Expanding my ukulele universe

This is turning out to be a big month for expanding my ukulele universe.

Part 1 - Teaching for the first time. Our group leader is out of town all month, so two of us volunteered to lead the group & teach something. I taught a chord melody, and the other person taught a singing exercise on three part harmony. We both spent a lot of time preparing our material and were nervous about it. For the most part, it went well, and we felt like people learned something and had fun. There were some glitches and rough spots, but it was fun. We both learned a lot about teaching that will serve us well in the future.

Part 2 - I'm starting to volunteer once a month in the music room at the children's hospital where I work as a nurse. I'm helping provide music for a morning sing-a-long lead by the other volunteers. It's nice to go in on a day off to make music with the kids. I'm cutting back on my work hours (baby steps towards retirement), so this gives me a fun way to stay connected to the kids.

Part 3 - Coming up this Sunday. My first uke solo during church service. I play with the worship band, but I've never done a solo before. Our piano guy is out of town, so I volunteered to do the prelude at the beginning of the service. It's usually a short instrumental that ends a brief time of silence & centering at the start of the service. I'm doing "How Great Thou Art." Simple, three verse/chorus chord melody. I played it for my two uke groups back at Easter time, and they said it was beautiful. I'll really need some prayers & an assist from the big guy upstairs to calm my nerves on Sunday.

Anybody else taking big steps to expand their ukulele universe recently? It's stressful & scary, but ultimately rewarding.

Believe, and you shall succeed! Thinking of you.

Good for you! Enjoy the experience!

What a great month to move you forward... that's a great turnaround from the recent posts on the hand injury. Let us know how the solo goes (breathe!)

Have faith in yourself.

You can do what you want to do.

You are performing in front of friends who will be very supportive and astounded at your abilities.

Knock em for a homerum

Congratulations those sound like great opportunities. Our circle has also branched out and is doing some intro workshops at local library branches. This evening will be the second one and I am looking forward to going and assisting the newbies with their first chords and tuning etc. At the end of August I am invited to play at a nursing home, so I will have to practice my old songs a bit more and hopefully the folks there will enjoy it.

merlin666 said:

Congratulations those sound like great opportunities. Our circle has also branched out and is doing some intro workshops at local library branches. This evening will be the second one and I am looking forward to going and assisting the newbies with their first chords and tuning etc. At the end of August I am invited to play at a nursing home, so I will have to practice my old songs a bit more and hopefully the folks there will enjoy it.

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Good for you..... teaching newbie ukulele players & entertaining at a nursing home is a great thing. Have a great time with both of these opportunities.

Thanks for the words of encouragement & good vibes everyone. May & June were definitely not fun for me with left wrist surgery and a right index finger laceration. But a strong desire to keep playing my uke was the best physical therapy.

Good luck to all of you that are stepping out of your comfort zones.

Sounds as though you are enjoying the forays outside your comfort zones. It is fun. Stretching ourselves and finding new ways to help others and express ourselves.

Enjoy yourself. It's great that your injuries have not held you back.

Congratulations.

Very inspirational, thanks for sharing. You have come so far from when you first started. I always enjoy reading your posts.

I had a fairly major operation on three fingers of my left hand requiring over 50 stitches. That was 3 months ago and I have just started trying to form chords. Lots of physio with constent hand exercises and it's slowly improving. My big stretch will be singing solo without playing a uke at an upcoming uke jam. My playing partner Tim will play accompaniment.

Good luck with your Church solo.

DownUpDave said:

Very inspirational, thanks for sharing. You have come so far from when you first started. I always enjoy reading your posts.

I had a fairly major operation on three fingers of my left hand requiring over 50 stitches. That was 3 months ago and I have just started trying to form chords. Lots of physio with constent hand exercises and it's slowly improving. My big stretch will be singing solo without playing a uke at an upcoming uke jam. My playing partner Tim will play accompaniment.

Good luck with your Church solo.

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A singing solo ......you are brave. Have fun with it.

Prayers for your continued hand recovery. The ukulele is a perfect piece of PT equipment.

