When in doubt, uke it out

By Jessica Berget, Editor-in-Chief

For some, fall is a cozy season. Wrapping yourself up in blankets and sweater, drinking hot cups of tea and soup while watching your favourite fall themed program is how I used to remember Autumn. Now, for many students going into classes again and working their many part-time job, it’s the season for stress. Fortunately, I have a solution. The ukulele.

I hate to sound like your basic quirky indie girl doing a ukulele cover of “Can’t help falling in love,” but playing the ukulele is actually a lot of fun, fairly easy, and I think it sounds beautiful. If you have tiny baby hands like I do, the guitar can be a challenge to play. Plus, six strings? Fuck that acoustic noise.

The ukulele is a smaller, making it more mobile and easier to get a hang of certain chords and finger-picking styles. You can learn a few chords, or possibly a whole song in less than an hour if you practice enough. You can also learn many guitar songs on the uke which adds a lively and tropical sound to even the most depressing songs. Think Hawaiian emo. There are also many songs made for ukulele that can be fun and easy to play. Steven Universe for example has a ton of beautiful songs made for the ukulele.

Playing ukulele, or any instrument for that matter, is extremely therapeutic. If you also tend to get anxious, depressed, or even just bored, singing and playing ukulele will be the best thing you ever did. It allows you to release any tension or stress you might be feeling in a fun and rewarding way. It also allows you to let all your frustrations out in a healthy and productive way.

Learning the chords to songs you love and playing them for yourself or playing with or for your friends is a great way to practice your singing and live performance skills, to sing your heart out to your favourite songs, or scream into the void that is your bedroom. I’m sure I’m not the only one who has thought about breaking out “Hey there Delilah” at parties (it’s still a great song!) I find it can also lighten your mood if you’ve had a rough day, week, month, year, life.

It may sound intimidating learning a new instrument, but as far as most instruments go, I’d say ukulele is one of the easier ones. If I can learn how to play it, anyone can.

Limes,

Jessica Berget