“So… I bought a ukulele” were the exact words I told Shaun when I came home with this beautiful instrument! Koa and I smiled so big in excitement and I had NO idea how Shaun would react because it was SOOOOO random! We had recently been talking about potential new purchases for the home (an Amazon Echo, a Nest thermostat.. mostly tech stuff) and there I was.. waltzing in the house beaming over the exciting new opportunity to learn a new instrument at age 30. All I could do was laugh. And he did too LOL! But let’s back up and chat about how a random GIF pushed me to make this purchase haha!
So to give you a bit of back story, I grew up playing instruments (piano, clarinet and tenor sax). I was actually the Drum Major in my high school band (the person who conducts the band during football game half-time performances and competitions)! But I haven’t sat down and seriously played an instrument in over 10 years. Over the past year, I’ve had such a desire for wanting to bring an instrument into the home. We don’t have the place for a piano and I couldn’t see myself playing the clarinet or saxophone leisurely around the house haha! I flirted with the idea of learning a new instrument like guitar, but strings intimidated me. Not to mention, would I even have time?
Cut to Saturday when I was having a group Voxer (voice messaging app FYI) chat with my girls Christina and Crystal. Christina mentioned she was looking for a Tiny Tim GIF and despite it being the holidays, I thought she meant the musician Tiny Tim instead of the Christmas Carol one. I sent her the below GIF and sang his song, Tip Toe Through The Tulips over Voxer and she was HYSTERICAL haha!
She had no idea who he was (do you?? please tell me someone does!) so after I sent her the video, I went down the YouTube RABBIT HOLE:
Searches: Tiny Tim, Ukulele, Ukulele tutorial, Ukulele Drake cover (bahaha are you surprised?)
My next voice messages to the girls, word for word:
“I’m dying over here. Some are even made out of Koa wood. I’m doing this.”
Koa was still napping and I found myself listening to the Hawaiian version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow for the millionth time. It’s a song that is SUPER special to Shaun and I (going back to our first date in 2004 when we watched 50 First Dates) and I had him play it on his iPhone while I LITERALLY gave birth to Koa. Seriously, the doc told me to push and I said “WAIT, Shaun needs to pull up this video! It’s our song!!” And now Koa and I sing it every night before bed 🙂 So with my decision to buy the uke, I made it a personal goal to LEARN the song and continue to sing it with Koa.
I woke Koa from his nap and we headed to the music store down the street. They had a ton of ukulele’s and one of the sweet employees helped me narrow it down (he’s a pro on the uke and played for us)! Koa kept squealing “Look at all these instruments!” and my heart just melted. I came home and spent 4 hours on YouTube trying to learn chords. IT. IS. HARD haha! Koa dances while I practice and always wants to try. I hope it’s something we can always enjoy together! And I think Shaun likes playing it as much as I do haha. We took it to his Mom’s house (who is Hawaiian) and she played it like a PRO. She showed us a few videos of her uncles and aunts playing and I got inspired all over again.
I’ve got a long way to go but I’m loving the journey so far. With running a business, being a mom and wife, it’s nice to just have a ‘hobby’ that is fun, challenging (in a good way) with no real expectations. I hope to learn quite a few songs (including a few Drake covers, duh) in hopes to be able to jam out at cookouts and the beach next summer. I’ll post most of my progress videos via Instagram stories so feel free to follow on my journey!
Can you play any instruments or is there one you want to learn? Let me know in the comments below, xo!
This is so awesome! I love this version of Over the Rainbow- can’t wair until you master it!
I can play the piano but would love to begin practicing again.