Before I owned a ukulele, I’d always scoffed at them a little. I generally had the opinion that they were just for hipsters who didn’t want to put in the effort to learn to play guitar. Despite that, my ukulele is now one of my favorite instruments to play.
When I first picked up a uke, it was the end of fall quarter freshman year and I wasn’t in a good place. My heart was aching from recently being dumped, I was disappointed by not doing as well as I’d hoped on finals, I’d yet to make close friends at DU, and I all around just wanted to go home. I don’t remember why, but I walked into the DU bookstore at one point during this time. Being the end of the quarter, many of the shelves were pretty barren. But on the bottom of one of those empty bookshelves there sat a single box. Just as I leaned down to see what it was, my ipod changed songs. The twangly opening chords of the song “Ukulele Anthem” struck just as I saw what was in the box.
I’m not a spiritual person, but there’s no way I could say no to that sign from the universe. After handing over the $30 or so, I almost ran back to my dorm, excited about my new toy (and excited to procrastinate packing). To my dismay, I soon discovered why this particular uke was so inexpensive. The cheap plastic tuning knobs wouldn’t stay in place, making it impossible for the thing to stay in tune. But I wasn’t going to let that stop me. Using only electrical tape and will power, I coaxed it into staying tuned long enough for me to learn a couple four-chord songs. And with that, I was sold. When I arrived in Indianapolis for winter break, before even unpacking my clothes, I ran off to the nearest Guitar Center to buy myself a real, functional ukulele.
Since then, I have never been without it. In fact, it is in the chair next to me right now. Any time I have to go somewhere for more than five days, it comes with me. It’s gone everywhere I have in the last 2.5 years, from high up in the Rockies, to the streets of Manhattan, to a small apartment in Seoul.
This isn’t just because I immediately formed a weird sentimental attachment to my uke (though I certainly have one now). No, it’s because the tiny little instrument actually solved a big problem in my life.
The problem is, I love making music. I sing, and I play several instruments. This wasn’t a problem until I adopted the lifestyle of a college student, not living in the same place for more than five months straight and frequently having to share a tiny room with other people. Also, the concept of quiet hours. And it’s a sad fact that neither a piano nor a didjeridoo can fit in a standard checked bag. As someone who deals with emotions and stress by making music about it, lacking the instruments to do was distressing.
I didn’t realize until I owned one that a ukulele was the solution to this problem. It’s small enough that it can fit in my backpack to take on a plane. Due to the small size, it’s also generally not loud enough to make the neighbors mad. In addition, once you know like six chords, you can play about 80 percent of pop music pretty easily. It’s always amazing to find out what famous music you can learn to play in ten minutes with four chords.
In just the few years I have owned it, my uke has helped me through both ups and downs. For example, my lowest point in the last year was when I was trying to return home from Korea. I’d been horribly lonely for most of the trip, counting down the days until I could return home. When that day finally came, due to a series of unfortunate events, I missed my flight for the first time in my life (despite arriving at the airport five hours early). What was supposed to be an 18-hour journey turned into over 50 hours of travel time. Fortunately, I had my uke with me, so I filled the time by learning a bunch of John Denver songs to remind myself that the extra time it took to get home wouldn’t matter once I was there.
On another occasion, long before that, I was sitting by a campfire in Utah, idly playing as I let my mind wander. Eventually it came to thinking about this guy I’d been seeing, which morphed into writing a song about him. After enough time thinking out loud to the sound of my uke, I looked at the lyrics I’d written and realized that, though I didn’t use the word, I’d just written a confession of love to the man I am now engaged to.
It’s situations like these that give the uke a special place for me. Even now, when I have 10 other instruments in my apartment, I still choose to play the ukulele quite often. I think that’s because it lets me experiment while still being fun and relaxing. And most of the time, that is what I’m looking for when I make music.
