First few strums

The first few strums were definitely the most difficult. Thinking the noise that would be produced by my cute little uke could sound bad was horrible. I wanted everything to sound great right away. But nothing I strummed even sounded good. It took days to get a series of chords that sounded right together and even longer to gain the confidence to strum loud enough for others to hear. I still worry that what I play will sound terrible.

The internet helped a lot in finding songs that I could and wanted to play. Of course they all lean towards vintage Jazz. The best was the first time I found a tab that matched a song that I already had a recording of. It was After Your Gone. I have a recording done by Tuba Skinny, a band from New Orleans. The tab I found was in the same key. It was fabulous to play along, relaxing and exhilarating at the same time!

I started gathering as many interesting tabs as I could find and matching them to songs or if the key wasn't right, transposing them into the right key so they would fit. When I was playing along with a recording I wasn't worrying about the sound I was making so much as I was enjoying playing.

I couldn't keep my new found hobby secret for very long. I started talking to people. Soon after that I was dragged to the Ukulele Circle by a very good friend. She gave me the courage to go and we even performed together that night. After only a month of messing around on the Uke. Unfortunately she moved away for school but I still continue to go to the Uke Circle and have even enlisted many others to attend.

I'm continuing to practice. My confidence has increased substantially. I've started playing with a pick to save my finger nails. Before all the strumming was filing off my right index finger nail.

Currently I'm practicing On a Slow Boat to China. It's a really fun song that was written by Frank Loesser in 1948. Unfortunately it is in the key of B flat which is making the chording very tricky. I've mostly been playing songs in the key of C, F, and G which is probably my favourite. I'm hoping that I will be good enough and have the confidence and courage to play it at an upcoming Uke Circle. The real challenge will be finding the courage to sing.... eek!!!