Why do you uke?

So I was wondering, what inspired you to pick up the uke and start jamming?

I was listening to a song with a cool ukulele sounding part and I thought it was the coolest sounding instrument ever, so I saved up to get one.

As of 4 months ago I never thought of the ukulele as a serious instrument. One day I was listening to one of my favorite singers on youtube as she sang a cover. She usually plays a guitar but that time she played a ukulele and made it sound soo good. I searched for other songs by anybody with a ukulele and became interested. The ukulele sounded way better than I ever remembered!
I was hooked and bought a cheap one. I haven't looked back since.
Ernest

around christmas of '07 my basketball team was playing a tournament in hawaii. while walking from my hotel to my parents hotel i came across a street vendor selling 10 dollar ukes and instantly thought how awesome this was and how funny my friends would find this so i bought it. i brought it home and started youtubing different stuff and became genuinely interested. inevitably, it broke. a few months later my mom bought me a little lanikai which is essentially what i began learning on. and i havent stopped since! and to think it all started out as a joke!

honestly, i got drunk and bought one on ebay, so I figured I better learn to play it before it became known as a bad investment.

leftovermagic84 said:

honestly, i got drunk and bought one on ebay, so I figured I better learn to play it before it became known as a bad investment.

Click to expand...

OMG, that's my favorite post of the day!

I had been playing guitar a long time and decided to check out other stringed instruments just to try them. I got a banjo, mandolin and ukulele in a fairly short time frame. I still play the mandolin, rarely the banjo but the ukulele sucked me in right away and now 3 years later I have 5 ukuleles and another in the mail and I play ukulele more then guitar. There is just something altogether addictive about it you can not stop playing it and you want to own a lot of them!!!

I had an old baritone kicking around the house that belonged to my grandfather. Made some noise on it, but didn't take it all that seriously. On my first trip to Kaua'i I regretted not bringing a guitar, so I went to Bounty Music with the intention of getting a cheap travel guitar or maybe a cheap ukulele. Ended up playing a bunch of ukes, and decided that the Kamaka soprano was my favorite. Spent about 4 times what I expected to spend, but it was worth it to have something made in Hawai'i. Mostly just played guitar stuff on it since I was too lazy to learn from a book.

In the summer of '08 I was on Kaua'i again (this time for archaeological field school), and left the Kamaka at home since I knew I'd be in a tent for a month. Started to miss playing music, and was lucky enough to be in Koloa just as Larry's Music was opening up their second store right in town! I bought a Kamoa soprano to tide me over, and figured that I could always give it to the girlfriend when I got home.

The week after I got home, I had plans to meet up with my girlfriend in Maine and give her the uke, so I wanted to learn something cool to teach her. Did some Googling, and found UU! It was around then that I really started to take the uke seriously, and really wanted to learn everything I could. I only wish I discovered UU a few weeks earlier.

My mom passed away going on 7 years now, and I inherited her Martin SO, so here I am. I forgot how much she loved this uke. I inherited her song book too, and guess what? I'm singing her songs. Playing is relaxing, and brings back good memories.

I've been playing guitar for about 35 years, and mostly Ki ho'alu for the last 15 or so. I've been in love with Hawaiian music for many years, Brudda IZ is my hero but never really tried an ukulele. A few months ago my grandson was learning some songs in his school class, and they were playing the ukulele. He had borrowed a cheap Hilo and it wouldn't stay in tune so I wanted to get him a better one and started doing some online research and found this site. I decided to get him and his sister uke's and one for myself so we could all play together, and now I'm hooked! It's such a fun little instrument, portable and realitively easy to learn, and I've developed a terrible case of UAS!

about ten years ago i was walking past a shop window and saw a handmade uke from a local luthier Robin Greenwood, i had always dreamed of having one of his guitars but the price tag was too much a deterrent. there was this reasonably priced handmade uke, so my birthday was coming i asked for money instead of anything else to save up to buy it. I fooled around with it a bit, but, as life does, life got in the way of music and me,shortly after and for about ten years i barely played any music just occasional guitar

The last couple of years i have started playing music again and this year i was surfing you tube when i started to come upon uke videos and i got interested., so i dug out my uke and started to learn it properly. I've bought two more since then and i have 3 more on the shopping list, im a total addict hoarder

I've been playing different instruments for about 30 years now, I play every day. The last 10 years I've been playing mostly clarinets of different sizes. I would work something out on guitar or banjo once in a while, or record chords to play along with. But most of the time I would carry a clarinet with me and play at lunch or when I had a few minutes.

