I’ve only been playing a uke for three, maybe four months. I’ve barely mastered two songs and a couple of string exercises but can keep up with a group song if the chords are written out.

I’ve found the online community to be fantastic & certainly not limited to soprano or nothing else, even with Hawaiian based sites like ukuleleunderground.com. I don’t know where Cyberg00 lives, but fear not: that attitude isn’t worldwide.

The only real hatred I’ve seen expressed online is the whole pronunciation of yook-a-lay-lee versus ook-a-lay-lee seems to bring out the extremists as does Julia Nunes (both those who love her and those who hate her & bushman ukuleles).

But I digress. My pet hate is people who, even while playing ukulele, look down on the instrument. I admit, it isn’t a mainstream rocker, but it’s an instrument that is fun, sounds great and really social. If anyone ever refers to it WHILE PLAYING ONE as ‘twee’ or as not being a real instrument (i.e. we should all be playing guitar) it really,really shits me. I’ll cop a ribbing from non-ukulele players, just those who should be on the inner and feel the same joy I feel from strumming the four strings…

My husband is the bass player in the family and I come from an opera background. He doesn’t use a pick on a bass either.

The thing that turns me off to really taking part in the online uke community is the traditionalists. A uke isn’t a real uke if it has “ears”, is any other scale but soprano, and any other tonewood but koa or mahogany. Anything else must be little more than a “small guitar.” Then there’s the “playing ukulele like a ukulele” or “playing ukulele like a guitar.” – To me, playing uke like a guitar would mean using a pick, but to many of these guys, they just sling that insult the minute someone isn’t playing a tune written before 1930, or Hawaiian.

My local uke club invited some luthiers to a uke fest, then members of the club insulted said luthiers by saying “small guitars.” – Yeah, that’s some Aloha Spirit right there!

My way of thinking is, the ukulele is an instrument, and you can change your style around to get the sound you want. That’s not wrong to do. In fact uke players are the only musicians I’ve ever met who ever had traditionalists in their ranks. I cringe to think what an orchestra would sound like, if those ukulele players applied the same thinking, because the instruments would never have evolved to what they are today.

I think anything goes, if it sounds good, it is good. I basically think that the real musicians are too busy making music to worry about any of those silly rules or playing any of those silly mind games. A real musician sees an instrument as a tool for creating music, and there isn’t enough time to worry about what rules are being broken.

That’s my own ukulele related rant. I wish the community was more genuinely open, and not just pretend open. What I mean is, really ultra-friendly until someone dares put forward (as long as they’re nice about it) a dissenting opinion. I’ve seen it happen in reality, and on a few forums, everyone’s nice until someone disagrees, and then the witch hunt begins! I think that’s how these weird traditionalist opinions evolved, and not from any actual real beliefs.