my new instrument of choice: the ukulele!

When I was home over Easter my brother had a new toy: a ukulele. He showed me how to play part of Beirut's Postcards from Italy, and it was pretty easy to pick up. I knew then that I needed to get a ukulele of my own. On Saturday, Erick and I walked over to Picks and Sticks on Locke Street. They had a pretty good selection, and we opted for a BeaverCreek ukulele. The model we were looking at came in a whole bunch of colours (including natural wood), and I chose white! It's tres cute, and quite affordable (around $40). Our method for learning has been going like this: I learn a song and show Erick, then Erick learns another song and shows me, and so on.

So, if you're like me and found learning guitar a little intimidating and frustrating, try a ukulele! Only 4 strings! Only 12 frets! Good times.

Some useful tips:
1. if you have an iphone/ipad, the Cleartune app is very handy for tuning (something you need to do a lot since the strings stretch out as you play).
2. this guy's tutorials are hilarious and useful.

And for your viewing pleasure (or amusement, I'm no pro), here's a video (unedited) of yours truly showing off what I've learned over the past few days. Please excuse the angry face I make when I play. And the strumming patterns are most definitely not correct. But that's OK!