JackLuis
Well-known member
A couple of years ago my daughter bought a $40 soprano for my granddaughter, who was three at the time. She had seen her dad play his guitar and wanted one of her own. I thought that I might take up the Uke to have something in common with my GD. I had read a article on the web about the Ukulele resurgence and thought I might as well learn to play a uke as I never was able to play guitar, despite trying to teach myself for ~10 years, haphazardly perhaps ona $25 Harmony Archtop I bought in a hock shop.
I did a little research and bought two cheap Rubin tenors, a Zebra wood Travel tenor and a rosewood tenor. I liked the looks and thought if they were good I'd give one of them to my daughter so she could learn with and teach my granddaughter. I bought a beginners book and learned to play Itsi Bitsi Spider poorly. My next door neighbor, Gary is retired as I am, and he heard me plink/plunking around in the back yard. He plays guitar pretty well and I infected him with a Ukulele urge. He brought over his Guitar chord & lyric music and we started playing on my patio in the afternoons, swapping the tenors around. After a month or so I was playing six chords! and stared watching Ukulele Mike on Y-T an Gary was teaching me about Keys.
I gave my daughter the Rosewood tenor and she moved away to Reno, ~100 miles up over the mountains. I kept learning and Gary bought his own Uke. After about six months I found UU and joined up. I learned about setup and took my Rubin Travel tenor up to my local Ukulele shop and had it adjusted. Wow, now it was a lot easier to play and sounded really good.
I realized that even the soprano was too big for my GD to play and found a Rubin sopranino, the butterfly ($25) one and bought it and a mating concert. I was appalled when I received them, the Concert was a horrid orange color and the sopranino had almost no finish at all, ugg. So I refinished them with poly-wipe and decorated them with sparkle paints. I took them up to my local shop and had them setup. they ended up sounding pretty good for cheap ukes and actually not too bad for beginner ukes at all. The girls liked them and I thought maybe they had a chance to learn to play them.
After playing the concert, I realized it was easier to reach some of the chords on the smaller size, so I bought a Kala concert at my local shop. I had it a few days and took it back, the C string boomed and Stu let me exchange it and an extra $40, for a Ohana spruce topped CK-22 which was a lot easier to play than the Kala.
Well you guys know that UAS is catching and I was happy with my Zebra wood Uke, so I bought more! By last January I had a matched set of of Caramel Zebra wood Concert, soprano, a Tenor, and a Zebra wood sopranino that was the last remaining Rubin and was made like my travel tenor which it almost matched AND a Glossy Zebra wood Baritone. I was set, I hadn't spent a lot of money and the ukes all sounded pretty good and then SAS set in. I was learning a lot about music and joined the Seasons of the Ukulele. I started singing with Gary's encouragement and found I can carry a tune most of the time.
I still have trouble teaching these 70 year old hands to switch chords in random orders and it takes me more than a week to learn a new song, making keeping up with SOTU a bit of a stretch for me. I only know first position chords and can't barr for sour apples, but I'm having fun and have made a heck of a lot of progress in the last couple of years, despite only putting in a hour or so each day.
Yesterday I ordered a Ohana ceder topped and solid rosewood Tenor from Mim and am anxiously waiting it's arrival. I decided maybe I needed a 'good' Ukulele and Christmas was kind to me.
I did a little research and bought two cheap Rubin tenors, a Zebra wood Travel tenor and a rosewood tenor. I liked the looks and thought if they were good I'd give one of them to my daughter so she could learn with and teach my granddaughter. I bought a beginners book and learned to play Itsi Bitsi Spider poorly. My next door neighbor, Gary is retired as I am, and he heard me plink/plunking around in the back yard. He plays guitar pretty well and I infected him with a Ukulele urge. He brought over his Guitar chord & lyric music and we started playing on my patio in the afternoons, swapping the tenors around. After a month or so I was playing six chords! and stared watching Ukulele Mike on Y-T an Gary was teaching me about Keys.
I gave my daughter the Rosewood tenor and she moved away to Reno, ~100 miles up over the mountains. I kept learning and Gary bought his own Uke. After about six months I found UU and joined up. I learned about setup and took my Rubin Travel tenor up to my local Ukulele shop and had it adjusted. Wow, now it was a lot easier to play and sounded really good.
I realized that even the soprano was too big for my GD to play and found a Rubin sopranino, the butterfly ($25) one and bought it and a mating concert. I was appalled when I received them, the Concert was a horrid orange color and the sopranino had almost no finish at all, ugg. So I refinished them with poly-wipe and decorated them with sparkle paints. I took them up to my local shop and had them setup. they ended up sounding pretty good for cheap ukes and actually not too bad for beginner ukes at all. The girls liked them and I thought maybe they had a chance to learn to play them.
After playing the concert, I realized it was easier to reach some of the chords on the smaller size, so I bought a Kala concert at my local shop. I had it a few days and took it back, the C string boomed and Stu let me exchange it and an extra $40, for a Ohana spruce topped CK-22 which was a lot easier to play than the Kala.
Well you guys know that UAS is catching and I was happy with my Zebra wood Uke, so I bought more! By last January I had a matched set of of Caramel Zebra wood Concert, soprano, a Tenor, and a Zebra wood sopranino that was the last remaining Rubin and was made like my travel tenor which it almost matched AND a Glossy Zebra wood Baritone. I was set, I hadn't spent a lot of money and the ukes all sounded pretty good and then SAS set in. I was learning a lot about music and joined the Seasons of the Ukulele. I started singing with Gary's encouragement and found I can carry a tune most of the time.
I still have trouble teaching these 70 year old hands to switch chords in random orders and it takes me more than a week to learn a new song, making keeping up with SOTU a bit of a stretch for me. I only know first position chords and can't barr for sour apples, but I'm having fun and have made a heck of a lot of progress in the last couple of years, despite only putting in a hour or so each day.
Yesterday I ordered a Ohana ceder topped and solid rosewood Tenor from Mim and am anxiously waiting it's arrival. I decided maybe I needed a 'good' Ukulele and Christmas was kind to me.