Julie’s Journey
Julie felt quite skeptical about online learning before doing the “Learning Ukulele for Absolute Beginners” course. But instead it was the beginning of a fun and very social experience.
Hear Julie’s full Ukulele Journey here.
My friends are all into mahjong, or Bridge or card games, which are challenging for the brain, but are also FUN. I liked the concept, but I and am not really into those pursuits . One of my loves however has always been music. So I wanted to see what was on offer in that area that I could join
I was looking for the challenge of learning something new that challenged my brain, that helped keep my fingers dexterous, and was a FUN thing to do with other like minded people. And I had seen ordinary people like myself play at various clubs and they always seemed to be having fun, and the people listening were all happy too. The ukulele is a very social instrument.
As luck would have it, in January 2020, I saw an Absolute Beginners Ukulele course advertised at the Women’s Health Centre in Coffs Harbour, here where I live on the East Coast of Australia. So I bought myself a ukulele from Aldi and joined up for 10 lessons. The little ukulele I bought turned out to be pretty useless, as it did not keep its tune, but we were coached in the first lesson the different types of ukuleles that are on offer. At the first lesson I was given a booklet of basics of the ukulele, and then went to the music shop around the corner and was fitted with a suitable
ukulele, that came with a bag and a SNARK tuner that fits on the top of the uke to easily tune it.
Unfortunately, covid hit after lesson 3 and lessons needed to be cancelled and no one knew what was to come next. But Stephanie did not sit idle. Not one to let covid interfere with life, she developed a fully Online Absolute Beginners Course . I must admit I was a little sceptical at first that I would be able to learn online, as I had always wanted to have a teacher beside me to guide me and to ask questions as I went along. But given the situation, in August 2020 I purchased the Learning the Ukulele for Absolute Beginners ONLINE course with a friend.
Despite my fears I did progress each week, and there is so much useful info here, that there was plenty to keep me interested and my progress was satisfying. I practiced with my friend on a regular basis for 2 hours each week. We even bought a book of songs for the ukulele and started to play a few songs we taught ourselves. We were challenging ourselves AND having lots of laughs as well. We had found JOY in our lives. We even took our ukuleles along to our group Xmas party , and it really did add a very special extra dimension to the Xmas spirit. Of course, by now, I wanted MORE. And joined up to Stephanie’s next set of Online courses – Moving on up, Strumming Extension and Theory Extension. There is so much great information and new challenges to keep me busy for a while. AND affordable!
2021 has brought me back full circle for face to face classes again at Woopi library with Steph where it all began.
Read more here
Nella’s Journey
“Before taking the course, the ukulele did a fabulous job decorating the corner of my room!” I bought my first ukulele 10 years ago, all…