I love being a Ukulele Lady

Oh dear, I hear you all say, another ukulele post. The woman has gone ukeing mad! And yes, I probably have.

Yesterday, myself and my fellow Strummers from the village headed down to Taunton for the South West Ukulele Union Jam in the Castle Green Inn.  The weather was foul and I have done my poor back in so earlier in the day I had even entertained the thought of  not going, but I'm so glad I did.

The South West Ukulele Union is a meeting place for any uke group in the South West and the idea behind the Jam was to give us an opportunity to meet up and play some choons and just have a really good, rip-roaring time. It was hosted by Taunton Ukulele Strumming Club, a fine bunch of people, if ever there was one.

Budleigh  Ukulele Strumming Club made me want to move to Devon

We arrived at the venue a little nervous, having downloaded the song book and had a bit of a practice. We were not quite sure what to expect. We were a good forty five minutes early so expected there to be a few people there, but not a huge area crammed full of uke players, with others already spilling over into another room next to it. It was strictly standing room only. Fortunately, a chair was found for me and someone kindly lent me a music stand as I couldn't see the projector screen with the songs and chords on it.  We chatted to the people around us, exchanging uke stories, showing off our instruments and getting the drinks in. Strictly non-alcoholic if we were going to last until 6.15pm.

The Stockton Strummers

The first thing that struck me was what a universal instrument the ukulele is.  The room was full of probably one of the most diverse mixes of people I've come across. There were youngsters (many Somerset schools have apparently given up the dreaded recorder for the ukulele - hallelujah!) to senior citizens, hippy types, serious ukers, people in hawaiian shirts, a very glamorous woman playing a white Flying V, a man The uke clearly crosses all social and age boundaries in a way that I think few other instruments do. There were ukuleles of all kinds, standard ones, pineapples, fleas, pink ones, yellow ones, blue ones, even furry ones. There were glitter ones, mirrored ones and stripy maple ones, sopranos, tenors and even a bass uke, which sounds a bit like a bass guitar. The one common thing was that everyone was united in their love of playing ukulele and everyone was smiling. Who cared that it was flooding outside? Not us!

Bet he doesn't play the ukulele!

From then on we covered everything from The Beatles, The Kinks, Elvis, Credence Clearwater Revival, Slade, David Essex, Johny Cash, Marc Bolan, The Zombies, The Box Tops and a few more traditional uke tunes.  Some of the Strumming Groups did a quick showcase, then The Machine That Goes Ting, a predominantly uke band showed how versatile it really is with a bit of Clash and Sex Pistols among other things and two fabulously furry ukuleles.

At 2.30, proceedings kicked off with a lively rendition of 'Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue.' For people like us, who have only ever played in a small group, the sound of 80 ukuleles playing in harmony was the nearest thing I've had to a religious experience and the huge cheer that went up from the rest of the pub showed how much everyone else appreciated it. It was uplifting and joyful and shows why the ukulele really is the answer to world peace. Everyone was smiling, people came from the bar to listen, some joined in with the singing, some stayed all afternoon, a few even danced but I think they may possibly have come from the local alcohol-dependent population.

After than, we jammed again for another hour or so, finishing with Hey Jude, where we all na, na, na nahed for ages because I don't think anyone wanted it to finish. By now, my strumming finger was very sore and my cheeks were aching from smiling so much.

We were so touched by the warm welcome we received from everyone we met and look forward to taking up the open invitation to go down and play with our new buddies in Taunton and look forward to some of them coming up to play in our fledgling strumming group.

Oh no! It's all over

A good few people have joked about us and our ukes, but all I can say is, your loss! We had a fantastic time sharing the ukulele love. If more people played it the world really would be a happier place.

If you like a Ukulele Lady...

Come closer....I want to tell you something.  Ready?  I've discovered the secret to world peace. <<sharp intake of breath>> I know, you're shocked aren't you? Shocked and stunned that it is me who should have discovered it. What do you think it is?  I could make you guess but we'd be here for years so I'm going to come straight out with it. The ukulele. Yes, the little ukulele (ookoolaylay, to give it its correct Hawaiian prononciation) is the secret to world peace. We should be sending ukuleles to Afghanistan, not soldiers.

