Today I worked on campus, and I walked with Seabird on our morning break because I was going to the Just Bach concert at noon, and she had to go down to State Street to buy some Korean barbecue sauce anyway. I told her how at one of the Asian stores in town years ago I'd seen a huge can labeled "Indispensable Condiment," and I was very curious, but not enough to buy a can that large. The rest of the writing on the can was in some Asian script, I think Korean but I can't remember anymore. Anyway, the concert ran a bit long and I had a meeting at one, so I thought of slipping out before the Bach chorale singalong at the end, but it was a lovely D minor one with lots of B naturals so it leaned Dorian - so beautiful! Glad I stayed!
After work I drove to the American Legion post in Waunakee for a ukulele strum. I haven't been to one in ages, and despite taking lessons way back before the Pandemic, I still don't make the chords correctly, just like with the mandolin. I just look at the chord chart and guess at which finger to put where, and if they're going too fast, I just randomly make chords that don't sound wrong. (Except sometimes they do.) I've got a lot of the basics down, like G and G7 (pro tip: if everyone else is playing a G7 and you're too lazy to do that, you can just play a G), C and A minor and F and D and D minor, and even E7, which is a terrible stretch but still not as bad as on the mandolin. There were some other weirder chords, but I just sat those out and listened to the rest of the group fumble with them. C minor seemed to give everyone a lot of trouble, and I somehow never saw the chart for that one so I'm not sure how much dexterity it takes. A lot of the people at this strum are a good two decades older than I am, and I'm already starting to get a bit stiff in the fingers. They were friendlier this time, so maybe they're finally starting to recognize me, but as always they seemed surprised that I can't join their weekly strum in the middle of the workday. The theme tonight was "Beatles" and, as it turned out, Beatles-adjacent songs, with some of them quite a stretch in my mind. I'd told Travalon about it, and he did actually try to find us after he got done with work, but he made the same mistake I had, of going to the front of the building, with an empty parking lot and a locked door, so he thought he was in the wrong place. If I hadn't seen someone drive by me and go around to the back, I might not have thought to check back there myself. This venue was not nearly as fun as the Lone Girl Brewery's private party room, but that was apparently booked tonight. There will be no strum next month due to the holidays and all the activities going on with that, so it looks like it might be a couple of months before my ukulele gets out and about again. Though this group is playing at our East Side Club Christmas dinner, so it's tempting to try to play along with them there... I did that once in the past, but I was invited. Probably best not to bring my uke and expect them to just let me jump in with them.
If you feel bad for my ukulele, that doesn't get played out as much as the violin and the mandolin, then spare a thought for my balalaika, tamburitza, rebec, sitar, mountain dulcimer, moon guitar, other ukulele, electric mandolin (at least that had its moment during the plugged-in jam a couple of years ago, and with a plugged-in Mideastern band years earlier), and the trash can violin that the violin repairman said was probably sold at Walmart for $70. They never get to go anywhere!
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