However, lately my ears have been getting very sensitive. Clarinets are loud, and so I had to lay off. I got the idea to try a uke because of the portability, and I got hooked immediately. Because it's easy to take with and whip out, I'm playing several times a day rather than one, my ears are almost back to normal, and the clarinets are gathering dust (have to do something about that though!).

My brother bought me a Lanikai Pineapple when he was in Hawaii on business. I got it as a birthday present but I didnt see him until right before Christmas. So that was uhhhh....Christmas, 2007.

He told me that he saw some vids on YouTube of people playing Bob Marley and Sublime and such. Went downstairs, found Seeso's video of "I shot the sheriff" and the addiction began.

Found UU shortly after (having no idea how new it was). Poked around the forums a bit, the finally signed up in Feb. of 08. I've met many great people along the journey and will continue to build relationships for many years to come. Thanks to Rayan, Aldrine and the gang, we all have this awesome place to hang out and talk uke. :drool:

Thanks, as always, to Seeso, as well. Without his videos and awesome tabbing (and constant forum lurking), I may have never gotten addicted the way I did.

Why not?

I think the first time I was inspired was when I heard Iz's Somewhere over the rainbow, after hearing the song in numerous movies. I always thought it would be cool to learn that song and at the same time learn to play the uke. Anyways, I never actually noticed ukuleles being sold at my local music store, but for some reason more than a year ago I finally noticed one and my parents bought me the O/S concert uke I was admiring for my bday.

In an effort to find the chords and tabs for ukulele, I googled ukulele chords and it brought me to this site and I haven't left since!! "Back in the day" haha you would get about 40-90 users online here at the UU...now its in the hundreds WOW!! I was ukeing just for the fun of it and because Ukuleleunderground peeps were so entertaining and SUPER generous (you guys still are mind you) and to check off "learning something new everyday" for my personal goals (technically its cheating since I check off everytime I learn a new song haha)

but nowadays I uke TO KEEP SANE!!! I am once again a student and I find that music in general keeps me from ripping my hair out when I have a huge paper due. It also helps me combat the loneliness factor since I've moved to a new city, new school, new surrounding, and a new life!!!

I love how UU has managed to keep members and to pull prospective members in by offering a place to gather and learn how to play an amazing instrument!!

So to sum up, why do I uke......i say WHY NOT!!!

Cultural and hereditary.

it's different to any other instrument in my area. And people enjoy hearing it, so I like to learn new things and play it for them

Why I Uke?

It's all about music. I have always loved music and my family is filled with musicians and songwriters going back generations on all branches of both my father's and mother's lineages. Music was a HUGE part of every family gathering and event. I had a ukulele as a small child and began playing guitar, too, over forty years ago. I was performing music for audiences as a young child and grew up playing with professionals in country, folk, rock and roll, jazz, and blues so it was natural that I played multiple instruments. I play many different instruments but my two favorites are ukulele and guitar. Moreso, I love to sing, especially harmonies.

Nothing beats a perfect vocal chord!

I've always really loved Hawaii (and its culture) since my family has been taking vacations there as often as three times a year since I was a kid. Although I don't have any family in the islands, my great-grandfather came from Korea to work in the sugar cane fields before settling in California, and my grandmother ashes were laid to rest in the waters off Kauai. So a large part of the reason is because the instrument is symbolic of a place that I truly love.

Who says what I do with my ukulele is playing?

ukeninam said:

So to sum up, why do I uke......i say WHY NOT!!!

Click to expand...

That's the coolest answer right there

I Was telling a friend about how I liked playing Beatle songs on mandolin(we both go to the Abbey Road on the River Beatles festival every year) she said I should try uke. I found punk 44 on you tube, those guys are having a blast, then i found music teacher 2009 and thought shucks I can do that, the chord shapes are same as guitar. Then I found UU. Went to sam ash intending to buy a uke. I wanted a spalted mango like music teacher, they had an Ibanez UEW20 concert, single cut a way which was gorgeous for $169.95. Asked the guy if they would deal, he took me to the check out, fiddled on the computer and said how about $119.95, I pulled out the $100 gift card my brother had gotten me for christmas and got my uke for $19.95 plus tax. That was about a month ago and I play most everyday, I am by no means good but strum chords and sing most anything I want. Haven't picked up a guitar or mando since. Sorry for the long story but it is one i've been wanting to tell.
My 10 year old daughter now calls me the "Ukulele Charmer" makes it all worthwhile.