My Love Affair with My Ukulele

With its own brand of baggage

First, I have to tell you I am NOT an accomplished ukulele player. I was touring Chetham’s Library in Manchester around Christmas 2024, and I was the only guest, so I had a chance to ask a million questions and get to know my guide. And it turned out that she was in a ukulele group that played right around the corner from where I was petsitting in Didsbury. She invited me to come and listen, so I trudged through the slushy streets to the pub and had a fantastic time!

That’s when someone handed me a ukulele, taught me a couple of chords, and invited me to play and sing along. I loved how it felt in my hands and went the next day to buy my own little uke. Now I collect stickers like other people collect refrigerator magnets and stick them all over it.

I’ve carried it on and off a kajillion planes, buses, and trains since then, once paying a $70 luggage fee on Ryanair (almost the price of the ukulele), and I found groups in Upper Hutt and Rawene to play with.

My favorite singalong was with Clancy the singing lab in Scotland, but I went long stretches without ever opening the case.

I also forgot it at least twice, once at an airport check-in and once on a train! Thank god for the kindness of people who kept it safe and returned it to me.

Anyone can strum a few chords along with a big group and do ok, but mastering a skill takes practice, and I just could NOT find the right inspiration to do that consistently.

I couldn’t picture myself “performing,” playing and singing for whoever. But I finally formed a vision of being a singalong leader. That I could imagine! Sitting around the campfire at my dream retreat center, leading modern-day versions of Kumbaya.

So I asked my friend that I was meeting for her favorite singalong song. She replied, “Leaving on a Jet Plane.” Turns out she was being funny, as I was about to be doing just that, but the joke went right over my head, and I learned to play the song. It turned out to be pretty easy, just three basic chords.

When I arrived in Dublin to meet her and begin our Irish adventure, my plane arrived early. A gifted young Israeli man was playing a beautiful classical piece on the lobby piano. There was a chair nearby, so I sat to wait and listen. He encouraged me to take out my ukulele, and I did! Terrifying! I played “Leaving on a Jet Plane”, and he joined in on the piano. I even sang a little bit. In a crowded Dublin airport. No one booed me, and it was a wee little concert, but it felt brave!

My friend and I did have our little two-person sing-along, the first time I played by myself with another person singing along. I was right; it was fun! We even recorded a little snippet, and we didn’t sound half bad!

I once met a guy on a bus in Liverpool who asked to have a go on my ukulele, and he played and sang “Ain’t She Sweet” to enthusiastic applause. Maybe I’ll play well enough one day to do that; just burst into song on a bus bench somewhere.

With love from wherever I am,
Lauren