Sorry for the silence here, folks. Blame the ukulele.

For pretty much every waking moment of Saturday through Tuesday, and for most of Wednesday, I took part in UkeFest 2013 over at the Strathmore Music Center in Maryland.

There were multiple tracks of programming, so it was of course impossible for me to attend everything, but in the classes I got to, Marcy Marxer taught us how to play “Rockin’ the Uke” a la Roy Smeck, Gerald Ross showed us chorded melodies and how to “take it” during a jam, Lil’ Rev (with whom I’m posing below) shared roll strokes, triples, fans, and zig-zag strums, Stu Fuchs went through rockabilly fingering, Cathy Fink took us through the best way to practice so that we’d actually get better … and much, much more.

Now when I say that these instructors taught me all these things, that’s not to say I actually learned any of them on the spot. (So don’t go expecting miracles the next time you see me with a uke.) Because while I understood on an intellectual level everything I was shown, I didn’t necessarily have the dexterity to perform many of the complicated moves.

But that’s OK. I didn’t expect I’d always be able to keep up. But I’m not disappointed, because I know that will come, as muscle memory slowly starts to take over from my natural fumbling.

If you’d like to see more of what this year was like, head on over to Flickr to check out more UkeFest photos.

Can’t wait until UkeFest 2014!