My Milestones in Learning the Ukulele

Uke timeline and milestones

The thing about an enjoyable journey that never ends is that you can enjoy it for ever – or for at least as long as you are physically and mentally able to! After all, “It’s better to travel hopefully than to arrive!”

And that’s the thing about learning to play ukulele – you’ll never, if you’re like me, going to “arrive” - be able to play as well as you want to. I want to be able to play really well – you name a good uke player, any one of the professionals, and I want to play as well as they do. I’m never going to get there. But my goodness, I’m enjoying the journey! Frustrations abound, but with the desire to improve and some perseverance, I do improve….. slowly. And I have good times and make good friends along the way.

So - more music, more skills and more people – all sorts of milestones, and a few important purchases!

Nov 2005
Saw Joe Brown play “I’ll See You In my Dreams” – begged for a ukulele for my birthday - and got one!

Dec 2005
Played for people at a party, very informal

Got the uke out now and then, while life was otherwise very busy … for a long time

July 2009
Played with the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain and 1000 other ukers at the Albert Hall, London, then … I put the uke on a shelf… for two years! The shelf should not have happened...

Oct 2011
Picked up a uke in a music shop - couldn’t remember any chords apart from "C" and resolved to seriously get to grips with my ukulele

Dec 2012
Played "Leaning On A Lamppost" at a Christmas party while LSH sang it - realised that the solos was out of the question, and became interested in Formby-style

Jan 2012
Started to try learn Formby style

Feb 2012
Bought first banjo-uke, a 1920’s Slingerland

Joined the Ukulele Underground Forum

Mar 2012
Started this blog Life’s A Ukafrolic

Apr 2012
Joined a local uke group

June 2012
Went to my first George Formby Society convention

Finally got the Slingerland playable - with a little advice from "a man who can"...

Bought my second wooden uke – a mid-range laminate

Jul 2012
Bought a webcam to record my efforts at singing and playing

Made first public Youtube video – an instrumental

Entered a video to the UU Seasons of the Ukulele for the first time - Season 23

Getting to work out songs with more complex progressions by ear, on uke

Aug 2012
Bought my first solid wooden uke, first good soprano – Kiwaya KTS-4

Nov 2012
Played uke and sang on stage with mics and backing band, for the first time. Duet ...George Formby Convention

Dec 2012
Learned my first passable Formby-style banjo-uke solo – the song affectionately known as "Window Cleaner" - and played it at a party

Feb 2013
Bought my best banjo-uke, vintage 1920’s Gibson UB2

Jun 2013
Attended my first ukulele festival – UFGB, Cheltenham

Attended my first uke workshops by highly skilled professionals

Played uke and sang solo on stage with mics and backing band, for the first time. (George Formby Convention)

Jul 2013
Learned some chords up the neck, and learned the instrumental Mr Sandman

Feb 2014
worked out my first chord melody by ear…. “Sway”

Mar 2014
Playing the instrumental Mr Sandman “cleanly”… nailed those pesky chord changes up the neck

June 2014
My entry in the Ukulele Underground Seasons of the Ukulele got a mention from the season’s host… oh I was thrilled!

I wrote my first song. For Seasons of the Ukulele. It’s on Youtube

Did an impromptu duet with a Seasonista I met at the big uke-fest in Cheltenham, UFGB…. Another nice “first”, this…

Dec 2014
Wrote two more songs for a Christmas song-writing competition hosted by one of the “Seasonista” community on the Ukulele Underground.
Won the competition with a carol that I wrote. I was so proud….

Feb 2015
After recognising that proper uke lessons from a really good player would be a very Good Thing – had my first lesson from Phil Doleman

Mar 2015
Bought my first craftsman - built ukulele, a mahogany concert, from uke-builder Dave Morgan (D J Morgan Ukuleles)

Apr 2015
Hosted a Season of the Ukulele on the UU for the first time

May 2015
Visited Hawaii! Spent time with friends made online and visited the Kamaka factory, Where Fred Kamaka showed us round on one of his wonderful tours and talks...

Jul 2015
Bought my second craftsman-built ukulele, spruce/maple soprano from Dave Morgan (D J Morgan Ukuleles)

Sept 2015
Was granted an interview with Jake Shimabukuru

Nov 2015
Helped out at Jake’s concert in Liverpool – (and met Jake!)