A couple of months ago I met up with an old school friend who I had lost touch with about 20 years ago. A friend posted a video on YouTube from her recent birthday party showing her playing her ukulele. It looked a lot of fun.  Hmm, I thought to myself.  It's small and portable so you could take it anywhere. It's only got four strings, so chords looked easy. And I'm sure my friend won't mind me saying that she had no particular musical talent, yet she clearly handled her uke very well.

And here's my lovely friend proving you really can take a uke anywhere

 Then our village pub had an End of Summer Bash and on a lovely, sunny Sunday (yes, there was one. I think) we sat in the garden and sang and danced to a local band, Paper Moon, which heavily featured a uke. One of my friends turned to me and said she really fancied learning to play it. 'Fantastic! Me too.' I replied and before we knew it we had a third recruit as well. and The Ukuladies were born.

Within a few weeks we all had our ukes and were totally and utterly smitten. It's such a joyful little instrument that you can't help but smile when you play it. The Boy and The Girl were scathing, yet within minutes of it arriving, The Boy, who plays the guitar, was wandering around the house strumming it and yesterday, when I announced that I was going to upgrade to a concert sized uke, which is  bit bigger than my little soprano one, The Girl asked if she could have the old one.

Once word got out, another friend told us he had a mandolin and he'd like to join our strumming group. Fantastic, we thought. Three Ukuladies and a Mandolin had a nice ring to it, especially as he was a man. He turned up for our first strumming session, having never played the mandolin. We struggled to tune it - I mean, come on, 12 strings? - and managed to break two strings while we did so.  While we faffed and fretted about it, he borrowed a uke and within minutes had decided to ditch the Mandolin, lovely though it was. He's now the proud owner of a lovely Tanglewood concert uke but he's completely ruined our name!

We've only been playing for a few weeks but already we can sing and play a few songs and it is just so much fun. Why schools bother teaching kids to play the recorder when the ukulele is just as easy and much more fun.Honestly, who ever learns the recorder at school then keeps it up into adulthood?

On the other hand, all these cool and in some cases surprising people play the uke




Neil Armstong - yes, that one!





Jamie Oliver - pukka!



Zooey Deschanel







Zac Efron







Frank Skinner on banjo uke. Griff
Rhys Jones and Harry Hill also play



Not to mention all the famous musicians who play or played the uke; Joe Strummer from The Clash, Dave Grohl from the Foo Fighters, Eddie Vedder from Pearl Jam, Roger Daltrey from The Who, George Harrison and Paul McCartney, Kate Bush, Taylor Swift, the list really does go on and on. 



You don't even need a teacher these days, you can learn on YouTube. Just do a search for Ukulele Mike, everyone's favourite Californian, and within hours you'll be able to play something recognisable. And you don't need to spend a fortune. £18 will get you a half-decent instrument to start on. And once you do, you won't stop smiling. Honest! It has also made international stars of the likes of Jake Shimabukuru who is a virtuoso player and Julia Nunes who is just plain fun!

In the right hands (not mine just yet!), the humble uke is an instrument of incredible beauty.

Take a few moments to sit back and listen to Jake playing Bohemian Rhapsody. He's incredible.

We now take our ukes to the pub on Friday evenings and have a little sing-song. So far no-one has thrown us out and we've even had some positive comments. The landlady has now agreed to let us start a strumming group once a month so we are hoping to connect with other ukers. At the end of the month we are heading down to Taunton for the South West Ukulele Union Jam. Eighty or so ukulele players will converge on a pub in the town for an afternoon of jamming and probably from me, not a few bum notes. Afterwards we are going to play for a bit at the Ice and Fire Festival. It should be enormous fun.

So get with the program and get yourself a Uke, and make your own personal contribution to world peace.



Even the leader of the Free World plays one -
well he is from Hawaii.  Get your uke-playing
Obama figurine here!

And for your further delight and delectation, Bette Midler, another well know uke player, singing 'Ukulele Lady' in Las Vegas. Sadly she's not playing but her daughter is.