Musings: Strummin’ Along

By Carmelita Guse, Gamma Alpha, Minnesota Alumni

Learning to play the ukulele to accompany my arias

I’m a classically trained soprano. I’ve sung with professional choirs, opera choruses and performed in concerts and solo recitals. And I play the ukulele.

I’ve been singing for as long as I can remember and I’ve always loved music. My mother, who was also a soprano, often played music in the house. When we traveled as a family, music played from the car’s eight-track tape deck. (Who remembers eight-track tapes?) My parents wanted my two siblings and me to play an instrument, so we took violin lessons. My sister continued with music and went on to play the clarinet, saxophone and flute, and she holds a degree in flute performance. My brother didn’t continue to play an instrument, but he did sing in church.

I continued to play the violin even after I no longer took lessons. In addition to singing in church and at school, I played the violin in junior high, high school and college orchestras, and even after college in church orchestras. I enjoyed playing my violin! Then I got married, and we moved. Our new church didn’t have an orchestra and I didn’t look into playing in a community orchestra, so I didn’t play. When my cousin asked if anyone in the family had a violin for his children to play, I gave my instrument to him. I was sad to part with it, but I wasn’t using it.

In 2017, I wanted to play an instrument again. It was something that I had enjoyed, and I wanted that part of my life back. I considered asking my cousin if I could have the violin back since his kids were grown, but I never asked because things took a different turn.

In 2018, I began teaching voice lessons at a local Christian high school and one of my students mentioned that the ukulele was fun to play and easy to learn. When the gentleman who led the Bible study group that I attended at the time asked me to lead worship, I said that I would get a ukulele and lead the singing. I went to a local music store, stated that I was looking for a ukulele, and shared my budget. I came away with an instrument, a chord chart, a two year warranty and a bag. And I stayed within my budget!

I started learning contemporary Christian music from the 1980s and 90s to sing for Bible study, and I took several lessons. After playing for a few months I learned a few art songs and spirituals because I had the idea that I would accompany myself and did so on a few songs in a 2019 recital. I figured that it would be wise to be able to sing and play in case a pianist wasn’t available to accompany me. At the time, I had no idea how helpful that would be.

When COVID-19 hit, everything I did came to a screeching halt. Even though there were no performances, I still needed an outlet to sing, but I didn’t have a piano in my home, nor did I have easy access to a pianist to accompany me. So my ukulele came in handy! At the beginning of 2020, I had the goal to perform 20 times in 2020, and before the pandemic closed everything down, I was well on my way to doing so. I decided to figure out a way to meet my goal in spite of the shutdowns. So I started a YouTube channel to share my singing, and I accompanied myself on my instrument. In addition to YouTube, I sang in virtual competitions, for Zoom meetings, virtual church services and master classes, and I used my ukulele in many of those performances. By the end of the year, I had sung 35 times!

I play the ukulele with art songs, arias, spirituals, musical theater’s classic era (think Rodgers and Hammerstein), American standards, sacred music and the occasional pop song. Posting to my YouTube channel has expanded my repertoire a great deal. I have a theme for each month, and I learn many new songs for that. And even if I know the song vocally, there’s a lot of work to do to prepare to play the ukulele. A lot of ukulele music is available, but it’s all popular music. As far as I know, Schirmer doesn’t have any art song books for voice and ukulele! All of my classical music is written for voice and piano, so I have to figure out the chords for each art song or aria that I want to perform. It’s a challenge, but I enjoy doing it, and that’s a good thing because I’ve done it a lot!

I highly recommend learning to play the ukulele. Besides being easy and fun, it’s a very portable instrument. In fact, I usually travel with mine on road trips. When I bought it, I didn’t know that this would be the case, but playing the ukulele fulfilled the longing that I had to play an instrument.

Three Tips for Beginners:

1. Spend at least $100. The gentleman at the music store suggested that I spend at least that much to get a good quality instrument. I took his advice.

2. Strum a few instruments in your price range to get an idea of their sound. At the music store, the gentleman played four ukuleles in the suggested $100 price range, and I bought the best-sounding one. (It also happened to be the prettiest one!) Mine is a concert size, which is a little bit larger than a soprano size. The slightly larger size can produce a nicer tone. My instrument has a very nice tone, and I’ve been told that it blends well with my voice.

3. Take a few lessons. It’s true that the ukulele is easy to learn, but it’s helpful to make sure that you start off with good technique. A Brief History of the Ukulele

A Brief History of the Ukulele

The ukulele dates to 1879, when Portuguese immigrants brought several small guitars, including the braguinha, to Hawai’i. More than 400 Portuguese immigrants arrived at Honolulu Harbor aboard the Ravenscrag from Madeira to work in the sugarcane fields. According to some accounts, among the passengers was musician João Fernandes who was so happy to reach Honolulu after an exhausting four-month journey, that he borrowed another passenger’s braguinha and began playing Portuguese music. Others joined Fernandes with song and dance to the delight of Hawaiian bystanders, who marveled at how his fingers jumped like fleas across the fingerboard, thus calling the instrument ukulele, which translates to “jumping flea.” The ukulele became popular with the people of Hawai’i almost immediately after its arrival in the islands, including King David Kalākaua, Hawai’i’s Merrie Monarch, an accomplished guitarist and musician and the driving force behind the revival of hula. Today, the ukulele has become the most celebrated musical instrument in the Hawaiian Islands and its popularity has expanded beyond the islands’ shores.

—Source: “Ukulele: A Portuguese Gift to Hawai’i” by John Henry Felix (1980)

Soprano Carmelita Guse has performed with The Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company, Mixed Precipitation Theatre, the Minnesota Opera Chorus, Minnesota Chorale, Skylark Opera and the Lakes Area Music Festival Opera Chorus. She was a soloist in the premiere of Missa Aurea in New Hope, Minnesota, and she is a frequent soloist at Faith Temple Church in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. To see how she performs with her ukulele, please visit her YouTube channel “The 86th Street Performing Arts Center.”

CARMELITA GUSE, GAMMA ALPHA, MINNESOTA ALUMNI