DownUpDave said:

I had a fairly major operation on three fingers of my left hand requiring over 50 stitches. That was 3 months ago and I have just started trying to form chords. Lots of physio with constent hand exercises and it's slowly improving. My big stretch will be singing solo without playing a uke at an upcoming uke jam. My playing partner Tim will play accompaniment.

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Glad your hand is improving Dave. Singing solo without an ukulele can be a lot of fun. It actually allows you to interact more with the audience. If you mentally divide the audience into sections and look towards each section as you are singing. The people will swear you are looking directly at them individually. (I scoffed until I tried it. It works!) Just relax and have fun. The audience will respond in kind.

You go girl!
Today we will graduate 15 kids in our ukulele summer kamp program called Making Ukulele Music.
These kids are beautiful, they are well behaved, they help each other, and they thank us every day when we dismiss class.
I look at each one of them as a little miracle!
My wife, and our bestie, and I have played in ALFs for over 3 years now, and I wouldn't trade the experience for anything. We do our best to play their requests. One show, next month, is an Aloha show, and we're learning so much Hawaiian music! I can pronounce most of the words now, I have no idea what they mean, but it doesn't matter!

Dave, congrats on getting better!

Bravo RG! The whole point is to play the instrument, bring music out into the world and sweeten your soul. I'm glad you've been able to find great musical companions both in ukulele acquisitions and people. And you keep expanding your sphere of where to share your joy.

I have enjoyed reading your posts about your ukulele Journey and have coveted every ukulele you ever purchased. I share your taste but I most appreciate hearing about how you are learning and expanding your horizons.

I have devoted lots of time and energy to learning my instrument. Stepping out to Lead is another step. It's only because you care that you have some trepidation. Making mistakes is part of the journey. I can say after several years of offering workshops now and then it does get easier. In fact the last time I offered a swing song sing-along at a music festival was the first time I felt completely competent and in control. I am usually full of self critiques and wish I had done blah blah blah. But this time it couldn't have been better I look forward to hearing a similar report from you in the future.

rubykey said:

Bravo RG! The whole point is to play the instrument, bring music out into the world and sweeten your soul. I'm glad you've been able to find great musical companions both in ukulele acquisitions and people. And you keep expanding your sphere of where to share your joy.

I have enjoyed reading your posts about your ukulele Journey and have coveted every ukulele you ever purchased. I share your taste but I most appreciate hearing about how you are learning and expanding your horizons.

I have devoted lots of time and energy to learning my instrument. Stepping out to Lead is another step. It's only because you care that you have some trepidation. Making mistakes is part of the journey. I can say after several years of offering workshops now and then it does get easier. In fact the last time I offered a swing song sing-along at a music festival was the first time I felt completely competent and in control. I am usually full of self critiques and wish I had done blah blah blah. But this time it couldn't have been better I look forward to hearing a similar report from you in the future.

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Thanks rubykey. My biggest takeaway from my first teaching experience was to keep my expectations more fluid. How I saw it going in my head, wasn't how it went. But that's ok. What might be easy for me, was too hard for some, and too easy for others. Finding a middle ground, where everybody gets something out of it is the goal.

For tomorrow at church ......I'll say a prayer, take a deep breath, and make a joyful noise unto the Lord.

My solo went great at church this morning. I was super nervous when I arrived at church, but after the band rehearsed all of our other songs for the service, I calmed down. I took a deep breath & said a quick prayer. I made it through with no mess-ups, and I didn't faint from stress. All good. I got lots of compliments from the congregation members. "How Great Thou Art" is such a beautiful hymn, and a favorite of many people. It sounds fantastic on a ukulele. A big shout out to our sound man. He turned up my volume for the solo, which helped a lot.

On a technical note .....I normally use a Boss TU-3 tuner pedal as my tuner/mute switch. I recently added a Boss AD-2 acoustic preamp pedal as well. It adds reverb and resonance, and it sounds really good.

Thanks to everyone for the good vibes. To all of you that are trying out something challenging, just tell yourself .....You Got This!

Great! Future solos will be easier to do.

Any chance you could post a video of this.

Lacole said:

Great! Future solos will be easier to do.

Any chance you could post a video of this.

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Unfortunately, no one did a video today at church. When I get a chance, I'll make a video of it at home. It's a very simple version of the song, which I think really makes it beautiful.