Apr 2016
Sang a blues song for the first time - one I wrote myself! A milestone, I think...

Jun 2016
Performed a song at a festival open mic for the first (and so far only!) time....

July 2016
Worked out the chords on uke to a more complicated song, then worked out another set of chords using chords up the neck keeping the melody on the 1st string.
I felt this was a real milestone…

So here I am, thus far - nearly eleven years after first being inspired to play ukulele and getting my first... and just coming up to five years of working determinedly and steadily at it. The milestones are fewer and further between now, as the skills get harder to achieve, but every bit as satisfying, if not more so. Most of these milestones were documented along the way on this blog....

Must go. Got to play my ukulele... thanks for dropping in!

Oh, and... have just copied this page with a few added links to a dedicated page on the blog... so I can keep it updated! A lifetime of milestones to hit yet.....

Johnny Foodstamp, my Kiwaya KTS-4 and a bit of Roy Smeck - what a combination!

I told you that Johnny Foodstamp (from Nashville, Tennessee) made the pilgrimage to a George Formby Society convention in Blackpool again... just a week or so ago...

He was interested in my Kiwaya uke, knowing how George Elmes (read about George here on Uke Ireland ) thinks so highly of his Kiwaya ... and as he wanted to play it, and I wanted to hear him play it, the result was this lovely impromptu performance of Roy Smeck's Music Box Waltz.

Pure magic.

Please enjoy....



Mmm, delicious!

Thanks for dropping in....

Just between ourselves, we call ourselves The Gibson Girls... Caroline, Lesley and Kate - GFS Blackpool September 2014

I always have a great time at the George Formby Society Convention in Blackpool. You know I do. I tell you all the time. But last weekend was even a bit extra-special.

Here's one reason. My very good friend Caroline Stewart became Chairman of the society. My first convention in June 2102 was her second, and we quickly became pals in the "thrash" when she advised me that the reason my uke sounded out of tune was that it should have been tuned in D, not in C - and we have been good friends ever since. Caroline sings adn plays very well, and that, together with her love of George Formby have made her very popular with the GFS audiences, as has her willingness to get involved in the society and do her bit - a very able and lovely lady, is Caroline, and a stalwart friend - someone you want in your corner.

Another such is Kate Howard, who attended her first convention, traveling all the way from her home on the Isle of Skye with a Long-Suffering-Husband in tow last year. She loves Formby and the tricky syncopated banjo-uke solos - and my goodness, can she play - yes she can! The three of us have all become good mates, all the proud owners of vintage Gibson UB2 banjo-ukes, and even the three Long-Suffering-Husbands, uke-widowers all, have become great pals and now take themselves off during the conventions to find their own amusements in the local hostelries! Such is the power and appeal of the GFS to bring people together.

Back in March, Caroline suggested that the three of us could perform a medley together, a medley of jazz standards that George performed on TV in 1958 with the Deep River Boys. We all live too far apart to be able to practise together, but we found the chords and learned these three songs, and finally on Saturday we ran them through a couple of times during the mid-afternoon break, ready to perform them during the main concert on Saturday evening. It's not a lot of rehearsal, is it, but we got through it ok.... these girls are such lovely performers, it was great to be up on that Formby stage with them!

Caroline, Lesley, Kate
Photo thanks to Jonathan Mallalieu

And here's a video! Thanks to another good pal, Pauline Aitken!



The band are fabulous. Just tell 'em what your're doing, what key you're playing in - and they're away! Matt, Tony and Dale, that time...

So now I must learn another Formby number, complete with solo. There's challenging...

Thanks for dropping in! Lots more to come...

George Formby Society - a major Ukafrolic at Morecambe Winter Gardens! July 2013

"George Formby Society Convention

Saturday 27th July – all day event

Following the success of last year’s convention, Formby followers are back in full force for their latest fan convention at the Morecambe Winter Gardens! George Formby, one of Britain’s biggest stars of the 1930s and 1940s, famously performed at the Winter Gardens theatre, switched on the Morecambe Illuminations in 1950 and even judged the Miss Great Britain beauty contest at the Morecambe Super Swimming Stadium!"

So reads the Events page on the Morecambe Winter Gardens website. Such a beautiful old theatre, closed to the public since 1977, hugely in need of restoration... it had been arranged that the society would hold a one-day convention there, free to all, just for the fun of using a lovely old theatre that George had played in, of standing on the same stage, on the spot that he had stood on... we, the Formby faithful are used to going to conventions in Blackpool up to four times a year, and we wondered how well this one-off jaunt rather further up the coast would be supported, but no worries, there was a good crowd, and quite a few folk came in off the street as well, to see what it was all about.

