Amy Singer (Knitty.com) was in town from Toronto and came over for dinner tonight!.Nathania Apple brought her, and we had a GREAT time. I realized as they were almost at the house that I could have used the dinner as an excuse to invite all the local knittas to hang at Chez Hehu, but I didn't think of it in time, so I got Amy and her uke-magic all to myself. (Selfish and lucky at the same time.)
After dinner, we broke out the ukes for a little music. My fingers hurt now, but this is what we got (with a couple of outtakes — I like the one at the end the best — it cracks me up HARD every time):
Mad World.
EDITED TO ADD:
So you wanna play the uke? Dude, it's easy. Really. It's so EASY and super cheap to try out.
1. Get a ukulele. It's fun to start with a Mahalo — buy one HERE for $21, fun colors. It's an inexpensive little uke, and you can beat it up and it still holds it tuning really well. Great starter uke.
2. When you get it, tune it. How? OH SO EASY: Go here for an online tuner. Don't be scared of all that stuff on the page, just hit the buttons under each string (where it says G C E A) and just turn the pegs until each string makes the same sound.
3. Learn some basic chords — good, simple video HERE. With C, G, A, and F you can play about a million songs, and with some more simple chords, you can play EVERYTHING.
4. Or don't learn the basics, just start learning songs! Sit with your uke and search around on Youtube, watching tutorials, playing along. I like this one to start out with.
It's Tuesday now — you could be playing by Friday night! Or today, if you live in a place with a store that sells ukes! (Guitar Center often carries the Mahalo, too.)