Hello from Central Florida

KoaKat

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Location
Central Florida
Hello, everyone. I’ve been lurking for a few weeks and decided to introduce myself. My name is Kathy. I am probably one of the oldest members of this forum and the least experienced. I started teaching myself ukulele a month ago.

Last Christmas I gave my niece a kalimba and decided to get one for myself, as well. I have close to zero musical ability but the kalimba sounded so lovely and seemed to be fairly easy to learn. Within a few weeks I had four kalimbas and was playing every day (just for my own enjoyment).

One day I was looking at kalimbas on the Bondi site (because of course FOUR kalimbas was not enough) and started looking at their ukuleles. I fell in love with two of them — a spalted mango and a koa. I thought, “Wow, if I learn to play ukulele I can buy one of those!” So I did some research and bought a concert-size Enya Nova (flowered! so pretty!) and started watching YouTube videos.

As some of you may know, the Enya has a slightly narrower neck than average. Unfortunately, I have short chunky fingers. I also have crooked little fingers. They look like they were broken and healed without being set properly but, in fact, I was born with them. As a result, I was struggling with some of the chords. I had trouble keeping my fat fingers in the little spaces and also had trouble reaching far enough to play some chords.

After more research, I decided that a soprano with a wide neck might work better for me. I found a cheap ($35 with shipping) wide neck Mahalo Kahiko and it arrived yesterday. I know it is a crappy instrument, even as cheap beginner instruments go, but I decided for 35 bucks I would take a chance. If it didn’t help, I would pass it along to my grandson.

Well, that cheap little thing fits my hands! I can now play chords that I can’t play on the Enya. YAY!! One of these days I hope to find a NICE uke with the same dimensions but for now I am a happy camper playing my little Mahalo.

Thanks to everyone who takes the time to contribute information to this site. It is an amazing resource for beginners like me.

kathy
 
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Welcome to UU Kathy and a big hello from Chicago! Thanks so much for the nice introduction. Happy to hear that the wide neck fits your hands better and you can make it work. If you are one of the elders on the forum you are in good company, me included. Have a blast on your Mahalo Kahiko and keep enjoying that smile on your face when you play.
 
Welcome to UU Kathy and a big hello from Chicago! Thanks so much for the nice introduction. Happy to hear that the wide neck fits your hands better and you can make it work. If you are one of the elders on the forum you are in good company, me included. Have a blast on your Mahalo Kahiko and keep enjoying that smile on your face when you play.

Thanks for the welcome! I grew up in Gary so we were almost neighbors at one time. :) I must admit I am glad to no longer be shoveling snow!

k.
 
Welcome Kathy.

I had trouble keeping my fat fingers in the little spaces

Though a Ukulele with wider nut may help, what you need more is more practice. One month is not enough.
I had trouble with D chord (0222) on my 1.5 inch fingerboard, but after a lot of practice, I made it better.
 
Welcome to UU, Kathy!

It's never too late to learn music. Both kalimba and ukulele are very beginner friendly, but they aren't toys. In the hands of talented players, they sound very satisfying. For the rest of us, there is a lot on offer, whatever your level and skill.

Enjoy your musical journey!
 
Don't know exactly where central Florida is, we have friends in Silver Springs, and there used to be a neat little music store in Micanopy. But the covid got is as it is basically a tourist destination.
 
Don't know exactly where central Florida is, we have friends in Silver Springs, and there used to be a neat little music store in Micanopy. But the covid got is as it is basically a tourist destination.

I live in the northeast section of The Villages, about 40 minutes south of Silver Springs. It is a shame that so many small businesses have been lost to covid. :(

k.
 
Though a Ukulele with wider nut may help, what you need more is more practice. One month is not enough.
I had trouble with D chord (0222) on my 1.5 inch fingerboard, but after a lot of practice, I made it better.

I am sure you are correct that with more practice I will be able to do things that I can't now. My D chords sound much better on the new uke, though, which of course motivates me to keep playing. I play every day, anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour or more, depending on what we have going on here. There are several uke groups in The Villages (where I live) and I plan to see if they are meeting again. (Everything shut down for a year due to covid.) Getting together weekly or monthly with others will also motivate me to keep practicing.

Thx for the welcome!

k.
 
Hi Kathy, welcome to the UU forum and to ukuleles.

I understand having fingers that are not shaped the right way for playing. My little fingers curve the wrong way for playing many chords where I have to stretch. Ditto for some finger playing. Enjoy your new Mahalo Kahiko. Truly glad that you found one that fit your hands.

You'll have fun playing with a uke club. Most are very welcoming to beginners and happy to help you learn and progress.
 
Hi Kathy, welcome to the UU forum and to ukuleles.

I understand having fingers that are not shaped the right way for playing. My little fingers curve the wrong way for playing many chords where I have to stretch. Ditto for some finger playing. Enjoy your new Mahalo Kahiko. Truly glad that you found one that fit your hands.

You'll have fun playing with a uke club. Most are very welcoming to beginners and happy to help you learn and progress.

My husband suggested that I see a specialist about my little fingers (the left one, at least, because it is the most crooked of the two and is the one that impacts my uke playing). I can't imagine anything could be done about it at my age but I think it is nice of him to suggest it. I may let an hand ortho surgeon take a look at it, just on the off chance ...

For now, I just accept that I can't play some songs because my fingers can't reach (just like I can't play certain songs on the kalimba because of its limited range). Some music is better than no music, right?

Thanks for the welcome!

k.
 
Welcome to UU Kathy, congrats on your new ukuleles. Are the numerous kalimbas for different keys?
You can find the Tampa Bay Ukulele Society on meetup.com and facebook. We're the largest ukulele club in Florida, and have weekly virtual things online. We're like one big happy family. Our big festival is in November, i hope you'll join us.
 
Welcome to UU Kathy, congrats on your new ukuleles. Are the numerous kalimbas for different keys?
You can find the Tampa Bay Ukulele Society on meetup.com and facebook. We're the largest ukulele club in Florida, and have weekly virtual things online. We're like one big happy family. Our big festival is in November, i hope you'll join us.

Hi, Nickie. I have not tuned any of my kalimbas for different keys.

I bought a fairly nice one for my [musical, mandolin-playing] niece for Christmas and decided to get a relatively inexpensive ($28) one for myself just to see if I could play. That first one was a hollow box style with pretty flowers that are probably stickers but look like inlaid mother-of-pearl.

Next I wanted to see what a flat board would sound like so I got one of those (albeit a bit nicer). Then I wanted to see what an acrylic flat board would sound like and I found the CUTEST one, designed like a cat. (I'm a cat freak.) Then, because I was getting frustrated with just having 17 keys I bought a 34-key chromatic kalimba.

I play all of them but probably play the 34-key more. I have lots of digital sheet music and I have color-coded the files so I know which ones can be played on 17-key and which need 34. Do I sound OCD? :) You can understand why hubby says PLEASE let's not turn this house into a ukulele museum!

With my uke sheet music I organize them into three folders (Level 1, 2, and 3) based on how likely I think it is that I will be able to play the chords. I'm actually trying to play pieces in #2 and #3, because some of the chords aren't as difficult as they seemed at first. If I can't play a chord I just skip that section and move on!

I will definitely check out the Tampa group and I think it is highly likely that I will head down that way in November for the hoedown! Sounds like fun!

Thanks for the welcome!

k.
 
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