Anyone here play the uke because it’s easier than guitar or piano?

Kimosabe

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Anyone here play the uke because it’s easier than guitar or piano?

No, of course that’s not the reason I play uke. Just thought I’d ask this April 1 question to get you all up in arms and excited and ready to leave your comments.
 
Yes, with some age related hand issues popping up now, playing uke is much easier for me than guitar. In fact, until today, I hadn't played my guitars since December, and boy, the guitar fingerboard is much bigger and harder to navigate accurately now. I'm in the process of selling most of my electric guitars and amps. Hopefully, I'll be able to play ukes until NCD (New Coffin Day), which I won't be posting about :D
 
Yes, I decided to play the ukulele because it was easier to haul around than a guitar or a piano. Seriously, I never thought about learning to play piano, but I was going to play guitar. But then I found the ukulele and it would do everything that I wanted to do with the guitar and it was much easier and less hassle to transport around, so I went with the ukulele instead.
 
Anyone here play the uke because it’s easier than guitar or piano?

No, of course that’s not the reason I play uke. Just thought I’d ask this April 1 question to get you all up in arms and excited and ready to leave your comments.

I would say convenience over ease.. piano is actually a bit easier to get started on but a lot harder to keep at it as it not really portable.
 
I played guitar for almost fifty years, then about six years ago I bought a ukulele on a whim because it looked like my Fender Telecaster electric guitar and thought it would be cute as a wall hanger next to it. A couple of weeks later I got a postcard from the Los Angeles Music Center for their summer Play-Along seminars, which I had attended a couple of times for guitar, but this time it was for ukulele. Since I had one, I participated in the three Saturdays for six hours each day. that was all I needed to be convinced to go ukulele.

In the fifty years playing guitar, I bought four, in the six years playing uke and bass uke, I have thirty four, that should tell you where I am comparatively, I haven't touched my guitars since, so I gave my nephew my Telecaster and an Ibanez archtop jazz and I'm planning to sell an Ibanez exotic wood 6 string and an Ovation Applause 12 string.


This is Michael Kohan in Los Angeles, Beverly West near the Beverly Center
9 tenor cutaway ukes, 5 acoustic bass ukes, 11 solid body bass ukes, 9 mini electric bass guitars (Total: 34)

• Donate to The Ukulele Kids Club, they provide ukuleles to children in hospital music therapy programs. www.theukc.org
• Member The CC Strummers: YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/CCStrummers/video, Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheCCStrummers
 
Well, with only 4 strings, it's a much better match to my hand than guitar or piano, but the uke is cheaper than both of those, so it might have gone through my mind..........& of course it's cute. ;)
 
I play the ukulele because it is easier :)

And more convenient.
I actually fooled around with piano/keyboard and guitar before buying an ukulele. Learned only a few tunes on each after years of rarely taking it up. With i ukulele learning new chords is easier than on guitar.
And a keyboard doesnt have the charm of a piano, which is too big and noisy for many homes.

With the Ukulele you can have an acoustic instrument which is small, can be strummed at a low er volume than playing a piano, and is great for simple arrangements.
 
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I play the ukulele because it is easier :)

And more convenient.
I actually fooled around with piano/keyboard and guitar before buying an ukulele. Learned only a few tunes on each after years of rarely taking it up. With i ukulele learning new chords is easier than on guitar.
And a keyboard doesnt have the charm of a piano, which is too big and noisy for many homes.

With the Ukulele you can have an acoustic instrument which is small, can be strummed at a low er volume than playing a piano, and is great for simple arrangements.

There is an open mic that I do twice a month at this little coffee shop where everyone is on top of everyone, and this guy shows up every time with a huge keyboard and a stand for it. He always shows up late, I think he comes after work and that makes him late, he drags it in, props it up in the back, and he is usually one of the last to play. So when it is his turn he has to hold it up over his head and he carries up front, then go back and get the stand, and then set it all up. Honestly, I feel sorry for the guy. He loves playing the keyboard, he makes up his own songs and sings them, but his setup is such a pain in the butt for him. I'm sure though, it is all worth it to him, but I watch him and I am tankful that all I have to carry up there is a ukulele.
 
