Excited noob!

So back in November I was home for Thanksgiving. My dad has an old Duke Kahanamoku ukulele from back in the day when he lived in Hawaii. My 2 year old daughter showed some interest, so I picked it up and figured out how to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, just picking a single string, very simple. She loved that so much, we brought the little uke home with us. Since then, I have enjoyed playing it so much, I decided one day to buy a proper uke and get serious about learning to play this instrument well.

I'm an American living in Asia, and didn't think I would be able to find a musical instrument shop that sells these. But we did manage to find a dedicated ukulele shop in the very small town that I live in... it was meant to be! Most of the brands they carried were ones I hadn't read about, but they did have one Kala on the wall, a spalted maple concert. I bought it about one week ago and have been practicing with it every night since, about 3 hours per night. I don't have any musical background, or access to personal lessons (well, I don't have access to lessons in English). So websites like these are awesome for me.

So far I can eek out a decent "I've Been Working on the Railroad", which my daughter enjoys, and I can play...the slowest version ever of..."Hallelujah", which my wife enjoys. Of course, I'm enjoying it too! I've never played an instrument before, so I was surprised to find myself so enthused about this. Now I'm hooked! Can't wait to see where I'm at in a month! Thanks again to the guys who set-up this website, and good luck to all you fellow beginning ukers! : )

Welcome. I just joined a few days ago (got my first uke yesterday) and you're going to like it here. Easily the warmest community I've ever been a part of on the internet.

Welcome to the best uke site, and to the best instrument! Get your 2-yr-old playing too!! Early is good!! I also have a Kala spalted maple concert - in fact, I was playing it this morning. It's a lot of fun.

Enjoy!

Welcome! Glad you joined us. All good things come to he who practices. 3 hours a night!!!!!!!! Wow!!!!!!!! You should progress quickly. good luck.

Welcome! It is indeed an oasis here. A wonderful community to support a wonderful obsession.....ah....instrument!

Welcome to UU!!

Welcome to UU. Glad you joined us.

The Albany uke group has a great beginner book http://albanyukulele.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/songbook1_16may20111.pdf

it starts out fairly easy and gets progressively harder. Also check out chordie.com For many songs you can change the "Tuning" to ukulele so you get the chord diagrams and you can transpose if you don't like the key.

Enjoy and have fun

Welcome to UU! I am new here too.

Three hours a day of practice is impressive. You are going to be really good in no time.

Welcome

I was where you were 2 years ago, and still playing every day. Here are some really helpful websites for easy uke songs. www.scorpex.net/uke, druke.com, ukesterbrown.com. any Mike Lynch tutorials on youtube are wonderful. Keep feeding your addiction and have fun!

Wow, thanks for the welcome and advice/encouragement! I will definitely check each of those websites etc. out. YouTube is also killer, very helpful with the slow-motion function. I'll check Mike Lynch out.

I've played a little less the past two nights to let my fretting fingers try to recover, they have been pretty painful. Actually today I noticed they aren't as painful anymore, but starting to feel kind of numb, and still a little sore. I hope the numbness in the fingertips is normal...?

Tonight we had another family over for dinner, they also have a 2 year old girl. I played "I've Been Working on the Railroad" and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" for the kiddos. It was pretty rough and I felt a little embarrassed, but the kids knew what I was playing and sang along, so at least it was recognizable lol : ) I started to play "Hallelujah" for the adults, but stopped because I couldn't remember a couple of the chords and it sounded bad. Maybe next time.

Anyway, I'll post a picture of my new uke when I get some time, I'm due for another night off I think, maybe tomorrow.

Welcome to UU, I'm another recent convert. Practising 3 hours per night ? Wow, that is hardcore, no wonder your fingers are numb. After my first serious practice of 30 mins, I thought; "Oh no, here we go again with finger callouses & loss of feeling in finger tips!" I used to play cello, and got used to having short fingernails, callouses and reduced feeling in finger tips. I am still trying to build the callouses so it doesn't hurt to play (but I suspect the action might be too high on my uke).

Enjoy yourself!

Welcome to the best ukulele site on the internet!

Garydavkra said:

Welcome to the best ukulele site on the internet!

Click to expand...

You mean there's another one???

This is a photo of my new uke, I hope the attachment works.

edit: grrr, not like I wanted, I just want it to show the picture, not a link... and its sideways : ( sorry

Attempt No.2 of trying to share the pic of my new uke...

Very nice! How are your fingers holding up?

Nice looking uke! Welcome to UU!

Thank you! My fingers are doing better tonight, just a little sore. I've been playing for about 1 and 1/2 hours so far tonight, and just taking a break messing around on here. Tonight I did my usual exercises, then practiced the two songs I know that I mentioned before, and now I'm also trying to get "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" down. That one isn't too hard actually, and it's fun to play! (but really hard to sing, hahaha) But it seems my fingers are starting to get used to it all. How are yours?

I played too much over the weekend and it hurt to type with my left hand. The good news is that I can tell my fingers are toughening up and just in time for my new ukulele which is supposed to arrive today.

Lovely uke! Have fun toughening up those fingers!