A Different Tune

An especially successful element that I've introduced to my storytimes (and other programming) is my ukulele! The story of my ukulele and I is a pretty short, extremely spontaneous one; and it goes like this:

 

I just like this picture. I don't own it.

One day I was answering phones at work and planning out my upcoming storytime series. As was looking up lyrics for one of my songs (just to be sure I had them right) and Google tried to auto fill with “guitar chords.” I thought, wow. How cool would that be!? But I would (1) have to learn to play the guitar (2) I’d have to carry it back and forth and (3) guitars are kind of bulky. In the end I just didn't think it was very pragmatic. So then I thought, "what if I got an ukulele!" They’re smaller, easier to transport, and have fewer strings so learning might be easier. So during my lunch hour that very same day, I drove out to Guitar Center and bought myself a ukulele! (Which is a funny story unto itself, but I digress.)

I bought one that was fairly cheap, but expensive enough that the strings wouldn't slip out of tune. Nothing fancy… just a basic ukulele. And I fell in love!

 

Lanikai Soprano Ukulele... it must have been on sale when I bought mine.

Now the rest is history. Ukulele makes appearances at most of my programs. I have a small repertoire of tunes I can play on it—mostly nursery songs—but they get the job done! A lot of my songs I use are based on simple nursery tunes. They’re easy for parents, easy for kids, and easy for me! I am trying to expand my skill set though. But I admit, I get a little frustrated when I’m not innately good at something and ukulele is taking a bit of work. I’m trying to learn how to hold and strum correctly, use the right fingering for chords, and how to strum one pattern while singing another. It's tricky, but I'm committed!

 

Playing the goodbye song at the end of storytime!

So now I'm thinking about mixing in some posts about using ukuleles in storytimes/programs on here. I can give you guys information about tips and chords that have worked for me. Who knows… maybe I’ll even be so bold as to add my own videos! Some day. Eventually. Let’s start small, shall we?