Ukulele Tonya

Note: This is a lengthy account to give you an idea what it’s like to attend a three-day festival. If you want to skip the words and head directly to the photo gallery, click here.  If you want to see the captions for each pix, click “detail” in the bottom right corner of the album’s page; also, enlarge the thumbnails by double clicking on them.

Portland Uke Fest 2008

My “barre chording” thumb is sore, I’m still catching up on sleep and I have so many new ukulele concepts to practice that my fingers won’t get any rest for at least eight months. But would I have missed the Portland Uke Fest held last week at Reed College? Nope, not for all the Aquila Nylguts in the world.

While I’ve been to more than a dozen ukulele festivals in the past four years, I’d never taken the plane north to Oregon to attend what’s known as the “favorite” festival by many ukulele workshop teachers, performers and students. This year I made reservations in early spring (they have limited space—sign up by late April if you want to be assured of a slot), snagged a couple Southwest flights and got myself prepped for three-plus solid days of ukulele learning, listening, playing and schmoozing. Sigh…I should have gotten more sleep ahead of time. (Read on …)

Honukani, who posts regularly on a number of ukulele forums, lives in Arizona. Those folks really know what the word “dry” means and how humidity can affect instruments. As the owner of a number of fine ukuleles, Honukani wanted to make sure his instruments are well-protected so he researched the topic of humidity with his typical style (in depth and with great attention to detail) and has written a comprehensive article, “Maintaining Relative Humidity Levels for Ukuleles.” 

Included is a primer about humidity, a discussion of various ways of increasing humidity for your instruments and a scientific test (with graphs!) of hydrating in-case ukuleles (three configurations: one for weekly play, one for less frequent playing and one for a collectible ukulele that stays mainly in the case). He also offers ten “best practice” tips to keep your ukulele in top-notch condition with the right humidity.

I’m pleased Honukani asked if I could host this article at my site—I’m sure it will help many of us understand a complex topic—and have more fun strumming our ukuleles! Go here for the article.

As an attendee at 15 ukulele festivals and workshops in the past few years (from Rhode Island to the Big Island), I can guarantee that, if you play ukulele—no matter what level player you are—the Southern California Ukulele Festival should be a “don’t miss it” event on your lifetime list.What follows is a lengthy account (to make *you* want to attend an ukulele festival, too!); if you’d rather just skip to the album of photos, click HERE! Note: There are more photos in the album than I’ve included on this page so browse around—I can’t figure out how to get captions in the album so you’ll have to look at the name of the .jpg when you’ve opened it and read “who” is in the photo up in the URL bar.   (Read on …)