Thursday, January 24, 2008

Anniversary

January 24th, 2007 was the day when I picked up my first 'ukulele. It was pure co-incidence that I decided to get one during a trip to Oahu last year. My family visited the Dole Pineapple plantation on January 23rd, 2007 and we bought tickets to the train tour for the plantation. We got to the train station as the train was about to leave, so we sat at the waiting area to wait for the next train. We were sitting pretty much right at the front of the line along with another couple, and there was the train station attendant playing a 'ukulele. I remember thinking that it sounded very nice when I heard him strum it. After playing a little bit he came over and introduced the 'ukulele to us at the beginning of the line. He told us the meaning of the word 'ukulele (jumping flea), the "My Dog Has Fleas" tuning, and how easy it is to learn to play it. Having already enjoyed the sound of it when he was playing it, I thought perhaps I should give it a try if I saw one during the trip. The next day we went to the Aloha Stadium flea market. There were several vendors selling 'ukuleles there, and I stopped at several of them to check out their ukes. Not knowing anything about 'ukuleles back then, I figured I'd spend about $100 or so on a "nice" 'ukulele. I ended up getting a Leolani super soprano (pictured here). I didn't even know what size it really was and for a little while I thought I bought a tenor sized uke. Eventually I found a lot of great resources to learn about ukes and how to play them, and started buying ukes left and right. It's kind of amazing to think that had I made it to the train before the one I actually took at the Dole plantation, I may have never bought that first uke. But perhaps it was meant to be, because to this day, I still can't get enough of playing the 'ukulele!

Here's to many more wonderful years of 'ukulele playing.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

A Leolani! That's my 1st uke too! A soprano that I've restrung with low G.
I spend more time with my hi-G Kamaka pineapple.
But my Leo will always have a special place in my heart! v_(^,^)_/

Which uke should I bring on my next trip to Oahu???

What's the maximum you'd spend on a ukulele case for your best uke?

If you could steal one of my ukes, which one would it be???

How curly do you like your koa? (preferably on a uke)

What's the maximum number of ukes a perfectly sane person should have???

Poll: How often do you play the ukulele???

Poll: Which guitar company's approach to ukes do you prefer???

Poll: What's your favorite type of headstock???

Poll: The new basic Collings concert uke (UC-1) sells for about $1k, your reaction is: