The family that strums together....

....has a blast! I'm pretty sure I've already mentioned how I came about the desire to learn how to play the ukulele, but in case you missed it, I'll give a brief explanation (trust me, this is going somewhere). About a year ago, I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts (sadly,Megan has since ended her podcast), and at the end, Megan played her ukulele. I had no idea up to that point that she played, but it was such sweet music as she sang to her little boy. I forgot about it until this past August when I was at my daughter's house one day and a flier offering community college classes (no credit) came in her mail. I was looking through it to see if maybe there was an art class I would be interested in taking, but instead, the first thing I saw was Beginning Ukulele classes. Then I remembered Megan and her sweet music!!! In that moment, I made my decision. I registered for the class, told my husband about it, and he promptly took me over to Guitar Center to buy me my first ukulele. I chose a tenor by Fender, and I am so in love with the tone of this instrument! It wasn't long after that, we were going on vacation to see my husband's family, and I've become such a fanatic about getting my practice time in everyday, that I decided to go buy a soprano uke because of its smaller size that would be perfect for traveling. While I was purchasing it, I decided to go ahead and buy my daughter an identical one because she had said she wanted to play also.

                            My soprano (Makala) is on the right, and my Fender tenor on the left.                    
                           
Fast forward to last night......once a month, the strum shop where I purchased our sopranos, hosts a monthly 'strum along'. I love these meetups and my instructor who owns the strum shop, is so awesome. He loves the instrument so much and really wants you to be able to play well, so for about the first 20 minutes, he gives some quick instruction in case there are first-timers attending. He uses an overhead to project the chords and finger placements, which is very cool if you don't already know them. My daughter and her husband asked if they could join me at the meetup last night (of course you can!!!!!), and I brought both my ukes so my son-in-law could learn also. They loved it so much that by the time they left, I had purchased another ukulele...one for my son-in-law as an early birthday present!! My husband? Well, he has such an ear for music and since he already plays guitar, he is able to just pick my uke up and start playing songs. Looks like our entire family is going to be strumming....

Just to show you that not all ukulele players are like Don Ho or Tiny Tim, here's a list of other famous strummers, which is very cool!:
Dave Pegg (from Jethro Tull)
Taylor Swift
Bob Hope
Warren Buffett
Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam)
Barrack Obama (well, he is Hawaaian)
Pink (I would've never guessed that one!)
Eric Clapton
Bruce Springsteen
Stephen Tyler (Aerosmith...really?)
Jason Mraz (love playing his songs!)
Zac Efron (I know, right!??!)
Marilyn Monroe (WHAT!?!)
George Harrison
Sir Paul McCartney
John Lennon
Bette Midler
Joni Mitchell
Cyndi Lauper
Jack Johnson (a personal fav)
And the list keeps growing.....

There has been knitting and spinning happening too, but I will include it in my next post. Right now, I'm off to practice some sweet music, and to block a cardigan I finished!!