So, my wife got me a ukulele this past Christmas. I don’t remember ever indicating my desire to have a ukulele. I’d hinted my desire to someday play a guitar, but I know a guitar worth buying is out of my price range. But my wife surprised me and got me a uke with an instructional beginners book with DVDs and chord charts. I can honestly say it was one of my top 5 Christmas presents of all time…I can’t think of what the other top presents are…but to give them the benefit of the doubt I’ll just say it was at least my top 5. Here’s why:
1. The ukulele is easy to learn. In a day I was playing half a dozen chords and looking up songs, mostly Christmas songs, to play. In a week, I began to get those wonderful callouses on my fingertips so they didn’t hurt as much holding down chords and playing for long periods of time. Not that the nylon ukulele strings cut into your finger much, but now I have fingertips of steel.
2. I play it in a band. Shortly after Christmas my church had a transition of leadership in the worship band and asked me if I would be interested in leading songs every Sunday. I will not get into the complexity of the situation, but I was happy to pour my musical passion into something like singing fantastic worship songs every week. A couple months later, after I had practiced and played my ukulele a number of weeks, I began to lead the worship band on my ukulele. I’m not sure how many church worship teams have a ukulele as a lead instrument, but our church does.
3. It’s a lot of fun. You cannot listen to a ukulele and frown. It has a very happy sound and bright uplifting tone. And (what my wife likes best) it’s not that loud. Guitars can be really loud, unless, of course, you have an electric guitar and have turned the volume down or played with headphones. The ukulele is subtle and pleasant to listen to, making it more fun to play.
4. It’s portable. I take it just about everywhere I go (Just ask my wife). It lives in my backpack and whenever I ride my motorcycle you can see the neck of my ukulele sticking out the top zipper. I can wip it out when I’m bored or on a lunch break or when my videos are rendering at work (I make sure the shut my door and play reletively quietly). It’s one of the most portable instruments, besides maybe a kazoo.
5. It’s cheep. My wife only payed $30ish for my ukulele and beginner’s guide. Of course, I’m now interested in finding a higher quality one since I play in the worship band at church, but even a quality concert Ukulele can be found for $150 as opposed to a quality guitar which is upwards of $800 in many cases.
Overall, I can honestly say, the ukulele has brought me the challenges and joys of learning something new. I would recommend the ukulele to anyone. Sure it’s great to listen to music, but it’s so much more fun, at least for me, to make music and put a smile on people’s faces as they see me having fun on my little instrument. Thanks honey for getting such a wonderful present. I hope I can return the favor this year. 🙂
Till next time. Be Blessed!
Jake Wattenphul 