I grew up listening to the music my parents love, such as ‘The Carpenters’, ‘The Beatles’, and ‘Elvis Presley’. However, I was also your typical teenager, a heartthrob fan of the ‘NKOTB’, Tommy Page and Backstreet Boys. I also appreciated musicals like ‘The Phantom of The Opera’ and orchestra arrangements like ‘Dances with Wolves by John Barry. Varied genres, you might say?
Those days, I could hear the sound of music playing quietly in the background on the radio or from my ‘walkman’ cassette player or CD (Compact Disc) player. For millennials reading this post, Cassette players and Compact Disc players are your ‘Spotify’ equivalent.
There was never a day without music in my entire life. Music is my lifeline and the only constant in my life. It is my source of comfort and sorrow, my source of strength and weakness.
I remember when my mum would send us to ‘Yamaha’ music school to play the organ and the guitar. I had better luck with the keyboard and gave up learning the strings because my fingers started forming calluses. My mum loved to hear us play the organ, and to this day, I can still vividly remember how she would smile and sing along to the tune of the organ pieces.
And so that is why I decided to get back to the strings, this time with a Ukelele, to make her smile like how she used to.
My sister had an old Ukelele sitting at the corner of her room, untouched for a while. So I took it back home, gave it a little wipe and started strumming it. As I strum along, it did not take me long to realise that I missed playing an instrument. That night, I spent two and a half hours practising simple chords and strumming to a song or two!
There you go! my first attempt at playing a complete song with a Ukelele! I am still struggling with the changing of chords but what the hack! I welcome your feedback on how to improve. Enjoy!