If I could play the ukulele like Zooey Deschanel, I would find my own personal M. Ward, and we would do a side album; but I don't, you know?
Anna Kendrick
We, America, elected Trump. Putin didn't do it, nor the trolls in St. Petersburg with their zillions of busy bots. They may well have plucked certain strings in the national psyche - played us like a dimestore ukulele - but we were keen to be plucked.
Ben Fountain
I play piano and ukulele, and I taught myself those things just because I wanted to play them.
Billie Eilish
I always have a guitar or ukulele in the trailer, and I write songs. That keeps me in an artistic mind-set.
Billy Bob Thornton
Elvis came along when I was 10. My father gave me a bass ukulele. I taught myself how to play from a book to play some chords, so I was laying down 'Hound Dog' and things like that when I was 10 years old in 1955. That's the way I was. My ear was glued to the radio. I knew right then what I wanted to do.
Bob Seger
I started playing piano when I was 6, ukulele at 7.
Carlene Carter
On the good days, my mother would haul out the ukulele and we'd sit around the kitchen table - it was a cardboard table with a linoleum top - and sing.
Carol Burnett
I mostly play old period songs, as they suit a ukulele more. I bought it when I saw the tribute concert to George Harrison. Joe Brown came on and sang 'I'll See You In My Dreams,' and there wasn't a dry eye in the house.
Charles Dance
I play the piano, drums, little bit of bass, guitar. I can play harmonica, a little bit of the ukulele. Pretty much anything that's a strumming, string type thing.
Chord Overstreet
I love music, and playing ukulele and singing makes me really happy.
Colleen Ballinger
I play the ukulele. Is that quirky?
David Ramsey
I was reading a magazine when I was a little kid, probably about twelve years old, and an ad said that if you sell so many jars of Noxzema skin cream, we'll sell you a ukulele. So I went out and banged on doors in the snow in Quincy, Massachusetts, where I was raised, and I sold the skin cream.
Dick Dale
I actually first picked up an ukulele before I picked up a guitar.
My daddy had been a fiddler, and I heard a lot of fiddle music as a child. I had a ukulele and had played along with him.
Dickey Betts
I had a ukulele when I was about seven. Then I started playing around with the mandolin and the banjo.
I think my first instrument was a ukulele that they gave me. I used to know how to play that pretty well.
Don Henley
I grew up in a musical family; the majority of my growing up was done in Hawaii. It's what we do. You sing, you dance, you play ukulele and you drink.
Dwayne Johnson
We started out when I was 6 years old. We played ukuleles and sang Everly Brothers songs.
Edgar Winter
I started out playing ukulele when I was 5 or 6 years old.
Now everybody's got a crazy notion of their own. Some like to mix up with a crowd, some like to be alone. It's no one elses' business as far as I can see, but every time that I go out the people stare at me, with me little ukulele in me hand.
George Formby
I would love to sit down and do only the ukulele with a very small crowd. I would also like to sing the super poppy songs and all the background stuff. I think both would be an interesting path.
I remember I asked my mom for a ukulele, and she said no because she thought I would never play it. So then I got my birthday money up, and I bought my own. It was the most rebellious thing I've ever done.
I've become a ukulele hoarder.
My advice for someone just learning the ukulele would be to have fun with it and not take anything too seriously. Some songs that I think are great for beginners would be, 'House of Gold,' 'Riptide,' and 'I Don't Know My Name.'
What I think is cool about Fender, and what originally drew me to them, was the Fender electric guitar headstock, which I've never seen on another ukulele. I feel like a rock star when I'm tuning it.
I started writing once I got the ukulele.
I love colors, but I also love rich sounds. And I feel like when it comes to colored ukuleles, people assume they're cheap or that they'll have a tinny sound. And I feel like it would be really beautiful to have a rich color but also to have a rich sound.
A family friend was staying with us once and had brought over a ukulele. I just loved the way she played it. I saved up the money from my 11th birthday and went out and bought one for myself.
I have a collection of ukuleles. I meant to graduate to the guitar, but I never did.
There's something about the ukulele that just makes you smile. It makes you let your guard down. It brings out the child in all of us.
Sometimes I can't think of a better way to end my day than coming home and just strumming my ukulele for a few minutes. I mean, I joke around and tell people that it's an entire yoga session in one strum, you know?
If everyone played the ukulele, the world would be a better place.
Bill Gates recently picked up the ukulele. And Warren Buffett is a huge ukulele fan. I even got to strum a few chords with Francis Ford Coppola. It blows my mind that these people, who have everything in the world they could want, have picked up the ukulele and found a little bit of joy.
I love the fact that people don't see the ukulele as a serious instrument. A lot of people see it as more of a toy, and I love that because it just proves that people aren't intimidated by the instrument. They aren't afraid to pick it up.
Most of my ukulele heroes were traditional players from Hawaii, like Eddie Kamae and Ohta-san. There may not be uke stars in popular culture, but there are certainly pop stars that play uke - George Harrison, Eddie Vedder, Taylor Swift, Train, and Paul McCartney.
The ukulele has always appealed to the older generation.
When I was growing up, there was no such thing as a touring ukulele player.
There's no ego when you're a ukulele player.
You know, the ukulele itself is not a very loud instrument, all right? And, you know, compared to like a trumpet, right? A trumpet is really loud.
I always feel a little funny being in front of a lot of people trying to show them my approach to the ukulele, but I do enjoy it. I do get a little more nervous doing workshops rather than performing.
It was never part of how I imagined my music, and I watched in awe at how this ukulele troubadour image suddenly devoured the Jens Lekman I had planned so carefully.
I see a young man playing 'Plaisir d'Amour' on guitar. I knew I didn't want to go to college; I was already playing a ukulele, and after I saw that, I was hooked. All I wanted to do was play guitar and sing.
My Portuguese uncle had a Portuguese version of a ukulele. The family would pull it out after dinner and play Portuguese folk songs on it. I couldn't wait for him to finish so I could get my hands on it. I was seven or eight years old. And he used to have a Fender amp in his house and an electric guitar. I would spend hours making sounds.
I started playing ukulele first for 2 years from age 9 to 11 and got my first guitar and got inspired by blues I heard on the radio that turned me on and I started learning myself.
I started playing the ukulele in the year 2000. That sounds so futuristic saying it like that. The year 2000.
II know very, very little about the ukulele, but I actually grew up playing the viola from 4th grade through high school.
When I was a teenager, my mom got me a really nice baritone ukulele.
The first songs I ever wrote - my first, like, serious offerings - were all written on ukulele. It's always been a part of the way I write for a really long time.
If you put heavy, regular classic guitar strings on a baritone ukulele, it gets pretty low. It has a really nice, low, warm feel to it.
I was done with my second major label deal, and I was doing a lot of urban sessions, and I had an acoustic itch. And you know, I picked up a ukulele. I always wanted one. And it just resonated with me. I would wake up with this uke in my hand. For me the ukulele just opened this door in my heart.
