In which I play the ukulele

slinging on the old uke to show it to Kelley's folks

I've had my ukulele exactly one week. I've just recorded my first attempt at a song. Because I'm an awkward bastard, I chose a song I've never sung before and don't really know--though it has many associations.

I've always been able to sing okay--though currently I'm really out of practise. And for someone who's been playing the ukulele only one week I think it's possible I'll end up being able to play in a way that won't wholly embarrass everyone around me.* But I'm less sanguine about being able to do both at the same time. If you want a demonstration of this, here's a 55-sec snippet of me trying to play the first verse of "Hallelujah." (You might need to turn it up because I wasn't exactly belting it out.) Recorded on my iPhone** immediately after breakfast and uploaded for public consumption twenty minutes ago before the caffeine hits my system and I recover my senses.

Enjoy.

* Not because I'm a musical savant [snort] but because the ukulele is astonishingly beginner-friendly. It invites playful engagement in a way that, say, a violin doesn't. I mean, really, after George Formby who can take a ukulele seriously? They're a purely fun-based lifeform.
** Using the Voice Memo app, which is fantastically simple. A practically perfect little thing. And, again, it discourages Taking Oneself Seriously, something I've spent entirely too much of life doing.
*** Uploaded to via a nifty service called Chirbit.

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