Tucson Region

It's ukulele heaven - no strings attached

'Lovely Hula Hands"? Don't know it. "Little Grass Shack"? Never tried it. But they whiz right through "Amazing Grace" - along with "Silent Night" and "Away in a Manger." On ukulele. Believe it. It's Friday afternoon over at the Armory Park Senior Center. Inside a small room, seven women and one man are strumming their ukuleles. Make that eight women if you count this reporter. Having survived "Teaching Little Fingers to Play" and a quartet of piano teachers, how hard could it be to play the chosen instrument of Arthur Godfrey and Tiny Tim? Plenty, it turns out, especially if you're trying to take notes at the same time. Yeah, that's sounds like a good excuse. Carol Humphrey, a recreation assistant at the center who teaches ukulele, understands. "My first husband was something of an actor," says Humphrey, 63, who's decked out today in a red vest and holly-imprinted socks. "He was in a play where he had to play one song on the ukulele. He could not do it. So I sat in the wings and played the ukulele for him." Milli Vanilli on ukulele. I can relate. The hour-long sessions began a couple of years ago when a guitar player offered to teach ukulele classes at the center. "We said sure," says Humphrey, who bought five ukuleles. After the guitar player taught them the notes, they were on their own. "It's been very popular. We've had up to 12 people join in," says Humphrey, who's had to lay in more ukuleles. Some folks also buy their own, such as Jim Chapman, 86, a retired traveling salesman. "I wanted to do something musical and not too complicated," he says. Elaine Talkington, 79, is here for the same reason, as is Pat Hansen, 74. Marilyn Germano, 71, joined because her other friends were doing it. "I found I really enjoyed it," she says. So do Sadie Allen, 76, and Renee Raymond, 70, both retired nurses. "I used to play classical guitar," says Raymond, who hails from Haiti, where ukulele strumming is almost unknown. Not so in Hawaii, which drew Margaret Figueroa, 63, to the class. "I spent some time in Hawaii and I just loved the music," she says. While there are several variations on this theme, just about everyone agrees that the ukulele came to Hawaii back in 1879, when Portuguese immigrants arrived to work in the sugar cane fields. With them came their stringed instruments. When the Hawaiians saw the musicians' fingers flying across the fingerboards, they called those instruments "ukulele," which roughly translated means "jumping flea." Though the ukulele has never really caught on big in the mainland, the Hawaiians took to it like poi. Strangely, these Armory seniors don't do Hawaiian. Yet. "We don't know any of it," says Humphrey, whose group sings along to every song they strum. So for now, they're sticking to old standards, such as "Clementine" and "Oh, Susanna," as well as seasonal Christmas music. Besides entertaining at the center, they also go "on the road" from time to time, performing in such venues as the Ronald McDonald House and El Rio Neighborhood Center. "You don't have to read music, just play the chords as written," says Humphrey, who gives credit to member Ginny Baker for transcribing the notes into easy-to-read letters. If you'd like to try your hand, just show up at the center, 220 S. Fifth Ave., any Friday at 2 p.m. Classes are free to all ages.