It's just about enjoyment. Innit?

John - lol but good on you.

PereBourik - it becomes YOUR music as soon as you play it mate. Whatever our level of play or skill we are each unique. No one will ever perform that song identically to you unless they go out of their way to copy your voice, your playing technique, and your overall sound. And if they take the trouble to do THAT, take it as a compliment because it'll mean you're doing something right!

Overall, don't worry about that. Just enjoy what you do. Your 'sound' will come all on its own!

Dave, and everyone, thanks for this thread. It has given me a new perspective.
Why am I here? Why do I love music so much?
And, am I having fun?
I'm having a ball. While I doubt that I will ever be a very good ukulele player, I'm living my dreams.
Nobody else's, just mine.
When I think about my friend who is an accomplished pianist who isn't playing, just working herself crazy, it saddens me a little.
I didn't consider myself a musician at all, when I took up the ukulele, almost 8 years ago. Now, I'm beginning to think another way. Musicians aren't BORN, they are made. As much as I'd like to think so, even the greatest weren't born with an ukulele in their hands.
I play in a band created by myself and a bestie, called the Ladies Of Uke. We play mostly in ALFs, for folks older than us. They say they love us. We've never recorded, we've only written one song, but we work very hard to learn to cover songs, and improve all the time.
I also play in another group (which I created) called Ukers For Life. We are learning, training, and playing for hospice patients, and very soon, for kids at the Shriner's hospital down the road a piece, then for Veterans in the VA hospital. It's strictly volunteerism, ignited by Ukulele Kids Club. We're hoping to be "adopted" (sponsored) by TBUS, our local ukulele club of some several hundred members. We have a facebook page, but that's our only public exposure. We were asked by a museum to play for a "re-opening" day very soon, and are working like mad to be ready.
As well, I am on the Board of Directors of TBUS. Part of my duties is to assist and teach beginners in our library workshops. Another commitment!
Am I enjoying all of this?
I think so....heck yes....
Oh, heck yes.....

S11LKO said:

John - lol but good on you.

PereBourik - it becomes YOUR music as soon as you play it mate. Whatever our level of play or skill we are each unique. No one will ever perform that song identically to you unless they go out of their way to copy your voice, your playing technique, and your overall sound. And if they take the trouble to do THAT, take it as a compliment because it'll mean you're doing something right!

Overall, don't worry about that. Just enjoy what you do. Your 'sound' will come all on its own!

Click to expand...

Yes, and my inner critic thinks I can take "House of the Rising Sun" and "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and make them both sound the same. Hahahah.

PereBourik said:

Yes, and my inner critic thinks I can take "House of the Rising Sun" and "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and make them both sound the same. Hahahah.

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Haha! Now THAT made me lol. X

Nickie - and it sounds like you're HAVING A BALL, and fortunate to be entertaining others too. As you say, you're enjoying what you're doing and that's my point (and it seems the point of everyone here who plays!)
Have fun. With your life. Do what makes you happy.
Live for today because tomorrow is not promised for any of us.
I look forward to hearing some of your music sometime.

Yes, yes Itis! :shaka:

S11LKO said:

PereBourik - it becomes YOUR music as soon as you play it mate. Whatever our level of play or skill we are each unique. No one will ever perform that song identically to you unless they go out of their way to copy your voice, your playing technique, and your overall sound. And if they take the trouble to do THAT, take it as a compliment because it'll mean you're doing something right!

Overall, don't worry about that. Just enjoy what you do. Your 'sound' will come all on its own!

Click to expand...

PereBourik said:

Yes, and my inner critic thinks I can take "House of the Rising Sun" and "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and make them both sound the same. Hahahah.

Click to expand...

I have my own rendition of House of the Rising Sun. My friend came to hear me when I was doing my thing at the coffee shop on a Saturday evening. On Sunday he sent me a video of the Animals playing it in 1964, "just to show me how it is supposed to be played and sang."

Sounds like my brother in law! :-(

I'm away on holiday at the moment in Corfu and they held a karaoke night. No one wanted to get up, and the woman who'd arranged the night was getting worried about it crashing around her ears. So I got up and did this (albeit without uke or guitar so my sincere apologies if it breeches posting rules).

The point I'm trying to make by posting it is, that after I'd done it and broken the ice (even though it went wrong as it was in the wrong key for me! lol), loads of people put their name forward and everyone had fun with some surprisingly good singers coming forward!

Just fun. In this case no ukes or instruments I know, but music - whatever instrument we play, even our voices, should be 'just fun'.

(P.S. I'm sitting in my hotel lobby writing this and I just had a couple come up to me and say "Just thought we had to tell you we enjoyed your singing the other night!"
Haha! Stick THAT in your pipe and smoke it brother-in-law!!)

At this stage of my life, as I enter advanced stages of decrepitude, it will only ever be about enjoyment (as it should be no matter at what level one plays at).

Hear Hear young hollisdwyer, hear hear!

hollisdwyer said:

At this stage of my life, as I enter advanced stages of decrepitude, it will only ever be about enjoyment (as it should be no matter at what level one plays at).