Yes, with some age related hand issues popping up now, playing uke is much easier for me than guitar. In fact, until today, I hadn't played my guitars since December, and boy, the guitar fingerboard is much bigger and harder to navigate accurately now. I'm in the process of selling most of my electric guitars and amps. Hopefully, I'll be able to play ukes until NCD (New Coffin Day), which I won't be posting about :D

I'm with you. I just started uke about a year ago and can even handle the tenor uke I'd originally bought. The concert just fits better. Don't show vids of 6 yo shredding guitars. My fingers just aren't going to stretch like that (besides, my hands are probably about the same size lol).
 
I took guitar class as well as keyboard for my Music Ed Degree. My main instrument was trumpet. I have absolutely no interest in guitar. I play keyboard fairly well but play almost exclusively by ear. If I was going to learn another instrument it would be bass.
 
I tried to make music with a guitar but had pretty much abandoned it before I even picked up a ukulele. Yes, part of the reason I play a uke is because it's easier to play and I like the size much better. For me, a guitar was work to play and the ukulele is a joy to play.
 
After trying to play an acoustic guitar for a couple of weeks at the age of seventeen, I soon decided that six sttrings are too much for me, and I bought a bass guitar. After spendng some 20 years with an electric bass and a few years with a double bass, I found another instrument that still has the correct number of strings (for me), but doesn‘t need electricity, is much easier to carry, and much more fun to sing to. You might have guessed what I‘m talking about.

And I‘m completely with kohanmike: in about twenty years of bass playing, I bought three basses, of which I still own two. In exactly eight years of playing the uke I bought about thirty, of which I still own about fifteen to twenty.
 
I played piano in the 4th grade then guitar off and on over the years and mandolin for 3-4 years. I'm in my 50's and hadn't picked up an instrument in over 10 years when I bought a laminate uke about 2 years ago. I can play lots of chords and songs now, still not much of a picker, and it's lots of fun - particularly the two uke meetups I participate in around Nashville. Also bought two nicer, mid-level ukes so it's very enjoyable and I don't get so discouraged if I don't pick it up for a few days. I hope to be able to play at church eventually if they can find a spot for me.
 
Aloha Kimosabe!
Hope to see you around sometime!
 
Easy is great advantage of this instrument. I recommend ukulele even he is very old. I say that ukulele is easy and you can play. I don't talk about ukulele without "easy" to my friends. I teach a friend of mine last two years. He is about 60 year old. He has no music experience before. He is enjoy learning ukulele and now ukulele is a part of his life. I still play guitar rather than ukulele but I love ukulele.
 
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I originally learned music and theory through formal piano lessons, taken at a young age. Then came clarinet, and finally trumpet, my original "axe", which I studied for ~12 years and went to school for (currently work in the wine biz, so you see how well that paid off :p)

I had tried to teach myself guitar years ago, but was overwhelmed by the necessary dexterity. Despite having 10+ years of piano under my belt, where both hands were using all fingers to do different things simultaneously, I could not manage more than a few simple chords and strums on the guitar, so I told myself strings just weren't for me and wrote it off as a distraction from the trumpet.

Then my wife, who claimed to be 'musically challenged', discovered she had a knack for the ukulele. I bought her a nice solid-wood travel Kala concert, and watched her musical learning take off. Her learning was put on hold, however, when she became pregnant and I picked up her uke to noodle around with. Now I'm the one obsessed with these darn things, and I don't think she has touched that Kala since.

Whether the uke is truly easier for me than guitar or piano, or just more fun to play and therefore something I want to practice more, I don't know. What I do know is that I still can't read tab to save my damn life...for someone who spent their entire musical career reading notation like a normal person, it might as well be Egyptian hieroglyphics being translated and read in ancient Olmec to me.

Getting back to "why the uke", I'm sure it is a similar answer as to why I chose the trumpet all those years ago: because it is a rightfully unapologetically fun freaking instrument to wail on! :nana:
 
Absolutely!! I've dabbled on and off with a harmonica over the years was actually thinking about getting back into them after a several decade lay off.....also had a guitar 30+- years ago but I left in the land I lived it at the time and never looked back.....never really got past a couple of cords.......and now I live in a house with people who have much more experience than I....my spouse has been playing music for 45 years.....my son for 10 plus....me just a couple....I was looking for something to do musically....the ukulele kinda of fell into place....I can share with friends and family but while family member have "their" instruments the ukulele is "mine".......I'm learning and having fun.....what else can I do the uke is for me for sure.....
 
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