Under The Magic Spell of Ukulele
Source : Google Images
New
Year Greetings to the readers!
[Why not? The excitement of New Year shouldn’t fade away at this point.]
It’s the
first day of the second month of this year and I am all set to put my foot on this
task of writing 10k words before this month ends. I have been putting away my
habit of writing for no particular reason, but I am glad that this initiative
of Write A Page A Day by BlogChatter will wake my writing spirit up from
a deep slumber. Writing is not just a process of typing my thoughts on the
keyboard but it’s an act of introspecting my life and surroundings. It reminds
me to pause, reflect, collect, and write.
I’ve been a
strong believer in the Law of Attraction. Last year, around this time, I pasted
some cut-outs on my journal linking to my wishes/goals in various spheres of my
life. Out of those cut-outs, there was a light blue Ukulele, I was aspiring to
learn to play it. Fast forward many months, I found out about Ukulele classes
being held at different libraries in the Helsinki/Espoo area, that too for
different levels, beginners, intermediate, and advanced. It was like “When the
student is ready, the teacher appears” kind of moment for me. I, right away,
decided to join the beginner’s classes. When I got this information, I had
already missed some classes which made me a little anxious about the fear of
missing out on my peers, but when I started attending the classes, I found the
instructor, Sakari Heikka, super welcoming and friendly. Interestingly, there
was a provision to burrow Ukuleles and use them in the class. All the students used
these Ukuleles until they got their own.
My training
began with the right posture to hold the Ukulele, and tune and strum it in the
right way so that the Ukulele sounds perfectly. There were about 8-10 students
in the class who were very enthusiastic about playing Ukulele. I made many friends
through those classes, got to know them, and enjoyed learning Ukulele with
them. We were taught the basic chords like C, Am, F, G, Dm, C#, etc, and
provided chord sheets to follow. We were so enrapt in singing and playing along
with the instructor that those 1-hour seemed like a few minutes. It has been so
aptly said that “Music has no language or religion.” It touched all of our
hearts.
In the
Beginner’s class at Lippulaiva Library, I attended around 12 classes, and I
must never forget to thank the instructor for his patience in teaching the
techniques to an absolute beginner like me. He was also very regular in sharing
the resources of each class so that we could practice at home. I experimented with the chords that I learned
with Ukulele for playing many Bollywood or devotional songs. This helped me to
convert a wish of mine, to create an Instagram Channel dedicated to my recordings,
into reality. I started recording my songs on the Ukulele and published them on
my Instagram Channel – Swar Symphony. I
could explore another library; Lippulaiva Library, because of these classes. Another
wish of mine, to be able to perform in a live concert, came true, when we were
invited to perform in a Christmas Concert at Sello Library on 11.12.2023. The
videos can be found on my Instagram Channel – Swar Symphony. We
played Ukulele on popular Christmas songs, both Finnish and English. It was a
great experience.
I have always
wished to adopt playing the Ukulele as my hobby to accompany my singing but as
a beginner, I was looking for the right direction to get started. Luckily, those
classes helped me sail through the basics of Ukulele playing without getting
distracted. Under the magic spell of the Ukulele, not only I could make those
dark and depressive winter days of Finland exciting, but I also published as many
as 47 recordings on my Instagram channel within 3 months. It’s no less than a
wonder for me. I hope to witness more such wonders in the future and let the Ukulele
cast its magic spell on me!
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| Source: Google Images |
All Rights Reserved
SWATI
SARANGI
01.02.2024
P.S: This post is a part of #WriteAPageADay by BlogChatter and I’ve picked up the prompt “Hobbies you’re working on”.
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