I have been playing ukulele for almost three years now. I’ve always enjoyed singing and I really wanted to learn to play guitar but I could never build up the tolerance to deal with my fingers bleeding from the hard metal strings. After seeing a ukulele player named Julia Nunes perform at a Ben Folds concert, I knew I had finally found an instrument that seemed to be made just for me. It has truly been one of my favorite hobbies since then and I now have a soprano and a tenor ukulele in my collection.
I think that there is a stigma about this instrument that they only play little melodies that sound like hula music for a beach in Hawaii. The YouTube community completely blows that idea out of the water. New and incredible artists like Julia Nunes are everywhere online showing their skills and how modern and versatile the ukulele can be.
Now I’d like to share my absolute FAVORITE ukulele player and actually just one of my favorite artists in general. Danielle Ate the Sandwich does both covers of songs and her own original works. She is really quirky and funny which often seems in stark contast to her inspired, heartfelt and poetic lyrics. I’m going to add some videos below but her YouTube username is www.youtube.com/daniellesmagic if you want to see more!
One of my favorite covers she has done (mostly because it’s my favorite song to wake up to on my alarm clock, haha!):
This song is one of her beautiful originals (you’ll see what I mean by quirky in the video introduction):
Do you have any favorite artists on YouTube? Let me know in the comments!
Cool videos! I never knew ukeleles could be so versatile. You're totally right when you said that they carry a "stigma." I definitely agree with you that most people think of Hawaiian beaches when they hear the word ukelele. That's really neat too that you play an instrument that's so different!
ReplyDeleteI loved those covers! I don't know if you're already aware of this but there's actually a numerous amounts of ukulele shops in Wilmington, I see signs for them everywhere! Also, you should check out Alyssa Bernal on youtube! She does great covers as well as original songs, she doesn't play the ukulele but iI think that you'd definitely like her!
ReplyDeleteHaha, I loved the second video, she plays beautiful music and obviously has a really unhealthy love for mood rings :). I mean I once had a mood ring but someone stole it.... I don't know how I feel about that. Anyway that's really cool that you have such a great hobby. I've always wanted to learn to play an instrument but unfortunately I suffer from an extremely bad case of carpal tunnel. But never fear I get my musical fix from all my amazing musician friends.
ReplyDeleteJamie, I think it’s pretty cool you know how to play the ukulele! I wish I had some sort of musical talent. I enjoyed watching the videos you posted. It blows me away what people are able to do (talent wise) on youtube these days. I thought her “mood rings” commercial preview was hilarious. I thought you might enjoy this ukulele cover:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YE2FwgXf28&feature=related
I really like that girl’s versions of a bunch of songs. Let me know what you think.
Awesome!
ReplyDeleteI love learning about new musicians to listen to. I always find someone I like and listen to all their songs and end up burning out on them pretty quickly. These are particularly awesome because of the ukulele. It's got such a different sound to it.
P.S. It's so badass that you play the ukulele. When do we get to see/hear you play something??
That was really neat and as an aspiring musician myself I say awesome! We should jam sometime. I can play the guitar, and my roommate and I always play around with his ukulele. His is capable of being plugged into an amplifier to give it cool effects. I would love to hear you play sometime and send me an email or message if you want to get together and play. I've only been playing since September but I can usually hang. Maybe you can even give me some pointers here and there. Apparently there is a ukulele shop just down Racine Drive if you didn't know. Good luck on your musical journey!
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