Jenny

Two years ago, my hubby bought me a ukulele for Christmas.

Sounds like the start of a strange country song or a bad joke, but it's true. I had wanted one for years and he went to an Indie music shop in Madison and picked out the most beautiful instrument I have ever owned (except for my amazing shower voice, that is).



My obsession with ukes began in elementary school. It was common knowledge that in third grade, you learned to play the little xylophones, in fourth grade it was recorders, and in fifth grade it was ukuleles. I mastered the xylophones, played a solo during the recorder recital, and was primed for the ukes when... they disappeared. Suddenly, when I reached my "senior year" at Lincoln Elementary, there were no ukuleles. The box of dark brown mini-guitar like things was gone. I was crushed. I joined the orchestra and began playing viola, but it wasn't the same.



I got to play guitar in seventh grade. I made up a song to entertain my friends, called it, "The Sun's Comin' Over the Hill," and I got requests to play it in the practice rooms. I enjoyed guitar, but found it difficult and painful to press the strings with my little hands and puny fingers. My oldest brother played guitar in a band by this time and he, with his seven-inch, monster fingers, made bar chords look easy.



My fascination faded a bit until I saw Steve Martin's "The Jerk." Uke players know well the scene where Steve plays "Tonight, You Belong to Me" on a ukulele while Bernadette Peters sings harmony before busting out her trumpet for a solo. That sealed the deal. From then on, any song with a simple chord arrangement and catchy lyrics was added to my list of songs to play on the uke someday. That day was just before Christmas 2006.

Matthew presented me with a short, black strap with a curved, rubbery shoulder pad threaded onto it. I was truly baffled for a while, before I figured that it probably went to some sort of instrument case. Once I guessed correctly, he brought out the case that went with the strap, and I still wasn't convinced that there was a real ukulele inside. When I opened the case, I think my heart skipped a beat. It was soooooo pretty. I undid the velcro tie and lifted the treasure from the case. The movement made the strings vibrate a little and the slight chord it made was like a perfect little chorus of bells somewhere. Yeah, it was love at first sight.



It's a Bushman Concert "Jenny" made of spruce and rosewood with mother of pearl inlay. I also got a felt pick, a method book and one of Jim Beloff's songbooks to get me started. I quickly decided to bring the uke along with us on our holiday travels and I played it a few times in front of our families. By the end of two weeks, I had built up decent calluses on my left hand and knew most of the basic chords by heart.

I didn't play my uke for a while. Natalie was born, we sold our house, and moved to Minnesota. With all the space in our new house, we ended up with an empty, glass-doored hutch in the formal living room. I suggested we turn that corner of the room into a music area. We put our stringed instruments including the ukulele in the hutch, slipped my recorder into the drawer, set up the electric piano, assembled the music stand, and food a nook for Matthew's guitar.



Since we've moved, I've played my ukulele quite often. I'm still not that great, but since it's so easy to play at least adequately, any little attempt sounds pretty good. The ukulele is, according to the Guiness Book of World Records, the easiest instrument to play. While I'm not sure I'd agree with that, I will say that it is the source of some of the most beautiful and cheerful sounds ever produced. It's like happiness in a curvy wooden box.

I was pregnant with Natalie at the time and I like to think that she heard (and hopefully enjoyed) hearing the sweet, sweet sounds of a simple C chord through the layers of tissue between her and the back of my instrument. Because of this, or for no logical reason at all, I think Natalie is a more "musically-inclined" babe than Leah was or is. Maybe someday I'll post a little video with my playing in it, but until then, I urge you to have a listen to the fabulous James Hill or the virtuosity of Jake Shimabukuro. Enjoy!