first experience...

Our family had a cheap soprano in the house when I was a kid. I learned "5 foot 2" and that was about it. The uke disappeared sometime when I was growing up.

Around 2001, I bought an old baritone and tried tuning it gCEA and hated the sound. When I took it back, the shop was reluctant to take it back. I spied a new Martin S-O on the wall and told them I would "trade up" for it.

Then I met my future wife and got married. Because we like to stay around the house (we rarely venture out), I had a ready-made hobby. I joined our church band and then the obsession began. <dramatic chord>

Currently I own 16 ukuleles. :uhoh:

My first experience with a 'ukulele was when I took a beginner's 'ukulele class at the local YMCA here in Hawaii since I was bored and I had summer vacation for 3 months since I was still in high schoool (I'm 32 now). Someone had loan me their 'ukulele for the class. I loved it so much that I wanted to get back into playing the 'ukulele now. I just love the sound of it.

emailed guting 1000 times asking him how to play it and why my fingers used to get stuck in the strings.

UkuLeLesReggAe said:

emailed guting 1000 times asking him how to play it and why my fingers used to get stuck in the strings.

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I'd love to read some of those email exchanges.

ohhh man...my first experience with a ukulele, i honestly dont remember. I used to play bass in this reggae band, and one of the kids in the band randomly bouught a cheap soprano uke for like 40 bucks or something. He brought it to school one day. In our music theory class, we had this retarded project to work on, and me and him went into one of the practice rooms and i picked it up, asked how it was tuned, and figured out a few chords, and immediately i wanted one for myself! It just so happened my birthday was coming up, soooo with a few bucks from my birthday stash, i ordered a (decent in my book) lanikai tenor uke, and i looooooooooove it

deach said:

I'd love to read some of those email exchanges.

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haha, whys that?

UkuLeLesReggAe said:

haha, whys that?

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because Guting is a PIMP! He says more in one word than a lot of people say in a paragraph.

deach said:

because Guting is a PIMP! He says more in one word than a lot of people say in a paragraph.

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haha true, he made me learn how to play uke actually.. how to strum etc

My first experience with a ukulele began with a charango. I had seen buskers playing charangos in the Mexican city of Zihuatanejo and spoken to a couple of them about their instruments. I was intrigued enough to want to learn, so I ordered one from a Bolivian seller on eBay. Since it took about a month to arrive, I decided I would get a cheap uke to practice with, then just add the extra string course to my fingering when the charango arrived.

I didn't want a $30 throw-away, so I went onto eBay to find something a bit better. But when I saw the really nice instruments available, I ended up spending a LOT more than I had planned, and got a beautiful spruce-top Kala tenor. I was so delighted with it and had so much fun playing it that when the charango arrived, I wasn't really interested any more.

I played it a bit, and went back to the uke. I sold the charango a few weeks later and started buying other ukuleles. Over the last couple of months, I haven't touched a guitar, flute or Strumstick (sold that, too). Just ukuleles. Obsessed, I am.