About five years ago, I picked up a cheap ukulele at a mall in Japan. It was small, and even with good strings, not the best. I hadn’t really played one since grade school, and I had never owned one. In Hawaii, as part of our music education, we learned how to play them. I knew some basic chords, so I scoured the internet for easy songs to play. Surprisingly, there are a lot of sites out there for the enthusiastic ukulele player. Sadly, their Hawaiian song selections were very small.

Eventually, I upgraded to a slightly bigger ukulele from Costco. This one was better and I enjoy playing it. I play my ukulele at school for my students, usually during my self-introduction and Christmas lessons. I also take it camping, to the beach, to bbqs and hanamis. I enjoy playing and singing outdoors. It reminds me of my childhood, watching and listening to the aunties and uncles playing and singing.

For my birthday last year, my husband bought me an Outdoor Ukulele. It’s amazing! It’s waterproof and shatter resistant. I can take it anywhere with me. Recently, I rode to school in a drizzle with it strapped to my back and it was totally fine. I have seen the makers actually put their ukuleles in the river.

On my last trip home, I picked up this wonderful book, He Mele Aloha. It has over 200 songs written over that last hundred or more years. It’s filled with interesting research and stories as well as excellent translations of songs that I grew up with. The main purpose of this book was to give people the ability to have kanikapila again…to play music with one another, whether at a party or at the beach or just in each other’s company. I have found it a wonderfully nostalgic trip through the many musical experiences of my life. I am trying to compile a playlist on Apple Music and I am currently halfway through the book.

So what does this all have to do with my writing? Well, like my weekly art nights, playing music helps with my creativity as well. So much so, that I actually wrote a song for a friend’s birthday present. It was challenging, but I did it.

I really do think that any creative outlet, no matter what it is, will help me be a better artist.