Ukulele Workshops

Schedule | 2023 

POP UP UKE Lessons via Zoom
Sundays 6-7 pm ET

EPIC SUMMER WORKSHOP TOUR!

Steve Kaufman Bluegrass Camp
Marysville, Tennesse
June 18-24, 2023

The Taproom
Nashville, Tennesse
June 30, 2023

Huntsville Ukulele Group
Huntsville, Alabama
July 1, 2023

Ernie Williamson Music
Springfield, Missouri
July 8, 2023

Ernie Williamson Music
Joplin, Missouri
July 8, 2023

Omaha Conservatory of Music
Omaha, Nebraska
July 13, 2023

Damm Music Center
Wichita, Kansas
July 15, 2023

Edmond Music
Edmond, Oklahoma
July 16, 2023

Stillwater Ukulele Association
Stillwater, Oklahoma
July 18, 2023

Bentley Guitar Studios
Parkville (Kansas City), Missouri
July 22, 2023

Maplewood Ukulele Group
Maplewood (St. Louis), Missouri
July 23, 2023

Arthur’s Music Store
Indianapolis, Indiania
July 29, 2023

Buckeye Ukulele Society
Columbus, Ohio
July 30, 2023

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The Monthly Muse
No Expectations

Posted on: December 3rd, 2012 by dville

When my wife’s grandmother gave me a 1920’s Columbia Hawaiian ukulele twelve years ago I was a banjo player.  I was going to play at the Grand Old Opry.  I had met Earl Scruggs!

 Banjo players are a special breed, they have to be, to put up with all the banjo player jokes.  How many banjo players does it take to screw in a light bulb?  Just one, but first he has to know how Earl did it.  That was my favorite.  I would not be swayed from my path to banjo greatness by the humble ukulele!

Over the next year or two I noodled with the uke, bought an instruction book and tried to learn Baby Face, but I always got hung up on that diminished chord.  In remembering back to that time a decade ago, I can’t point to when the transition from banjo to ukulele took place.  I don’t recall one day declaring “I’m not a banjo player anymore!” or anything dramatic like that.  But, by 2005, I didn’t own any banjos.

I really liked the fact no one seemed to know anything about the ukulele.  When people see someone with a banjo, they get ideas. Plus, I knew of no Grand Uke Opry that would require ten thousand hours of practice to get good enough to play there. The ukulele had somehow freed me from the bonds of expectations.

In fact, I start every one of my workshops now with this quote,”Expectations are the harbingers of disappointment.”  By letting go of my expectations of what being a “musician” was and that there was some magical finish line, I began to learn how to play.

One Response

  1. Carola says:

    … In Ukulele, as in Life.

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