Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Ukes and Flukes and Music

I've been wanting to learn to play an instrument. I played French Horn for 5 years, and loved it, but I also love to sing... and singing while playing a French Horn is better left to P.D.Q. Bach compositions. I tried to learn guitar once (I had a boyfriend who played classical guitar professionally, and was a great teacher), but my stubby child-sized fingers will not reach across the neck for any barre action.
Luckily, we have a perfectly suitable instrument here, called a Fluke. (available from Elderly Instruments, if you're interested)
Even more luckily, once I've diddled around on my own for awhile, I have someone from whom I can ask advice when the time comes to find an instructor, or just to pester with questions. My Sisinlaw, Lynnie, is one half of a wonderful music group called 'The Fabulous Heftones'. They are fairly well-known, especially in ukulele circles. Brian was mentioned just today on Ukulalia. He has a video on Youtube.com, playing My Blue Heaven. (Wonderful, we played it while we had breakfast, and it was just perfect for this sunny morning :-}
While I was there, I clicked on an associated video by Jake Shimabukuro called Ukulele Weeps... wow... I like 1920's music like the Heftones play, but I also hoped I could learn other genres.. this video cemented my desire to learn.. Not that I'll likely reach the level of playing Brian and Jake are capable of, but I might be able to figure out a few favorite Celtic and Pagan songs...
Tomorrow I'll look for an online site to pick up some basics...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Please keep us posted. I'm so excited for you. I have five years of piano lessons and two years of flamenco guitar lessons but have retained very little in the way of skills. Once I watched Brian's videos, I wished I could play. I have been considering a uke since then.

Good luck!

Lynx said...

According to family lore, my mamaw used to play the uke when she was younger. I never got the blessing of hearing her play, even though I bought her a uke for her birthday one year. Music gene is strong in this one, Yoda....