On Thursday evening, I jammed for the first time in my life.
Hosted by the Beacon Tavern in Brookline, I attended my first Ukulele Meetup. I arrived about 10 minutes late, walked to the back of the pub and through a curtain to unveil a packed group of 30-40 ukulele players all playing together.
I headed for the back of the room, dropped my things and pulled out my uke. My first instinct was to tune my instrument but realized that would be impossible with my microphone-based tuner on my phone. But then it dawned on me: it doesn't matter. And that's the beauty of this group, that one person being a little off, whether its in pitch or note, isn't a big deal. Mathematically, I suppose it's the central limit theorem at play: with enough players, the mean pitch will probably be pretty close to correct.
We jammed over beers and fish tacos. My intro ukulele class was well represented with I believe four of our members, which was pretty cool. All in all, it was an absolutely wonderful environment for any music fan, but particularly for newbies like myself -- no pressure, mostly simple songs, lots of fun, and great people.
As our instructor said to me afterwards: "Ukulele players are just nice people." I can't wait for next month's meetup.
Hosted by the Beacon Tavern in Brookline, I attended my first Ukulele Meetup. I arrived about 10 minutes late, walked to the back of the pub and through a curtain to unveil a packed group of 30-40 ukulele players all playing together.
I headed for the back of the room, dropped my things and pulled out my uke. My first instinct was to tune my instrument but realized that would be impossible with my microphone-based tuner on my phone. But then it dawned on me: it doesn't matter. And that's the beauty of this group, that one person being a little off, whether its in pitch or note, isn't a big deal. Mathematically, I suppose it's the central limit theorem at play: with enough players, the mean pitch will probably be pretty close to correct.
We jammed over beers and fish tacos. My intro ukulele class was well represented with I believe four of our members, which was pretty cool. All in all, it was an absolutely wonderful environment for any music fan, but particularly for newbies like myself -- no pressure, mostly simple songs, lots of fun, and great people.
As our instructor said to me afterwards: "Ukulele players are just nice people." I can't wait for next month's meetup.
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