Ukulele Evangelist?

Rllink

Rllink

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Are you a Ukulele evangelist? Do you talk to everyone who will listen about the benefits of playing ukulele and how the world would be a better place if everyone played ukulele? Do you want to convert the masses? Do you invite everyone, even if they don't play ukulele to your group strum-a-longs? Do you have extra ukuleles that you are ready to loan out to people to help them discover the ukulele?

I will answer my own question, I do not. But I have friends who do. They live and breath ukulele and want everyone they meet to become a ukulele player. For the record, I don't care if they evangelize the uke, it is fine. I was just wondering.
 
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Oldscruggsfan

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I just don't have the evangelist mentality. In the unlikely event that someone happens to bring up ukulele in a conversation, I'm prepared to pontificate. Problem is, even when I've consciously sought to steer conversations in that direction, the topic falls into the domain coined by the father in the wonderful memoir, "Cheaper By The Dozen": Not of general interest!

In my own immediate family and my general circle of friends, the word "ukulele" is (sadly) a surefire conversation-ender. Meanwhile, "guitar", "fiddle", "mandolin", "piano", "HGTV", "blind date", "Facebook", "Donner Party" or even "box turtle" can keep a conversation going for hours.
 
Renaissance-Man

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I don't speak of ukulele, or any other musical instrument, in general conversation.
Oldscruggsfan said:
In my own immediate family and my general circle of friends, the word "ukulele" is (sadly) a surefire conversation-ender. Meanwhile, "guitar", "fiddle", "mandolin", "piano", "HGTV", "blind date", "Facebook", "Donner Party" or even "box turtle" can keep a conversation going for hours.
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In other words, anything is more interesting than ukulele to any non-uker. Yet here we are, the chosen ones.
 
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Rllink

Rllink

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Oldscruggsfan said:
I just don't have the evangelist mentality. In the unlikely event that someone happens to bring up ukulele in a conversation, I'm prepared to pontificate. Problem is, even when I've consciously sought to steer conversations in that direction, the topic falls into the domain coined by the father in the wonderful memoir, "Cheaper By The Dozen": Not of general interest!

In my own immediate family and my general circle of friends, the word "ukulele" is (sadly) a surefire conversation-ender. Meanwhile, "guitar", "fiddle", "mandolin", "piano", "HGTV", "blind date", "Facebook", "Donner Party" or even "box turtle" can keep a conversation going for hours.
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That pretty much sums it up for me too. Between guitars and ukuleles I only know a half dozen people who even want to talk about them, and they are the evangelists. I went to coffee last week with a fellow guitar player and we didn't talk at all about guitars We talked about guns and fast cars we used to own.

The reason I even brought it up is that an older fellow in another forum made a pretty generalized statement about young people not being at all interested in stringed instruments and supported it by saying, "all the young people under thirty that he talks to about it." So I thought about that and wondered how he even gets into that conversation with enough young people under thirty to make that generalization unless he is out evangelizing to them. So I wondered if other people are out recruiting.
 
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Tom51251

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Rllink said:
That pretty much sums it up for me too. Between guitars and ukuleles I only know a half dozen people who even want to talk about them, and they are the evangelists. I went to coffee last week with a fellow guitar player and we didn't talk at all about guitars We talked about guns and fast cars we used to own.

The reason I even brought it up is that an older fellow in another forum made a pretty generalized statement about young people not being at all interested in stringed instruments and supported it by saying, "all the young people under thirty that he talks to about it." So I thought about that and wondered how he even gets into that conversation with enough young people under thirty to make that generalization unless he is out evangelizing to them. So I wondered if other people are out recruiting.
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That’s baloney. I’m 72 and retired. Atbb be present I have 20 young people who take guitar or ukulele from me. They’re all either high school K or middle school students
 
KohanMike

KohanMike

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The only effort I ever made to push the ukulele was to give my grand niece and nephew a uke for each of their 2nd birthday. She is going on 8, he is 6, neither have shown any interest in the uke, even though their father, my twin brother's younger son, is an accomplished guitar player and TV/film composer, who will use one of their ukes from time to time when putting together a score.
Michael Kohan in Los Angeles, Beverly Grove West near the Beverly Center
4 tenor thinline cutaway ukes, 6 thinline acoustic bass ukes
•Donate to The Ukulele Kids Club, they provide ukuleles to children in hospital music therapy programs. www.theukc.org
•Member Cali Rose & The CC Strummers: www.youtube.com/user/CCStrummers/video and www.facebook.com/TheCCStrummers
 
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C

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Ukulele evangelist? Nope. I'd never go up to some stranger and start telling them how great ukes are in lowering blood pressure, reducing stress, of course, can also be used to entertain friends and family and strangers!

However, when we have parties at our house, I sometimes would being out the uke to entertain folks. Pretty much everybody I know knows that I play the ukulele (because my wife loves to tease me by asking people to guess how many ukes I own).
 
Jan D

Jan D

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I don’t consider myself an evangelist, but when someone brings the subject up, I’m simply not capable of holding back my innate enthusiasm and passion for music. As a firm believer in the power of music ~ and, especially, playing an instrument ~ I never pass up the opportunity to express those beliefs whenever I think I have a willing listener. Thanks to it’s affordability and unassuming appearance, I’ve been successful in fostering a number of ukulele converts. For me, there is nothing more joyous than watching another person’s reaction to making authentic music for the first time in their life. And seeing them realize that playing an instrument is not beyond their capability. In those moments, it’s hard to say whose smile is bigger ~ their’s or mine. :)
 
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