Where do you see yourself with your ukulele down the road?

specialmike

specialmike

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As a college student, I get asked that question "What do you see yourself doing in five/ten/twenty years?"

Lately, I haven't really known the answer. All I know is that I'll be playing with my ukuleles and I'll be a much better player by then (at least that is the plan and my intention) As for an occupation or what not.. I'm not a bit concerned. The way I see it, as long as I have a uke in hand, I'll be pretty happy with whatever I do.

So: Where do you guys and gals see yourself in five/ten/twenty years?
 
Either on maui, puerto rico, maybe spain, or georgia. Teaching college and being a principal. I'll be uking it up with a complete set of koalohas and a few meles and kamakas as well. I'll have my doctorate and road king. 1 or 2 kids and still surfing uu.
 
working in an independent recording studio, backing up bands, and producing, hoping to get a record deal somehow as a singer/songwriter. Also having built a few instruments by then and owning a vintage martin d-28 and a custom glyph tenor ukulele. And having studied some sort of music/instrument in a good college with a minor in music engineering, later to go back for a master's degree. hopefully these plans wont go too awry. Im going into my freshman year of highschool, so in 10 years Ill be 25, thats what these are based on.
 
hopefully on oahu playing on a dinner cruise, in a luau, or anywhere where the sound of my ukulele will stay in the minds of many happy vacationers long after they get back home.
 
Well my road is a short one as I see myself bartending in Hawaii by this time next year, and drooling over Mai'a (my soon to be new tenor uklectic).... unless, that is, some major things happen in my life back here in Missouri.

If that is the case then I see myself bartending in Missouri this time next year and drooling over Mai'a (my soon to be new tenor uklectic).
 
as for an occupation, no idea. As for place of living, no idea. Since my dad got laid off there are a number of jobs he might get. some of them staying in PA and another one in kentucky i think. Personally i want to move to kentucky, go to college there, get my masters. and maybe be a occupational therapist, physical therapist, or a speech therapist. I want to move to a lot of places haha. I want to move to texas, cuz its shweet there, but thats too far away from ski resorts, but moving near a ski resort is to far away from the beach.....ugh.\

in simple terms. Take me where the wind blowss..
 
in 5 or so years i would want to be good enough to play at gigs, shows etc.. and a moderator for uu, lol just kidding!
 
in 5 years, I want to be singing lullaby's to my children (hopefully, I'll have some of the appropriate age at that point)

in 10 years, I want to be cringing as I watch them play with the uke.

in 25 years, I hope to be with my husband, singing love songs to each other as we do now...

One can only hope.
 
I see myself the same as I am now struggling to make ends meet like most locals, will probably wind up moving away from my home, the land I love because my retirement check won't pay enough to survive here. I have been told Texas and the Carolinas is nice cost of living wise, hope they like Hawaiians. Gotta be close to the sea so I can fish, my other love. As far as 'ukuleles I hope I'm making them by the time I retire but no desire to play anywhere except kanikapila with friends
 
I'm getting into ukes so I can grow old gracefully as a musician. Banjos are big and heavy, guitars are big and clunky, clarinets take too much wind (especially the big ones) and all of them hurt my ears and wrists these days.

Ukes, on the other hand, are physically less demanding, and although they're theoretically limited, there's still plenty to do with them. I'm working on laying out some classical melodies on uke, writing rags, etc. When all I feel like doing is sitting in a chair, the uke will be in my lap.

A small, light instrument also makes a nice composing tool for working out stuff while sitting in front of the computer. Then you can take the parts and adapt them to other instruments. I thought a keyboard would be great for this, but a uke is even easier.

One thing I do now, and will do for a while, is create play-along rhythm section-only tunes for people to download from my music website. Haven't yet used a uke for this, but give me time.
 
I play for personal enjoyment. I would like to try an open mike someday, though (Deach inspired me with his performance). Maybe try a little busking.
 
im in the same boat. im a student, i have 6weeks to figure out what i want to do in life. I have not one bit of a clue, dental technician comes to mind, thought, and trying to track some people down, but it isn't easy to get. I'm so unsure, its doing my head in.

As for the ukulele, i see myself pretty good player, nothing like Aldrine, Jake, but decent, type of player that people would love to see play again.
 