Morecambe was a thriving seaside resort in the mid-20th century. It had three piers, several large theatres, and was once very popular... but I remembered it from the 80's, when we vowed we'd never return - an English seaside town that the world seemed to have turned its back on, sad and shabby in the extreme... (the piers all went ages ago.) So we had no high hopes of Morecambe itself when we set off to fight our way up the M6 motorway, notoriously busy on Fridays.

But we needn't have worried, the place looks so different now! We found the promenade a pretty and fun place to be, with new gardens, an iconic statue of Morecambe's most famous son Eric Morecambe, of the comedy duo Morecambe and Wise, and at the end, the fabulous art deco Midland Hotel, restored to glory in recent years. And the weather, too, was glorious - the sea was in, and people were bathing and swimming in it! Glory be indeed...

The first thing we had done after checking in at our hotel on Friday was to find the Winter Gardens, just yards up the street on the promenade.

Some key GFS members were already there, checking the place out and preparing for Saturday.

MY brain reeled as I took in first impressions looking around this large, once beautiful old theatre. The walls are stripped back to bare brick, the floor is bare, there are free-standing chairs in the stalls, where once there would have been fixed plush seating - and not all of them had been put out yet. At the same time, the ornate plasterwork on the ceiling and all around the circle appears virtually intact though sorely in need of new paint, and the imagination leaps to how it must have been back in the day; sumptuous, a veritable wonder-palace of entertainment. You think, all at once, how sad, but how wonderful that major efforts are being made to gradually bring it back to its former glory.

To see it, Look here for a smashing little video showing the interior, and all about the restoration work. I fell in love with the place immediately. And stunning professional photos here - you just have to look!
The photo above, (thanks Peter Pollard) shows Alan Kershaw on stage while Alan Chenery looks to his sound system... the anticipation grows!

A gorgeous day ended with a gorgeous sunset to rival anything Key West has to offer...an evening drinking good beer with good Formby friends, and we were all set for Saturday's fun.

Getting ready for the first concert....

The banner's out ready - and folk are coming in...

The lads are in town! Always great to see these talented youngsters!

Peter Pollard and Andy Poppleton - a great partnership...

I'd had no intention of going on stage - but Peter Pollard was having none of it - "You must - they need people to get up there...." so Caroline and I decide to give 'em Lili Marlene again. Quick practice outside - shame we live a few hundred miles apart! What a lovely stage to perform on... Laurel and Hardy, George Formby, Vera Lynn, Sir Lawrence Olivier (in the the film The Entertainer) - the Rolling Stones! And me. What a privilege - what a nerve!

You know, I started this blog just over a year ago to share my ukulele journey, and I have had such fun, made such good friends. I still feel as if I have no business to be performing on stage, and a little more comfortable as part of a duo or group - but it was a blast. I hadn't sung this since the first time we did it, back in March in Blackpool, and we can only run it through a couple of times anyway... but I sang the first verse in German, and Caroline winged it with some harmony. I think we got away with it. And the thrash - you know, where everyone gets up to play together... that was just tremendous on that stage at the Winter Gardens...

This was the afternoon concert. In the evening would come the best, some up for the first time that day, like the wonderful Matthew Richards, some giving us a second helping - Alan Yates, Lewis Clifton, Peter Pollard, and many other super performers too numerous to mention - and Caroline Stewart (was Robson) playing my lovely Kiwaya KTS-4 wooden uke, with "I'll See You in My Dreams" - simply tremendous. I'm so jealous. Wish I had her lovely voice.... but before that, we all piled out, down the road for a photo with Eric - the great late lamented Eric Morecambe - who once famously said, as he did a sketch with Andre Previn - "I'm playing all the right notes - but not necessarily in the right order!"

Fabulous!

Thanks again to Peter Pollard for three of these lovely pics, and to LSH, my darling Long-Suffering-Husband for the rest...

This has been a longer post than usual and it's time I went and did something else... thanks for dropping in to share my uke journey!

It's a funny thing about singing....

