My new ladies, the K sisters
So, one fateful day last year (Can't remember when, exactly), I spent some time on the Youtube hanging out and quickly found out the real snare of that damn site. Once you get started, that bar on the side of "related" videos can take you down the rabbit hole. It's amazing what you will click on out of sheer curiousity. No really. I dare you to try it.
It's really the only way I can describe how I ended up watching ukulele videos for like 2 hours straight. And I'm not talking about ridiculous Hawaiian songs on those mini guitar like things, but hard core covers of current stuff with ukuleles. So awesome I can't even think straight about it. Seriously. My absolute favorite youtube performer is a gal called Julia Nunes. Her personal website is www.junumusic.com/videos.php and you can navigate to her youtube stuff from there. Point being, she covers great stuff, has some decent originals, and basically makes me smile. (Okay, I admit to a teensy girl crush, whatever).
After watching her amazing videos where she not only covers songs but splices together harmonies and other "instruments" over each song (srsly? she beats on a kleenex box with wooden spoons, but it really works)...well...I'm impressed. More than that, watching her uke skillz alone, is amazing. Plus she makes the funniest facial expressions...give it a try, it's good stuff.
Onto the news. So pretty much since then I have been drooling over getting a ukulele. Hadn't really decided on what kind I wanted or what I could afford or whatnot. But this week? This week I was on a mission. Found a baritone uke in town that I could afford and since baritones are tuned like the bottom four strings on a guitar, I thought my extremely rudimentary "guitar" skills could translate. So I bought it. And then?
Found out that my mother-in-law's stepfather played ukelele (after I'd already bought mine) and she was storing it in her house and I can have it. No really, I can have a 60 year old soprano ukulele in addition to my baritone. Are you kidding me? Total squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! (and I never squee) So in true "naming" tradition, I thought that they need cool Hawaiian type names (or things I call them until they get proper names, and I need to get to know them first before we get to proper names). So, I decided that Hawaiian for little sister and big sister were good. And if you can trust the interwebs on this, little sister (if you are a female yourself, which I am, Ha!) is KaiKaina*, and big sister is Kaikua'ana*. Thus, my new ladies.
*If you know Hawaiian, and I am wrong, please help a sista out...You know da kine!