POLL: Pre-Ukulele Experience

Before coming to the ukulele, did you play/practice another:

  • Fretted Instrument - never to 6mos

    Votes: 23 27.4%
  • Fretted Instrument - 6mos to 24mos

    Votes: 6 7.1%
  • Fretted Instrument - 2yrs to 5yrs

    Votes: 4 4.8%
  • Fretted Instrument - 5yrs or more

    Votes: 39 46.4%
  • Non-Fretted Instrument - never to 6mos

    Votes: 8 9.5%
  • Non-Fretted Instrument - 6mos to 24mos

    Votes: 5 6.0%
  • Non-Fretted Instrument - 2yrs to 5yrs

    Votes: 9 10.7%
  • Non-Fretted Instrument - 5yrs or more

    Votes: 28 33.3%

  • Total voters
    84

Ed1

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Please check only 1 or 2 boxes.

I've been curious about this for a while. There is so much knowledge and experience on this forum, I'm curious how everyone began their musical journey.
 
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I checked a fretted instrument 2 to 5 years but to say I had 2-5 years experience would be an overstatement. I started with a guitar but my playing time and frequency would look like the right half of a bell curve. It was very high at the beginning but dropped off to where it was little to none at the end. I might have had 1-2 years experience over 5 years. (And I was never very good.)
 
I played violin (poorly) from 4th grade through my sophomore year of high school, then switched to viola. After that it was choir, mostly, until the uke made its way into my life.
 
I played guitar for almost 50 years before the uke in 2013, then added bass uke a year later. I never touched my four guitars again and gave them to my nephew. I now have nine tenor ukes and thirty bass uke/mini bass guitars.


This is Michael Kohan in Los Angeles, Beverly Grove near the Beverly Center
9 tenor cutaway ukes, 4 acoustic bass ukes, 12 solid body bass ukes, 14 mini electric bass guitars (Total: 39)

• Donate to The Ukulele Kids Club, they provide ukuleles to children in hospital music therapy programs. www.theukc.org
• Member The CC Strummers: YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/CCStrummers/video, Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheCCStrummers
 
My 2 year uke anniversary is up. My Amazon account confirmed that I ordered my Donner Tenor 12/05/2018.

Before the uke I played flute for 35 years. I still play my flutes, but not daily. The big advantage of the ukulele is that I can practise in the evening after my children have gone to bed. My flutes would wake them up.
 
No previous musical instrument experience except a little percussion in high school band.
 
Was in choir in Jr & Sr High School, but never learned to read music. Sang in the local community choir for two years until that folded.

I tried to learn guitar for about 5 or 6 mos, but marriage and jobs side-tracked that. Tried to pick it up again after retirement, but OA in hands just couldn't take the steel strings.

Tenor ukulele is working out pretty well for me now.
 
Began on trumpet in 1966. Majored in music ed and worked in various bands for a number of years. Self taught on keyboard starting in the mid 70's. I also started on djembe in 2012.
 
Classical piano lessons all through school, 1989-2001. Self-directed at steel 6-string guitar from 2004-2005 or so, then put on the shelf. Have continued playing piano for pleasure through to this day. Discovered ukulele in summer 2017.

Many other other various musical toys have come and gone over the decades... ukulele and piano are the only ones so far that seem to have serious and consistent staying power in my life.
 
Only classical piano, for 5+ years ending in mid teen years.
 
Learned to play piano about 57 years. Picked up guitar in high school, played off an on for about 15 years. Started playing the celtic harp about 20 years ago. It was my main instrument (i.e. played daily) until the ukulele came into my life a couple of years ago - although I did pick up the bowed psaltery, plucked psaltery (unrelated to the bowed psaltery), and the hammered dulcimer along the way. Other than three years of formal piano lessons as a child, everything else has been self-taught. Proof that with a little bit of music theory, and a healthy amount of curiosity, your musical journey can take you a lot further than you think. :)
 
I've been playing musical instruments for practically my whole life; violin, piano, cello, until landing on the double bass, which I played for almost 30 years (with a bit of electric bass thrown in). About 5 years ago I picked up clawhammer banjo. I'm only on the first month or so of ukulele, but I think I'm progressing quickly.
 
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