Cyber greetings to all of you
I am very excited because after much waiting and working for it, I was finally able to purchase my own Ukulele!
I put the money together selling some brigadeiros (if you remember from this post) and bread that I learned how to prepare from looking at my grandmother.
This will be the first thing I buy with my own money, so as you can imagine, I am thrilled!
The Ukulele usually comes in four sizes: soprano, concert, tenor, and baritone. I bought a Soprano, which is about 21 inches long (the standard Venezuelan Cuatro, a cousin of the Ukulele is about 30 inches long). It will be arriving next week and I will be able to keep learning and start sharing with all of you the musical material I can produce.
I am already putting together some of the basic cords
A little bit of History
Even though we associate the ukulele with Hawaii, this string instrument is originally from Portugal. Hawaiians adapted the Portuguese machete brough to the islands by immigrants from Madeira and other portuguese islands in the 19th century. So, it is a pretty young instrument!
It became popular in the United States and from there it expanded its popularity to the rest of the world. Now we have people playing ukulele in places as distant as Japan or Brazil! 馃槈
The Anatomy of a Ukelele
My interest in the ukelele was in a way accidental. One day I was listening to music randomly and I ran into Mxmtoon. It was love at first sight. I loved the sound of that main (and sometimes only) instrument in her songs. My other motivation came from Grace Vanderwaal.
Even though I am not a musician and only recently started to express my musical interests, I have learned some fundamentals for the guitar and the ukulele and I plan to produce some videos to teach all I have learned to those willing to learn.
I did not have musical education as I grew up or the motivation and opportunities to learn vocalization, but I love music, singing, and playing instruments, and I like to learn. So I hope that purchasing this instrument will strengthen my musical self-education. All I know so far, I have learned it by myself. That鈥檚 probably why I am so insecure about my singing, etc.
So, bear with me when I start singing 馃ぃ As soon as my ukulele arrives, you鈥檒l be the first to know!