The Moment You Fell in Love with the Uke

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Ukettante

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For me, it was 2 a.m. last night, or this morning. Couldn't sleep, so I thought I might as well get up and work through Uncle Rod's chord bootcamp and cram all those chords into my brain ASAP so I can do what I really want with the uke. After cycling through the chords in several keys, I began to experiment with chord shapes up the neck and the scale attached to each, and bam! Before I knew it I was improvising using a blues scale, milking the flatted third. I couldn't believe the wail coming out of the tiny soprano—it is a veritable blues machine! That was the moment I fell in love with the uke.
 
Early March of 2014 approx. 3:30pm. I was flipping channels on a snowny Sunday afternoon when I came upon the documentary channel showing this program about the uke. I was mesmerized, goob smacked and in awe, had no idea the ukulele could sound that good. The uke was not on my radar, I didn't even know it had four strings.

The program was "The Mighty Uke" and within two weeks I had bought a uke, taken a group lesson and attended two uke jams. Yea....... I was in love.
 
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I was at a gig playing my guitar. The guy that came on after me pulled out a soprano and joked about being the biggest guy in the room with the smallest instrument (he was a big lad). Clamped a capo on the fifth fret of my guitar that night, bought my first Uke 2 days later. Then had to drive for hours to join a uke group miles away, so started my own group. Then I needed everybody in the group to be on the same page playing the same thing at the same time, so started authoring Karaukey songs. Wow, what a journey, wouldn't have missed it for the world.
 
Bought a cheap Kala soprano uke during a trip to Hawaii just as a mantle piece souvenir. One night after a couple beers, I picked it up and strummed it just for a cheap laugh (I have had zero music background) and the light bulb turned on in my head. That was it... hooked.
 
DownUpDave said:
I was mesmerized, goob smacked and in awe,
Click to expand...


Were you gobsmaked or goob smaked? There is a big difference. BIG!

gobsmack-
Completely dumbfounded, shocked. From the Irish word "gob" meaning "mouth".
goob smack-
When you get smacked in the face with a penis whilst passed out or awake it is the tag you earn.

(Please take this light-heartedly. I am an English nerd by trade and I am sure you meant gobsmaked; I just thought it was a very fun misspelling.)

Oh, and to stay on topic.
I would say I really fell in love with uke a few months ago when I was working on Beethoven's "Fur Elise" and I was able to 'make it my own' by creating a Spanish variation.
Johnson
=)
 
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My first uke was a used Fender tenor that was an impulse buy. A couple of days after I got it I finally had a chance to sit down and learn a couple of chords. Next thing I knew it was 2AM and I had learned at least 5 songs, 3 of which I still play on a regular basis. It was pretty immediate for me because I've always been more of a song guy than a technique guy.
 
To the member who complained to the mods about a certain post in this thread, I'm afraid there is no rule explicitly prohibiting poor taste/judgement - especially if no malice or insult was intended.
 
Well, I wouldn't use the term "love" to describe how I feel about ukuleles, but for me, it has been more of a gradual thing. No epiphany, so to speak.
 
Make note of when you fall in love and repost. :)

I kinda love my ukulele...I will love it when I can get through a song competently and make anther person smile instead of cringe.
 
Mine was Christmas Eve 2013. Picked up a toy ukulele and never looked back.
 
November 2013.

I was looking for something to fill my life with some joy. I sent out a prayer ... had a feeling I would play Spanish guitar ...

Then I heard Jake Shimabukuro play on YouTube: Hallelujah, and My Guitar Gently Weeps.

I wept with joy.

And my journey began.
 
Summer family trip to the Big Island a few years ago. While staying at the Fairmont Orchid and slightly(?) under the spell of a full day of mai-tai and rums, I sat in the lobby to watch the sunset while being serenaded by a small uke ensemble. On their break I entered into conversation with one of them, a lovely gal who asked if I'd like to play along with them. She handed me a spare and taught me 4 chords. Being a bass player I was comfortable enough with 4 strings and was able to manage a rudimentary strum pattern. I stood there and played along as best I could....I was hooked from that moment on.
Now. many ukes later......
 
A small question, in the case when I would fall in love with one of these wood piece: is a ukulele a "she" or a "he" ?
I have to be prepared in the case when it would be a he...
 
Ukettante said:
For me, it was 2 a.m. last night, or this morning. Couldn't sleep, so I thought I might as well get up and work through Uncle Rod's chord bootcamp and cram all those chords into my brain ASAP so I can do what I really want with the uke. After cycling through the chords in several keys, I began to experiment with chord shapes up the neck and the scale attached to each, and bam! Before I knew it I was improvising using a blues scale, milking the flatted third. I couldn't believe the wail coming out of the tiny soprano—it is a veritable blues machine! That was the moment I fell in love with the uke.
Click to expand...

For me it was the first time I saw one wearing a bikini.
 
I also wouldn't say "in love", but certainly enthralled. June of 2013 I bought a Mahalo soprano (learned about sizes later) Fender Telecaster style uke on a whim, I recently bought a Telecaster guitar (played guitar almost 50 years) and thought the uke would look cute hanging next to the guitar. About a week later I received a postcard from the Los Angeles Music Center announcing the annual summer play-along series, which I attended in the past for guitar, this time it was ukulele. Hey, I thought, I have a ukulele now, so why not attend? I got online to learn about playing a uke and found Jake doing "Bohemian Rhapsody" and the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain doing a show in Germany. That was it, hooked.
 
I ordered my first uke on an impulse buy: Stupid Deal Of the Day on the Musician's Friend website. It was a Lanikai spalted mango tenor that listed for about $600 and was $220 that day.It looked great and then I thought about How someday I'd get to Hawaii and bring home a uke as a souvenir. Bottom line, I thought, "Why wait?"

When I opened that box, I fell in love. It was that beautiful. And I was in love. It was love at first look.
 
There are three crtitical events for me, in order:

1. December 12, 2012, 1:38am, when I first saw a video of Jake Shimabukuro's TED Talk, where he plays Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody'.

2. Then again the next day when I saw a video of James Hill perform Michael Jackson's 'Billie Jean'.

3. Nail in the coffin was then the following day after that when I saw several videos of John King playing on his 'Nalu Music' YT channel.

I've been hopelessly (and happily) obsessed with all things ukulele ever since. Fixated even. This instrument dominates all my thinking and often it feels like 'real life' interferes with my enjoyment/listening/learning/practice and playing of the ukulele. I don’t want a cure for this affliction. Kill me first! LOL. :shaka:
 
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