Report from the Ukulele Course

I really thought I was not going to write about this, but I simply cannot resist — it was too good ! The day before yesterday, nine very enthusiastic beginner ukulele players arrived on the top floor of the Alexandra bookshop at Nyugati tér for the recently announced ukulele course.

A few minutes after 10 a.m. on Saturday, everything was ready for us to begin: chairs, music stands, projector, and of course all of you and your ukuleles! After a quick introduction, we learned how to hold the ukulele without dropping it, then used it as a drum to learn a few basic rhythms. Tuning came next, and finally we strummed our first chords, then put together a song or two. I tried to present the material in a playful way despite how much information we had to cover, and I emphasized the importance of regular daily practice. The huge amount of information you heard during that Saturday becomes usable knowledge only if you diligently devote time to playing ukulele day after day, week after week and month after month — at least 15–20 minutes a day.

I would also like to mention that my good friend Gyuri dropped in on the course for a short while, so the Keskeny Megálló duo was represented at the event at 100 percent strength. As a little inspiration, we played When the Saints for you. My original plan was for all of us to strum that song together at the end of the course, but in the end we ran out of time. Still, we performed several other songs — including Hotel California — with all nine of you taking part! That was quite something !

I was very happy to read your messages after the course, both by email and on Facebook. It is good to see that the day spent playing ukulele remained a positive experience for you. I am planning a continuation too, but definitely not until next year. Until then you will have plenty of time to practice . Believe it or not, the course was not only a good experience for you but for me as well. I got to know nine very kind new ukulele players, and you also showed me something of your personalities — in other words, this is how YOU play ukulele.

Thank you for coming: Anton, Orsi, Debbie, Rita, Aranka, Anna, Szilvi, Gábor and Brigi .

Getting ready to tune:

Getting acquainted with the tuner:

"G major? No problem for us!"

The important thing is not to drop the ukulele!

And between two rounds of chord playing, our fingertips can have a little rest.

A task for five people...

...the same one as for four: put Let It Be together and perform it. How you did it was entirely up to you.

"...and then I'll play A minor, while all of you play G major together!"

Thank you once again for coming!