dannyman
Well-known member
recently i was in hawaii for a weekend-- thats right, just one weekend. my father had business there, and of course, i jumped at the opportunity to visit the islands. one of my rules is never to leave my house without my uke, and this trip was no exception. i had a great trip, wrote some music on the beach, ect.
its what happened in the honolulu airport that i'm going to tell about.
i got to my gate about an hour early, so naturally, to fill the time i took out and started playing my ukulele. a few minutes after i began i noticed a young thirteen-year-old kid sit down with his parents holding a uke case. he seemed interested in my playing, so i approached him and asked what type of ukulele he had (i was hoping he was one of those incredible child prodigies). alas, it was no kamaka, and the kid was no mini-shimubukuro. The ukulele he had was one of those tourist models that play... but play very poorly (you know, that ones with flamboyant designs on them). I resumed playing to myself shortly thereafter.
as time went on, i noticed the kid slowly getting closer to me and my music (pretending to look out of the window). well, it was obvious he was interested in the uke, and since i teach lessons, i decided i would help this kid out. i gave him my ukulele and started teaching him to play. now you have to understand, he didn't know anything about ukuleles, in fact, the only time he touched one was when he bought his tourist model. nonetheless, within a minute or ten i had him beginning to strum away to "anyone else" by the moldy peaches (its the song from juno, the chords are C and F... THE WHOLE TIME). he was really getting it, and i was about to give him another chord to learn when another guy holding a uke walked up. his was also a tourist model, and after tuning his uke, i began to teach him too. long story short, in the end there was about twelve people I taught and jammed with that day. it was amazing.
i had a fantastic time, and the connection we all felt by the end was awesome.
hopefully twelve more people will REALLY get involved in learning the uke, but i can tell you for sure that twelve people had a fantastic time jamming it up in the honolulu airport. thats the thing i love about hawaii, even if you're not a native you can still feel the aloha spirit!
its what happened in the honolulu airport that i'm going to tell about.
i got to my gate about an hour early, so naturally, to fill the time i took out and started playing my ukulele. a few minutes after i began i noticed a young thirteen-year-old kid sit down with his parents holding a uke case. he seemed interested in my playing, so i approached him and asked what type of ukulele he had (i was hoping he was one of those incredible child prodigies). alas, it was no kamaka, and the kid was no mini-shimubukuro. The ukulele he had was one of those tourist models that play... but play very poorly (you know, that ones with flamboyant designs on them). I resumed playing to myself shortly thereafter.
as time went on, i noticed the kid slowly getting closer to me and my music (pretending to look out of the window). well, it was obvious he was interested in the uke, and since i teach lessons, i decided i would help this kid out. i gave him my ukulele and started teaching him to play. now you have to understand, he didn't know anything about ukuleles, in fact, the only time he touched one was when he bought his tourist model. nonetheless, within a minute or ten i had him beginning to strum away to "anyone else" by the moldy peaches (its the song from juno, the chords are C and F... THE WHOLE TIME). he was really getting it, and i was about to give him another chord to learn when another guy holding a uke walked up. his was also a tourist model, and after tuning his uke, i began to teach him too. long story short, in the end there was about twelve people I taught and jammed with that day. it was amazing.
i had a fantastic time, and the connection we all felt by the end was awesome.
hopefully twelve more people will REALLY get involved in learning the uke, but i can tell you for sure that twelve people had a fantastic time jamming it up in the honolulu airport. thats the thing i love about hawaii, even if you're not a native you can still feel the aloha spirit!