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I am that person. A friend of my wife and mine has a sign in her house that says,"Let's be best friends till we are old and gray. Then we'll be new friends." At some point I expect to sound very good to myself,,but utter torture to those around. Until then I will enjoy playing,with a modicum of appreciation from the family. Sitting here I have just thought that I could train the African grey to say stuff like magnificent, wonderful after I play. My own fan club that I pay peanuts. My older brother is extremely talented musician, when I played trombone many many years ago, I always put myself in his shadow. Picking up uke a few years ago, I have broken that curse. ( My brother is wonderful, this was all my doing). Starting to ramble like an old person. Play for you. Personal enjoyment, improvement, and satisfaction.

S11LKO said:

Sounds like my brother in law! :-(

I'm away on holiday at the moment in Corfu and they held a karaoke night. No one wanted to get up, and the woman who'd arranged the night was getting worried about it crashing around her ears. So I got up and did this (albeit without uke or guitar so my sincere apologies if it breeches posting rules).

The point I'm trying to make by posting it is, that after I'd done it and broken the ice (even though it went wrong as it was in the wrong key for me! lol), loads of people put their name forward and everyone had fun with some surprisingly good singers coming forward!

Just fun. In this case no ukes or instruments I know, but music - whatever instrument we play, even our voices, should be 'just fun'.

(P.S. I'm sitting in my hotel lobby writing this and I just had a couple come up to me and say "Just thought we had to tell you we enjoyed your singing the other night!"
Haha! Stick THAT in your pipe and smoke it brother-in-law!!)

Click to expand...

I think that people sit in their homes and think that someday they will get out and play somewhere in public, but they have to get good enough first. And in their mind they are thinking that they need to get rock star good. In their mind, they are never good enough. The thing is, putting some heart into it goes a lot farther than talent when it comes to performing in front of people. Just looking like you are having a good time is contagious when it comes to an audience. Case in point, lately I've been playing Put the Lime in the Coconut. People love that song. They go nuts. Seriously, it is a C7, the whole song is a C7. How much talent does it take to play a C7. But people want to hear it. Actually, I love that song. Anyway, I've never let my lack of musical talent stop me from playing.

When I first started playing I taught myself a few chords while trying to work out some song I liked (an Eddie Vedder song if I remember correctly). I realised very quickly that I (you see I know myself very well) would never progress if I didn’t find a group to play with. That was the way I learned guitar, by going down to Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village in the early 1960’s and watching people play(I’m a visual learner).
As I never minded making a fool of myself, I also realised that my mistakes would be hidden behind the volume of the group, I became a regular every week.
They say if you are lucky that you find your own tribe and after playing with a few groups that’s exactly what I did.
I still get lost in the middle of a song when someone distracts me sometimes but so what. We all have so much fun together every week that the errors never matters. When we do soar as a group we share the special joy that you get when you’re in sync with other human beings.

Haha! Brilliant!!

By the way, Dave, you did an AWESOME job on the Herman's Hermits tune!

Bill Sheehan said:

By the way, Dave, you did an AWESOME job on the Herman's Hermits tune!

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Mwah! Thanks Bill.

I'll add a couple of related reasons for which I started playing last year:

1) At 47, working from home, and beyond my competitive sports days, I needed a challenge for my own sanity. I've always been strongly affected by music, and I love the guitar and ukulele.

2) My 8-year-old is interested in the guitar/ukulele, and I want to be able to participate with him. I would love for him to be able to look back someday and say, "I could always make music with my Dad, and that was special." I also believe his life will be much richer if he pursues music, and my being able to play puts me in a better position to support and encourage him.

LL

And a great couple of reasons they are too, LL.

By taking the initiative, you encouraged the others' participation. They then realized that they are only have to "be themselves" to have fun. That's what it is all about.

-Wiggy

Wiggy said:

By taking the initiative, you encouraged the others' participation. They then realized that they are only have to "be themselves" to have fun. That's what it is all about.
-Wiggy

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Thanks Wiggy.

Quite a few got up during the rest of the evening. The hotel caters mostly for the over 50's, and a couple of singers surprised themselves by having good voices; much better than MY drivel! It turned into a fun night enjoyed by all (no doubt fuelled by a few glasses of whatever took our fancies in the Corfu sun! lol).

Those that did get up said they'd never done it before but would again in future as they really enjoyed the experience - so that HAS to be a good thing, doesn't it?

Just a quick thank you to those who contacted me saying nice things about my 'rendition' of "I'm Into Something Good' done at the hotel during my recent holiday and posted further back in this thread.

Yes, I DID do a couple of others (with varying degrees of success lol) but as they don't feature me playing my uke or guitar I won't post them directly here as they bear no real relevance to this thread or the site in general, and I don't want to contravene any of the rules of conduct here and upset anyone.

If anyone IS still interested in taking a quick peek though they can be found at the following links.

Again, thanks to everyone for their contribution to this thread. It's been really interesting for me and it seems to many of you.


Love On The Rocks - https://youtu.be/a5tKPhus9DM

I’m Telling You Now - https://youtu.be/HLSWCJX52y0

Play Me - https://youtu.be/twXNKt9gT94

I’m A Believer - https://youtu.be/_FrlnpluQWY