Greetings from NW Washington

Hi everyone,

I’m new to the forum and to the ukulele, but I’ve been a musician for a very long time. I’ve been an amateur classical bassist for many years. When my daughter was born a few years ago I picked up the banjo thinking that I’d play songs for her, but I got a little carried away and ended up spending all my time learning old-time fiddle tunes, which are great but not good for singalongs.

I’d accumulated a few assorted cheap ukes and decided to try again as a way of teaching some music to my daughter while the whole family is staying at home. I bought a nicer uke for myself and gave my daughter the best of the rest (which still sounds okay and plays well enough).

For my own education, I’ve been working with Wayne Erbsen’s book as well as a bunch of books by Aaron and Nicole Keim (whose music and ukuleles I admire very much). I’m not sure what kind of music I want to play, but I’ll probably focus on some folk music that I can play with fingerstyle or clawhammer, or some simple tunes that we can sing along with.

My daughter is having trouble getting a clear sound on fretted notes - it seems like she needs to build some calluses on her fingers and press a little harder, but it’s hard for me to tell, and I don’t want to harp on her too much at this early stage.

Anyway, glad to be here and hello to all the other new folks!

Welcome Mark, I live not too far away in Blaine. There are quite a few ukers in the B'ham area. We have a great goup just south of us in Fidalgo Bay, a couple in Bellingham and a great one in Blaine at the Senior Center. Of course with the isolation they are all closed right now.Here's the site for the Bellingham group:http://www.bellinghamukulelegroup.com. Hope to see you and your daughter at one of our monthly jams.

Welcome from a little north of Blaine, behind the Cedar Curtain (best I could come up with for the currently closed border).

Welcome to UU, Mark!

That's a good one Glenn. Is that part of the White Rock/Surrey group, Langley or Vancouver. Lot's of great players up there.

Welcome Mark!

Patrick Madsen said:

That's a good one Glenn. Is that part of the White Rock/Surrey group, Langley or Vancouver. Lot's of great players up there.

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Almost Vancouver. I'm in Burnaby, but not in any groups at the moment.

Hello from down the street. Or at least somewhere close. Bellingham isn’t very big. BUG will start up again sometime when this carona-mess is over. You and your daughter would be welcome.

Also, keep an ear out for the Bellingham Folk Festival next January. It’s a wonderful weekend full of music and workshops.

Thanks! We'll keep watching for BUG to get started again once the craziness subsides. I've been to the Bellingham Folk Festival most of the last few years (I had to miss it once because it was a concert weekend with the local symphony and I was really busy) - but I've been going for the banjo workshops and skipping a lot of the other stuff - will probably start bringing additional instruments next time.

Mark.T said:

I've been going for the banjo workshops ...

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This year was my first. I sat in on the clawhammer workshop. You might have seen me in the back row with my Kala mahogany tenor.

rorym said:

This year was my first. I sat in on the clawhammer workshop. You might have seen me in the back row with my Kala mahogany tenor.

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I do remember a uke player in the workshop, so it must have been you. Was the tune easily rendered on the ukulele? It was a G tune, seems like it probably would translate okay, but it was also sort of an unusual kind of tune. I would have been on your far right playing a steel-clad Pisgah banjo. There were a fair number of ukulele players walking around - I noticed a couple in the slow jam session I attended, too.

Do you do a lot of clawhammer, or do you play other stuff? I'm still figuring out what kind of tunes I want to learn.

I was in way over my head. I have a friend who plays banjo and the uke and the last time I watched him play I was intrigued as he clawhammered his uke. So that’s why I decided to sit in that workshop. I’m on a slack key kick these days, after I learn a few more tunes I’ll be ready to learn the new technique.