One of my SAs who plays guitar came by last night and made sweet, sweet love to my new ukulele — I can’t wait until I can make it sing the way he did. I’ve been practicing on it for about a week and I now can comfortably play about 9 chords, making me 3 times as powerful as many rock bands. But my strumming leaves a lot to be desired (the felt-lined picks keeps slipping out of my fingers).

My ukulele method books are unbelievable lame, so I’ve been trying to find song chords on the web and will probably order a fake book. So far, I can bludgeon my way through Somewhere Over the Rainbow and Annie’s Song. But many of the songs I’d like to play have far more complex chord progressions than I ever would have imagined. Still, I’m entranced by being able to accompany myself while I sing (that is, as soon as I can master the art of fretting, strumming, and remembering song lyrics all at the same time).

To help document the progress of my ukulele playing, I’m to record myself and post the songs on my weblog (kind of like Kevin Fanning’s LOUNGE, only not as hip). I would have recorded today had I not been sidetracked by my new cell phone).