Bunchland

Cynthia Kinnunen blogs about sharing stuff from your childhood with your kids

At the beginning of my grade five year, (this was more years ago than I even care to count) I transferred to a new school. I registered on the first day so class had already begun and all of the other students were already sitting in their seats. The teacher that day, the inimitable Mr. Morgan, came to the classroom wearing a banana-yellow suit (gah!) and sang to me as he brought me into the classroom and showed me my seat. I was mortified.

For the next two years though, while I had him as a teacher, I had the hilarious and amazing experience of learning the ukulele. Because Mr. Morgan played the uke, we all learned the uke.

Before long, we were all strumming along to “Has Anybody Seen My Gal” and “Tie a Yellow Ribbon.” Ah, the classics. It was amazing. We giggled and snickered all the way through but in the end, I was very grateful for having learned another instrument. One that I probably would not have had any inkling of picking up if it weren’t for that quirky Mr. Morgan.

Years later, I looked back and thought geez, why don’t I pick up the ukulele again? I play keys and sing and make serious efforts with “incidental percussion” (also known as egg shakers, maracas and tambourine) but the uke was always calling me back. I mean, it was such a fun instrument to play. And perfect for those of us whose digits just don’t seem to work on a guitar. Plus, you can play all kinds of covers on uke and they sound, well, freaking adorable.

So last year I picked up a concert uke on a trip to the States and haven’t looked back. And the kids have shown interest, which I love. It’s the perfect size for their musical little hands. I showed them how fun it could be when we all recorded a few holiday tracks for far-away family at Christmas, accompanied by the uke, of course.

Max, my five-year old, has shown great interest in this instrument. In between practicing his glockenspiel for Kindermusik and rockin’ out on air guitar to any number of tunes, we are starting to work on the uke. It’s not like he cares that there’s some kind of resurgence happening with it (Hello? Eddie Vedder’s new album?!) but there will absolutely be some work on Neil Finn and George Harrison cover tunes. Maybe even a little George Formby.

Do you try to get your kids interested in out-of-the-ordinary instruments?

Cynthia Kinnunen is a mom of three wonderfully quirky little people who love music, old and new-school adventures and acting as silly as possible at all times. She’s also a freelance writer who blogs for fun at Crumbs in the Minivan and Maple Mixtape.