ukulele .

I bought a ukulele last summer sort of on a whim (oh, the ways you find to empty your pockets when you're getting a steady paycheck). It was shipped to me from Hawaii, and a week or so later, I was the proud owner of a soprano. The first few days I played it a good bit, but then I sort of forgot about it (as is the case with many new things, unfortunately). The other day I was listening to a playlist I had made for a girl from work (Sami) and this song called Sweet Pea came on by Amos Lee.

Well, I decided out of nowhere that I wanted to learn how to play this song. I immediately stopped everything that I was doing and dug out my uke, after realizing that while there was guitar in the song, it was not the prominent instrument.

The chords on a ukulele are weird; there's no other way to put it. I have so much more trouble doing finger configurations on there than on a guitar, despite the fact that there are only 4 strings instead of 6. But I stuck with it, and come today (this happened last night) I can play the whole song all the way through almost perfectly. I still need to work on getting cleaner fingerings on the chords though.

I don't know if I can sing along with the song as well while I play, but that would be the next step. I'm glad I picked it back up again though, if only for a moment. I happened to run into a friend from one of my freshman year English classes today, who at the time was really into music, had a band going, and big dreams with big plans to make music into a career. He just finished his last college exam ever a few days ago, so he's moving into the adult world. It was disheartening to hear that while he still played guitar and whatnot, music was no longer in the forefront of his life; he was going to work for UPS (he majored in business or management or something like that). What a shame to hear the stories where at some point people need to give up a dream for a practical life. I wish I could say I never do, and that I always fervently chase my own dreams, but that's simply not true. I'm too realistic; too cynical.

Regardless, I want to make this summer about spilling emotion in many ways -- writing, music, lyrics, recording, just being and feeling. I had made it a goal earlier in the year to play more guitar more and failed miserably at that. And while sometimes I can't find inspiration to write something, I think a good place to start is covers -- and move on from there. So that's what to expect in the future I think (though perhaps not the near future).

Well I've wandered a bit here, but anyways, the ukulele was a good rediscovery, not to mention a fantastic excuse to diverge from my packing... which I thankfully almost have done. Just a few more things to pack up and I'll be all set. Tomorrow I load up the truck and get ready to go...

playing and singing at the same time. woo.