So, tomorrow I head off on a 3 week road trip from Scotland to Portugal. There’s no room for a guitar in the campervan, so I’m taking my daughter’s ukulele to see if i can learn to play it!
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Hi Colin,
Of course you can do that, it’s quite easy compared to guitar, and especially the beginning…
And of course there are also levels where you also have to practice on the uke for years and years… but that is mentally asking for problems 
have fun learning and have a great vacation 
Greetings
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Huge thanks for the links @roger_holland!
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Looks like fun.
I recently bought a Donner Travel guitar for an upcoming 3 week European trip. I’ve taken it on several domestic trips with no problems. I’m not questioned at all at check in or at security.
Just FYI, I know there are a few alternatives out there.
Enjoy your trip.
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Nice! I need to investigate this. Thanks @sticktothemuse
Or traveler guitar - more expensive, but still a bit smaller… I’ll post an image a bit later.
Colin, wIll you look for internet lessons while traveling?
Probably Cynthia Lin was my most go-to teacher when I started.
And I liked “The Ukulele teacher”… on some lessons, his singing is quite terrible, but it’s great that he shows how to play and sing the song anyway 
And Ukulele Mike had lots of Beatles lessons like this lovely one… https://youtu.be/r5RfLpMFf_8?feature=shared
You’ll find that the chord shapes are the same, or well, a part of the guitar shape, so not really difficult for you, just 5 half-tones higher.
But looking at the Uke, I’m not sure if you’ll have fun, because these cheap beginner ukes often have a bad intonation.
- not exactly enough built (+ short scale length doesn’t help here)
- bad strings on them
Maybe it could be ok if you stay in the very first frets…
I built a cheap uke kit with my son at the time and put good strings on and it’s actually quite good.
Hope that yours is not too bad intonation-wise!
In any case, the uke is fun and I think it’s a useful thing to learn besides guitar!
Have a nice holiday!
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Nothing wrong with a uke, I have one and I love it, cheers, HEC, have a great holiday Colin
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I think I’ll definitely stay at open chord shapes - i imagine the intonation will be terrible!
Now I found it… My cheap Les Paul copy and next to it… traveler guitar in bag and spark go mini amplifier which fits in the side bag of the traveler guitar bag with a guitar cable.
BTW. both guitars are same scale length.
PS. But I think it’s a good idea to spend some time with a uke on the other hand (if it’s not too terrible intonation-wise). Otherwise - pass at a music store during your holiday and buy a better uke…
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It’s going to be FUN!!! 
Wish you a good holiday!
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By now you’re a week into your vacation. I love the ukelele. It’s fun to play and I joined a local group that meets once a week to sing and play and just have fun. If you get a baritone uke one day, the 4 strings are the same as the 1st 4 strings on the guitar, so it’s easily transferrable from one to the other. For a lot of the simpler songs/tunes, I think the uke is easier for simpler 3 or 4 chord playing as the fingering is simpler in most cases on the uke than on the guitar, especially that F chord. It’s a knuckle buster on guitar, but done with 2 fingers on the uke. Quite a few 1 fingered chords on the uke, and the A and D guitar chord shapes come in handy for playing the D and G chords on the uke. Find those anchor points that can lead from one chord to another and off you go. Enjoy the playing and the road trip. Keep us posted.
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