Snippets Issue 30 : The Cuteness Issue

Ukulele

Fall in love with the ukulele

Ukulele

Hi I'm Ally, and I'm here to share the reasons why you should be playing the ukulele right now.

You can teach yourself!


It took years of fruitless recorder, piano and violin lessons before anyone noticed that I was in no way musical. I'd grown to hate music lessons with a passion and so the suggestion that I could teach myself something was very appealing. However I'd struggled with the guitar for about a year and so I was pretty certain that the ukulele would just be a more fiddly version, but I thought I'd give it a go. I cannot stress this enough; the ukulele is totally self-teachable. There are so many wonderful websites and forums which can help you, as well as specialised blogs and youtube videos. I try and regularly share my favourites on my blog.


They're cheap!


this was the first thing that drew me to playing the ukulele. I'd seen a gorgeous baby blue ukulele and I just couldn't believe that they were so cheap. So many musical instruments seem very elusive to me purely because I know that if I want to start playing the saxophone I'm going to have to shell out £600 and then pay for lessons, and yet here was this little number for just £30! I figured that for that price I could afford to fail, and if I did at least I would have something pretty to put on my wall. 

They're pretty!


Of course they are, I they're pretty miniature guitars in beautiful colours. It was their prettiness that originally drew me in. However after a couple of years I wanted prettier! I wanted stars and hearts and florals and a gazillion patterns that would set my heart a flutter. But, for some weird reason, I couldn't find a patterned ukulele anywhere. They just didn't seem to exist. And so I decided to set up shop selling beautifully patterned instruments and that is how the Ukulele Workshop was born!

I think my favourite thing about running the Ukulele Workshop has to be doing custom work. I don't charge any extra for custom ukuleles, partly because the word 'custom' often makes people back off and hold onto their purses worriedly, but also because I just love working with people! Whether it's transferring someone's favourite cartoon character, their favourite photo or even a sheet of their handwriting onto a uke; it's all just so beautifully personal and makes for such a nice collaboration. 

So I hope I've convinced you! Get strumming cut out and keepers!

Comments

I also have a black uke which matches my shiny black glasses. I love matching stuff!
You should ask craftella if you can create a contest with a ukulele as a price. They're so pretty, and I know people would love to have one. I know I do.

CO+K User
I've recently brought myself a black ukulele!


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Snippets is the free online magazine from Cut Out + Keep featuring the best in indie & DIY.

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