Dude you do not have six weeks to figure out what to do with your life. You could lose your mind thinking like that. Just do something, anything for now - studying, working, just maintain momentum even if it means working in admin, or in McDonalds. Your no.1 priority is to maintain some kind of momentum - don't get stuck in an unemployed indecisive rut. Anything other than that is progress.
 
nikolo727 said:
as for an occupation, no idea. As for place of living, no idea. Since my dad got laid off there are a number of jobs he might get. some of them staying in PA and another one in kentucky i think. Personally i want to move to kentucky, go to college there, get my masters. and maybe be a occupational therapist, physical therapist, or a speech therapist. I want to move to a lot of places haha. I want to move to texas, cuz its shweet there, but thats too far away from ski resorts, but moving near a ski resort is to far away from the beach.....ugh.\

in simple terms. Take me where the wind blowss..
Click to expand...

Move to Oregon, Nick. I live an hour from the beach to the west and an hour from three ski resorts to the east...
 
yookyoolayleeh said:
Dude you do not have six weeks to figure out what to do with your life. You could lose your mind thinking like that. Just do something, anything for now - studying, working, just maintain momentum even if it means working in admin, or in McDonalds. Your no.1 priority is to maintain some kind of momentum - don't get stuck in an unemployed indecisive rut. Anything other than that is progress.
Click to expand...
Hear hear! Very few people pick a direction at the start and stay on that road all their life. There will be many crossroads that you don't know about at the moment - you make those decisions as you reach them. As Yook says... you need to keep up that momentum so that when you get to those crossroads, you're ready for them.

""The future is not set. There is no fate but what we make for ourselves." - John Connor, Terminator 2... a cheesy quote perhaps, but worth thinking about!

As for me, I've no idea where I will be career-wise in the future. I have a number of hobbies that I would like to start doing semi-professionally to see if I can make a career out of them... let's see how that goes?

As for my Uke playing - It's been only just over a week since I got my first Uke so I'm still in practice, learning chords, strumming, picking, etc. Once I've become a bit more proficient in that, I'll be getting the courage up to post my first YouTube video. Long term, I'm really inspired by people who do this professionally, have CDs, give concerts, go on tours etc. Don't know if I'll get to that standard, but it's something to aspire to!
 
Very intriguing question. Within the next 5 years, hopefully be retired. As far as the uke goes, just have fun with it, learn new songs and definetly kanikapila with friends whenever and wherever.
 
I will probably be where I am now as far as where I live and what I do. I hope I will move a little further up the ladder in my profession, but I will most likely be doing the same thing.

As far as uke playing goes, I hope I will be able to play some of the more simple pieces of baroque music for the ukulele. I'm never going to be John King, but I hope I can get a little further down that road. My interest is in Vivaldi and Bach. I hope to do well enough to play in church occasionally. I would also like to learn most of the Beatles songbook as well as a variety of folk music songs, mostly English and Celtic stuff.

I hope to improve my finger-picking technique and I would really like to be able to improve my rhythm and get to where I can sing and play at the same time without messing up. I seem to be able to either sing or play, but not both. :wallbash:
 
I'm a teacher. The Fall semester begins next week and marks the beginning of my 29th year in this position. I'm looking at 35 for retirement.

That said, I plan on following in the footsteps of a good friend who retired back in 2001 - he plays guitar for fun at a lot of local and regional festivals. Just add mandolin and uke to the mix and you have my retirement plan. (Well, maybe you throw a bit of sailing and long distance bicycling in for good measure.)
 
in 5 years: I'll own my own resturant, (Senior year of college now) the uke will be hanging in the office for times when i need to unwind or just want to goof off for a few minutes.

In 10-30 years: pretty much the same as five years, business will grow I want to train leaders and help those coming after me to improve on what I know. I'll have raised a family (Ihave a 3 year old and a 21 month old). I'll still be in love with my wife.I'll be doing something for church, i don't know what. But the uke will still be in the office, and a few of my team will probably know how to play a few chords.

in 35 years: retired, money in the bank, sitting (probably) in Alaska, in a camper in the middle of nowhere on the denali highway. Of course the uke will be with me. I'll smile and play my wife yet another love song, one she has heard a hundred times.
 
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