Saturday, January 16, 2016

Celebrating My Ukelele



Ruth Ayres has a link-up on weekends where people link to posts that are celebrations about their week. I love this reminder to celebrate every week.


This week I'm celebrating my ukelele. I had gift money from Christmas and used it to purchase this pretty ukelele. I'd been thinking about learning how to play for a few reasons. First, when I read Amanda Palmer's book, The Art of Asking, she shared about getting a ukelele. Here's a video of her talking about that.



She also has a ukelele anthem. A warning: it is not for elementary school. 


I entertained the thought of getting one, but then let the idea go until I heard Emily Arrow sing and play the ukelele on the Let's Get Busy Podcast.  She's was a K-8 music teacher, but has now become a kidlit singer/songwriter. I loved hearing the song she uses to begin storytime. I've been singing it with my kindergarten and first grade classes sometimes and have thought it would be great to have a ukelele too. Here's one of her songs based on the book Are We There, Yeti?



If you want to hear more of Emily's work, visit her website. She has an album coming out next month and I'm looking forward to getting it. 

5 comments:

  1. We have a uke here that my dad bought my son on vacation a couple of years ago. The boy hasn't put a lot of effort into figuring out how to play it, but I really want to figure it out. Not just because of Amanda Palmer - or because I want to sing happy birthday to kids in the cafeteria like Stargirl. I just can't *not* smile when I hear it. Best of luck with learning to play!

    ReplyDelete
  2. One of my former colleagues has been taking lessons with a ukulele. He loves the doing, just fun & relaxing to practice & to play some songs with his students, the ages we taught-middle school. Good for you, Crystal. Can't wait to hear more!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Keep us posted on your progress. The Luke is such a fun instrument.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Crystal, this post is pure fun and so enjoyable. I am not musically inclined but I certainly enjoyed hearing the songs and reading your post.

    ReplyDelete
  5. OK. Confession time. I bought a uke after NCTE in 2014 after meeting the author Mary Amato. I haven't done anything with it in months. I want to return to it. Thank you for writing about it. I'm inspired to try again. :)

    ReplyDelete