It's a funny thing about singing, and I've found this before.... it's so hard to sing a song aloud that means something to you... LSH and I have a few songs that for one reason or another are a bit special, and I came across the chords for such a one last night. So after running it through, I went downstairs just now and sat beside him on the sofa, armed with uke and chord sheet...."Look what I found...!" but do you think I could sing that song aloud while I played? No way.... not to him.... the voice went, the tears just streamed..... "I Just Called to Say I Love You" ... perhaps if I work on it I can de-sensitize myself to it, and get that I can sing and play it with him. Perhaps.

If something moves you, a song or a poem, a passage in a book, it touches the emotions in a way that comes right to the surface when the voice is involved. It begs questions about performing certain songs in public. There are poems that I just can't read aloud, it's just the same. Words and music touch the soul.

Just thought I'd share that with you.

Caroline Robson performs Leaning on a Lamppost - and talks about stage fright

I didn't see Caroline's first performance at the September meeting of the George Formby Society; I was tucked up in my own little pit at home, feeling sorry for myself. She had an attack of stage fright. You'd hardly know; she dealt with it so well... but for the benefit of anyone who loves to share their music but suffers form this, she talks about it.....

"The weekend of September 15th and 16th saw me attend my third consecutive George Formby Society Convention at Blackpool. I've been a member of he GFS for less than a year but made a lifetimes worth of friends. One of those is Lesley Fowkes, the author of your regular Life's a Ukafrolic blog posts. We met in June and became firm friends straight away. The uke connection does that. Anyway, this weekend we had planned at the very last minute to perform a song together on stage but due in part to Lesley being ill and her having touch of stage fright we put it off until next time. Lesley had arrived too late to see my debacle of a performance on Saturday afternoon otherwise she would've run a mile when I suggested a duet! Stage fright appears to be one of my areas of expertise. I could teach her a thing or two!

I first performed at the GFS in June on the Sunday night when there are fewer people about and its a lot more relaxed. First time ever behind a microphone and my throat closed up, voice went, my legs shook but I just about pulled it off. However, I struggle to watch the YouTube video of it. The singing is so strained.

I couldn't understand it. I am normally so calm. Even when the world is falling around my ears I stay cool. Well, I look like I'm cool even if inside I'm terrified. Remember that bit for later.

So despite the terrifying experience I vowed to try again in September.

I learned two Formby songs. Correction. I thought I'd learned them. I got up on stage on Saturday afternoon in front of a packed room (400+ people) and proceeded to forget all the chords to Leaning on a Lampost and then play a completely different solo to that played by the backing band. As if this wasn't bad enough, I then had to carry on and do a second song when all I wanted to do was run away. The only bit of the second one I remember is singing the same line twice!

It was horrible. I was so disappointed. I felt like you used to feel after an exam that you knew you'd done really badly in. I'd put in so much work then on the day I messed it up.

I know it happens to the best of them. I'm not alone.
Now there is always something to be learned from any performance, no matter how bad it is.

Here are my pearls of wisdom learned from painful experience.

Before you get up on stage...

1 Learn the song. Then learn it some more. Learn it so you can sing it the all way through while you are concentrating on something else. Same goes for the chords.

2 Try to stay calm - my best performance followed me chattering away maniacally to a friend just before going on stage. I was still nervous but not terrified. It's a fine line.

No matter what happens when you get up on stage you must do two things.

1 Keep going. Never stop.

2 Keep smiling. I have discovered that the audience will warm to a winning smile. If you look nervous the audience will get nervous too. When the legs turn to jelly force a smile or crack a joke. Most audiences want you to do well. None more so than the GFS audience.

Afterwards...

1 Accept compliments graciously (I'm not good at this) and seek honest feedback from those with more experience whose opinion you respect.

2 Learn and move on. Don't beat yourself up.

During the weekend, a couple of people told me I have very good stage presence. This performing lark is all new to me and I didn't know what it was so I looked it up. I think it basically means when you get on stage the audience like you, warm to you and forgive you for your human mistakes.

So I'll be working on the words, the chords and the stage presence!
Finally, remember that you never get better by not doing something. After my terrible experience on Saturday I got back up on Sunday night and did just fine. A few mistakes but that winning smile got me off the hook.....I think!

Til next time....Caroline"


Thanks to Caroline and also to Peter Pollard for sharing the video!

Post Script...2015
Caroline is now Caroline Stewart, and is now Chairman of the George Formby Society! Those GFS folks know a good thing when they see it!