So pleased to be part of an inspirational ukulele afternoon.

So….. Weekend Wrapup Part 1
I attended a very fun event at Broward County Library Saturday afternoon with this F.U.N. group. It started with a showing of the terrific documentary Under the Boardwalk: A Ukulele Love Story, and then an auditorium full of ukulele players played a whole bunch of music together! I told you a few months ago I had started teaching myself some ukulele chords, on the little uke kindly given to me by Melanie Rieback a few years ago. I’ve been working on it on my own, and this was my first chance to try playing in these group uke gatherings that are getting really popular all over the world. I was so happy that I could play many, even most of the songs, with the help of chords shouted out or projected onscreen, even though I only know a few chords so far. And I could sing and play at the same time! I don’t get to do that when playing the flute, and wasn’t sure I could, especially being so new on the uke, but I was able to sing and play with a lot of gusto, and really enjoyed it! After the formal gathering, I also connected with Jeff Chung (I think was his name?) who is really good, and we played a couple way fun pop songs including “Lucky” (Daft Punk). He also played my ukulele and it sounded much better than when I play it, so that tells me my instrument is rather better than I thought it was, and inspires me to keep practicing. Participating in this group music-making really gave me a lot of motivation to keep working on this instrument, and made me feel that I can get good enough to make some decent music and hopefully incorporate it into some of my public performances, as well as my hospital music. It was nice to see some friends there including Rosalia Curbelo, Larry Joe Miller and Anne Goldberg. Thanks so much to Laura Sturaitis, Chai Latte, Barbara Miller and all the folks whose names I don’t know yet for a really fun afternoon, plus a Music Club of Hollywood kazoo, and a bag of absolutely gorgeous mangos! Those of you who have been following along like Simone Mehlbaum and Teresita Corral Pandiscio know I have been wanting some of those smile emoticon

 

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