An Orange Sunset At the Beach- An Original Ukulele Solo
Hello once again to another monthly weekend blog! Before I begin today’s blog, let me remind you to click these links to check out the other parts of my website such as my shop and my YouTube videos, as well as the video that this blog is about, An Orange Sunset At the Beach.
First of all, I’m actually pretty new to the Ukulele. Just this last December I was shopping at a store that sells cheap, random, donated stuff. You never know what you’re going to find there when you visit or what will be gone when you come back. One of my favorite places in the store to shop is where they have antiques or collectables locked behind glass boxes. Every so often there are donated instruments in them that catch my eye.
On this particular day in December, I noticed that there were three instruments available to buy- two Violins and one Ukulele. When an employee was available to unlock the glass container holding them, I first looked at the Violins. One had all of its strings, but it looked beat up and had no bow or case. The other Violin was in a case that carried a bow in it, but the Violin had no strings. It was painted pink though, so it was rather pretty. Despite the flaws they had, they each cost $20, making it $40 if I really wanted the bow, case, and a violin that already has strings.
On the other hand, the Ukulele had nylon strings that were easy for me to tune(my dog has fleas) and it even looked close to brand new! Compared to the caseless Violin, that is. This Ukulele didn’t have a case either. But it’s not as delicate as a Violin, and I was willing to figure that out when I got home because it only cost $10! So I bought it and rested it against a pillow when I returned home.
Fast forward to the beginning of this year, I hadn’t been focusing too much on my Ukulele since I had all these YouTube videos to prepare. I did, however, learn the chords for the song of the Pixar short, “Lava”. That song was fun to play every now and then.
In the middle of February, my original video I had planned for the month fell through. That’s a different backstory altogether. But I now had to come up with something new before the month ended. One night, I was in my room and decided to improvise chords on my Ukulele. Yep, I wasn’t looking at a chart and I didn’t bother trying to figure out what chords I was playing until later on. The chords I played brought peace and relaxation to me. I started to imagine that I was on a beach either in California or back in New Zealand where I served a mission for my church.
As I listened to the chords I was creating, I felt like I could hear the waves of the ocean and see a beautiful sunset stretch across the water. It felt like the perfect song for this month. February may be a cold time for those of us living in the Northern Hemisphere, but sitting at the beach watching the sun set next to your significant other is so romantic! But I also wanted the peacefulness of the song to relate to everyone no matter what relationship status that they have. That’s why I had group pictures, romantic pictures, and pictures of individuals scattered throughout the video. I personally enjoyed finding and downloading the pictures of horseback riders on a beach. The horse is my favorite animal and I kept finding photo after photo of horseback riders at the beach! So if you noticed that there were so many pictures of horses in this video, well that was my personal preference.
Make sure you remember to click the link up above to watch that video! I can’t believe that this was my first original song on the Ukulele and it was totally improvised! It was also the first official recording that I’ve been able to put onto my SoundCloud account! I hope you enjoyed reading the story behind this beautifully simple song!
Thanks for reading all the way to the end.
