enough to work with.
 
July 2017 - Went on vacation in Ocean City NJ with the family. On a lark, purchased a $65 Kala soprano ukulele (my first uke) from a shop on the boardwalk. Spent the rest of my vacation fiddling around with it.

September 2017 - Two months had passed, and I just could not stop fiddling with the damn thing. Noticed I had been neglecting my keyboards--hadn't touched a keyboard in two months.

October 2017 - Bought a nicer ukulele: the Ohana CK-39, a concert-size Martin S3 clone. Cast aside the cheap Kala as it had been outclassed in every measure. Began taking a more methodical approach to ukulele by drawing up a lesson plan. I guess this is where my relationship with uke became serious.

December 2017 - Now own 5 ukuleles: 3 sopranos, a concert, and a tenor!!! More are on the way. Frequently cannot decide which to play. Have not touched keyboards in six months. Maybe I have a problem?

Looking forward to 2018: Looking to discover a couple (two or maybe three) ukes that I really like and connect with to continue my studies. Hoping to unload the others and recoup some of my losses as I will soon have more ukuleles than I can possibly regularly use. Considering finding an instructor. Progress has been good so far, but I know that nothing beats learning from a master. Also, need to go back and burnish some keyboard skills at some point...
 
Well the Sig says it all. I decided to humor my wife back in July when she decided she was interested in ukuleles. We now have 19. Many favorites but all are enjoyed and played hours each day. Looking forward to learning more and having so much fun doing it together.
 
2017 was a pretty good ukulele year. I acquired a Pono Pro Classic bari a few years ago that I string re-entrant and it is still my main "Baby"

My wife and I were attending some Cleveland uke groups but they have dwindled down to a single meeting a month and on a workday, so sometimes difficult to attend.

We attended the Allegheny Ukulele Soiree again this year in Pennsylvania and I recommend it as we always have a great time.

In the Spring I helped organize a toy and book collection at work and to draw attention to our donation table I played uke in the lobby a few times during the week - I tend to play pretty mellow music, and people seemed to really enjoy walking in to work and hearing some music.

In the summer my daughter visited from the Peace Corp to attend her best friend's wedding - I ended up providing the music for the outdoor ceremony using "Baby" and a Loudbox Mini. The rooster that was dueling me during rehearsal didn't show for the ceremony, to my great relief. Some bees replaced it however and we came close to some "discordant" sounds as a result.

While volunteering on the route of the Akron Marathon, a couple walked up, pulled out their ukes and starting strumming and singing to entertain the runners and the audience. I chatted them up and discovered that there are 2 new uke groups right here in Akron (10 minutes from work). We have attended both groups and met some wonderful people since then. Life can be amazing at times.

Not long afterwards, Jake came to Cleveland and at his concert (2nd year in a row) we met that same couple from the Marathon again.

My Christmas concert this year was as part of "Tred Zeppelin", the employee band for the Goodyear Christmas Party - quite a production with drums, bass, 6-string and 12-string guitar, ukulele, clarinet, flute and 10 singers. It's always fun to play in a bigger group.

My last "public" performance of 2017 is a real tradition at work. On the last workday before the holiday break - a day I refer to as "the day when there are no grown-ups at work" - I take my uke in and play instrumental songs (a lot of Christmas carols and other mellow stuff) as mood music. On this day a Management rep will eventually appear and give us the "magic handshake" that means we can go home early. I always seem to be one of the last people to get the handshake and this year they admitted that it's because they are enjoying the music.

One of the uke groups that we just joined has a public performance in January. On their playlist is "Stand By Me". I got a good deal on a U-bass earlier in the year, but I don't know anything about playing bass. I have learned the famous bass line to this song however, and I will play U-bass for "stand by me" at our performance, because that song just isn't right without that bass line. For the rest of the performance, I'll play "Baby".

For next year, I'd like to learn enough about playing bass to be able to wander into a uke group, be given a chord sheet I've never seen before, and be able to play a simple bass line to it. I think this is the biggest contribution I can probably make to the uke groups.

I hope you all are enjoying your uke(s) as much as we are!!

sopher
 
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