Passing time without an actual ukulele

JessicaM

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Hi folks! I spend a whole lot of my day with a nursing baby on my lap. I can't fit a kid and a uke, so I'm left with a lot of time when I wish I could be practicing but instead I'm trawling the Internet.
Help me keep busy!
Aside from dreaming about fancy new instruments, what ukulele related stuff do those of you with instrument-free free time do? Ideally it'd be something that teaches me something, make me the tiniest bit better (a girl can dream), or inspires me -- but doesn't make me want to just buy stuff. I do listen to a lot of music, so that's something!


[edited to change "trolling the Internet" to "trawling the Internet." Let's hope this was not a Freudian slip!
 
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Hi Jessica, how about wearing a back to front papoose? Then when it's feeding time you can sling the uke around the back and bring baby to the front. Of course you would need to be standing up.
A useful way to while away some time might be to watch some uke tutorials and there are many great ukulele players who play different styles. James Hill has some brilliant master class stuff. Or you could trawl for particular tunes you want to learn and then save them for future reference.
 
Watching others is a good way to pick up ideas of what to try for yourself, online videos of people playing your kind of music, or tutorials, you don't always have to have a uke in your hands. :)

Also when you get time, whilst baby sleeps, you can weave a bit of thin plastic or cardboard through the strings next to the bridge, that will mute the strings so that you can practice strumming patterns, etc. ;)
 
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What about singing/humming the songs you play to your baby? If the songs don't have words, la-la-la or dum-deedle-dee will do. Perhaps you'll instill a love of music in the wee one, and keep the melodies fresh on your mind. You might even end up ad-libbing and create something new.
 
What about singing/humming the songs you play to your baby? If the songs don't have words, la-la-la or dum-deedle-dee will do. Perhaps you'll instill a love of music in the wee one, and keep the melodies fresh on your mind. You might even end up ad-libbing and create something new.

What a lovely idea! We definitely do a lot of singing and playing together (the wee one in question is nearly three! But she's not feeling great this week so it's a nurse-a-thin).
 
One thing I do is work up songs on my iPhone or iPad with the Guitar Toolkit app. You can explore chords and scales and save chord charts. Lots of times I come up with cool stuff that I can't actually play on the uke, so it pushes your playing skill and forces your composing/arranging to adapt to your playing level.
 
I'd use the time for rhythm training, e.g. with a metronome app on your phone or tablet, and some form of headphones.

While working through Bruce Emery's "Baritone Ukulele from Scratch" (excellent book, I'll write down my thoughts on it soon -- perhaps the best ukulele intro book I know, and he has a regular ukulele version of it too), I once more realized how poor my timing is. So now I went back to the basics and I'm spending a good amount of time practicing with a metronome, which you don't need an actual ukulele for (you can quietly clap or even count in your head).
 
I always spent a lot of time tabbing out instrumental parts for my uke, whenever I want to do an instrumental tune or play an intro to a song, trying to make an arrangement. If that makes sense for your way of playing, that is something you could spend time doing.

If you want to learn a particular song and browse the Internet for chords tabs etc, often you will only be able to find chords and sheet music for the melody line, like in a "fake book".
If you are a more serious than I am, and have practiced scales, you might have learned to read the sheet music easily without tabs. But I like to write down tabs to remember where the notes are at, and when to strum in between picking notes. This takes time.
 
I've been home since Christmas when me and my wife switched the parental leave, and in the beginning I could play alot more uke than now. Almost 7 months later my daughter is 14 months old and is all over the place. She easily climbs the sofa to play with the uke, so it's a bit hard to get practice time in!

Cherish this time, I will miss my daughter so much when I go back to work in 2 months :(...will take every other friday off for some father and daughter time, but it's not the same as being home everyday as I am now.

Not a whole lot of suggestions as what to do, but you can either listen to some music or read up on songs etc as mentioned by previous posters :).
 
How about some Flashcards? or a Flashcard app?

Pretty sure you could find all the topics below with a flashcard app. otherwise, get some 3x5 cards and a sharpie and make your own :):

-learn ALL the uke chords, and names of the notes, ALL OVER the fretboard

-learn a new language

-expand your vocabulary (Word-a-day)

-study some new recipes for dinner
 
Have the baby hold the uke and you can give hugs and strum at the same time.
Enjoy the baby. They grow quickly, ukes stay the same size. Not always so for the collection but that is different thread.
Congratulations on the baby. Hope you named it Little Kamaka.
Dan
 
Memorizing song lyrics maybe? I do that a lot. I don't pick up lyrics easily so I have to work at it, but I'm always learning new ones. In August my wife and I are heading down to our home in San Juan for a while. On the way we are going to stop off in New York City for a long weekend visiting our son. I have a ukulele here in Iowa, and a ukulele down in San Juan. So I'll be without ukulele for that weekend. My wife thinks that it will be the longest time that I have gone without playing my ukulele since I started over two years ago. We'll see if I survive the experience. I hope so.
 
-study some new recipes for dinner

I have so many recipes saved, I could make something new every night for the rest of my life!
I like the idea of flash cards. I wonder if I could memorize them well without putting my fingers on the actual neck? Worth a try!
 
I've been home since Christmas when me and my wife switched the parental leave, and in the beginning I could play alot more uke than now. Almost 7 months later my daughter is 14 months old and is all over the place. She easily climbs the sofa to play with the uke, so it's a bit hard to get practice time in!

Cherish this time

I do cherish it! But this little nursling is nearly 3 years old, and sometimes I'm just trapped under her for a nap & I get b.o.r.e.d.! Even so, I'm sure I'll want a lot of this sleeping kid time back when it's gone!
 
I have so many recipes saved, I could make something new every night for the rest of my life!
I like the idea of flash cards. I wonder if I could memorize them well without putting my fingers on the actual neck? Worth a try!

Maybe memorize the circle of fifths? Every note on the fretboard?
 
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