Introduce yourself

Hello all, I live in England (Midlands area) and have been playing for around 4 years. Like many others, I tried many different uke teachers on YouTube and often found myself going down a 'rabbit hole' and never really learning anything. I can honestly say, since finding Matt around 12 months ago, I rarely look at other teachers, having found Matt's teaching so inclusive, right from basic strumming to adding all sorts of embellishments! I'm an enthusiastic amateur and have joined 3 different uke classes in my area, with the largest having over 60 members - it's great fun and I have made many new friends in taking up this fascinating instrument. I look forward to learning a lot more from Matt and all of you! 🤗

Hello, I'm Anuschka and I live in North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. Actually, I stumbled across the ukulele by chance a half year ago. I have been playing the hook harp for a long time, but it always takes a long time to play pieces well. The first thing that excited me about the ukulele was that you can accompany a lot with just a few chords and that it is so portable. However, since I can't sing well, I quickly became interested in playing melodies and it took me longer to learn a piece on the ukulele. Through the German Facebook group (and there actually through Indrani) I came across Matt Stead and his beautiful and instructive videos. Since then, I also like to join Kanikapilas. I also found a great teacher here in Germany with whom I currently have online lessons. In the meantime, the ukulele has become a much bigger part of my life than I first thought and is a lot of fun.

Hi Matt. Congratulations on the new website and thanks for ALL you do for the ukulele community. I've been on the ukulele journey for a number of years. I practice and play daily. Tallahassee, Florida is where I hang my hat.

Blessings,

Rich

My name is Rebecca. I live in Colorado, USA. I've been playing for about 5 years. I bought a Luna soprano while visiting Kona as a souvenir. I used ukes in my kinder and 1st grade classroom in southern California, the last few years before retiring. I used open tuning for my student ukes where we played and sang sight word songs and number concept songs. In California I had lots of uke connections. A wood working shop where I live now had a ukulele making class, and I made my own. It was very interesting to see and do the whole process. I love the way Matt pushes my abilities and weaves music therory into his lessons and kanikapila. He also knows the best songs, well-known and unknown(to me)

Hi all ,I'm Amanda from Monmouth south wales.I have been learning for about 10 months.I started as friends play when I am on holiday in France,so have played along with them.I can find no groups near home at all,so maybe there is someone on here .

Aloha ukulele people. I'm Heiko from Frankfurt/Germany. I got infected by the ukulele virus about 3 1/2 years ago and played it almost daily. I taught myself by watching YouTube tutorials of the well-known and brilliant teachers like Bernadette, Kevin, Cynthia, Cathy, Stu, Phil, Iso and of course Matt. Always looking forward to learning something new.

Hi all. I started playing ukulele a year ago with a couple of months off after falling off my horse and breaking my arm. I'm all healed now and just love playing my ukulele. I belong to a ukulele club as well which is great fun and has improved my playing no end. I loved my first experience of The Retreat and am really excited to meet you all again next year.

Hi

I was head of a brass department for a music service in the West Midlands UK for 30 years. After taking voluntary redundancy I built up my teaching for another music service in Worcestershire. Since then Ukulele in schools taught as a whole class had become very popular so I began teaching myself the Ukulele. I am now into my third year of teaching the instrument. Whilst I teach mainly chords I wish to venture into teaching children melodies and reading notation. Being a brass player I personally cannot understand why TAB is so popular as in the long term stave notation is better. My main objective is to know the name of the notes on the frets rather than simply knowing chords but also knowing the names of which notes of the chord I am strumming.

Welcome everyone! Thanks so much for introducing yourself. This is fab!

Hi everyone! I'm Indrani from the westernmost part of Germany!

I have been playing for a bit more than 2.5 years. Like many others I started learning the uke as a distraction from the pandemic and "something fun, but not too challenging" to do while being put on short-time at work.

I have since surprised myself with the amount of ambition I have developed to become better at playing our little "jumping flea".

I started learning from Bernadette Plazola, which put me onto her Facebook group, where I then met "The Cow and Frog", who in turn introduced me to Matt and his Kanikapila Mondays. One thing led to another and I now play a (miniscule) part in his Facebook group's admin team. 😊

You have only played 2 years? Wow, you must be a natural musician. Thank you for helping being an admin for Matt.

Aloha ....I live in Oahu and have been following Matt since I started my journey less the 2 years ago. Very excited to be attending UFGB and his retreat next summer! Currently playing a concert NueNue and a tenor Kanile'a. Grown so much over past few years but lots of learning yet to do. Really enjoy the spots on Matt's hangout as well as Kanikapila every Monday!

Hello Matt Followers!

I've been playing for about 3 years now and love every minute of it. Especially all the great resources online and jamming with local groups. I have found several groups to play with in my travels to California, Hawaii, and Massachusetts but NOTHING, ZERO in Rhode Island where I live. It's really bumming me out. Fortunately, I can attend ukulele camps and festivals a few times a year to enjoy the social aspect of the ukulele world as well as learning from some great teachers. I was hoping to get over to Matt's retreat next year, but the tickets sold out before I could commit. Oh well, maybe Matt will come to the States some time so I can meet him here.

Cheers,

Leslie

My brand new custom made tenor.

Hello everyone. I'm Barbara Gabriel, a transplanted Texan who grew up in the north-central USA. I bought a ukulele a bit over a year ago after thinking about it for years. I got the basics from youtube videos (Bernadette P.) and then discovered Matt's vids, so I'm working my way through the beginners program. I live in a town that considers itself the "Music capital of the world" which sounds very American, right? I've discovered that it's a great place to learn the ukulele, since it's the home of the Austin Ukulele Society which is a fantastic club, and I also am part of two smaller uke ensembles. I'm here to learn and so appreciate the help from members of the FB Hangout group.

Hello/Shwmae from Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿😊🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

I'm Jude Randall & I've been a music tutor for 30 years, teaching both children & adults piano 🎹 & music theory to the advanced levels.

Ten years ago my bestie & some of my muso friends persuaded me to buy an ukulele! Shortly afterwards, I founded my own community group, Kool Hand Ukes, & the rest, as they say, is history!

My ukulele journey so far, has been amazing. This wonderful instrument has given purpose to so many of my students. It kept us together through the pandemic via Zoom. It has saved my sanity through some tough times in recent years for which I will be forever thankful 🙏

First met Matt Stead, a truly wonderful guy & teacher, just over two years ago, when my uke bestie, Rachel Webley, & I visited The Uke Room. I love the Hangout page, big thanks to Karen Morrow & the other fabulous admins who keep it running smoothly ❤️ Catch you all soon.

Thank you Matt for setting all of this up 🎵❤️🎵

Hi everyone. If you are already a member of Matt's Ukulele Hangout Facebook page, then you already know that I'm one of the 3 admins who help Matt out with the page and Kanikapila stuff. Nov 6, 2023 will mark my second year of playing the uke. I intend to keep playing until the day I die.😜