My name is Ted and I play ukulele.
There I said it.
It seems these days the Uke is everywhere you look but viewed with a mixture of humorous tolerance, pity and contempt. “Real” musicians scoff at it, claiming that its not a proper instrument and asking you “why don’t you play the guitar rather than that thing?”. Non musicians are no better, likening the diminutive instrument to a toy and therefore not a worthy of serious consideration.
The point is they are missing the point.
The point is its fun to play. It makes you and those around you smile.
You can get a tune out of your first uke in your first session, try that with a guitar, violin, piano or just about anything else you can mention. There are only four strings which is limiting and liberating in equal measures. It means the neck is narrower than even a half size guitar so small hands can feel comfortable and reach the strings to make the chords. having said that i have hands like shovels and I love it.
But its not limiting, you can take it as far as you like, up to amazing standards that match any musicians skill on any instrument.This guy is incredible in his technical prowess, and this one is unparalleled in his ability to add feeling.
They come in different sizes too. I have a soprano uke (the tiny one) which looks very small in my great paw’s, a concert which is a little larger a tenor which is bigger again as well as a couple of electric ones and one I made myself. If you really want to mix it up you can get baritone ukes (these are tuned differently but are still part of the family) and, more recently, companies have been putting out Uke Bass instruments that use soft rubber like stings with an electric pickup and amplifier to create an authentic bass sound.
There are groups you can join (list here) if you want to play with other people as well as bands and orchestras. Some of these groups play traditional stuff, some are stuck in the 50’s in their choice of music and some are a broader in their choice of repertoire.
The wonderful Idler run courses for beginners and advocate the ukulele as a stress busting way of relaxing and putting your woes in their place, though there are loads of other courses available for less money on line. And talking of online resources there is so much out there, from the amazing Uke Hunt which has fantastic resources , songs to learn , technical help and links to You Tube with an uncountable number of ukulele based videos.
So my advice, for what its worth; Buy one, not the cheapest but a decent one, put some good strings on it (most cheaper instruments put rubbish strings on that wont hold tune) and get strumming. You wont look back.
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Musings on Life 