Tuning

Everything has to start at the beginning. For this project, Brett McQueen's Ukelele Tricks will be the online tutor.  He makes it look easy!  Being left-handed, the first question is how to hold the instrument so the dominant hand [left] can strum and the fine-motor-skills hand [right] can do the fingering...should this be done?

Brett says no. Both hands have to be used anyway and playing right-handed avoids the time-consuming thinking/conversions necessary to read instructional materials since those tools are not prepared with left-handedness in mind.  However, in my case, there is a 25-year history of using the right hand to perform a delicate, precision motor-skill - papercutting [see the 5" example where four papercuttings are tangled together]. Figuring out which hand to use will be a challenge but hopefully, one that becomes negligible as time goes on.

Getting Started, until the gourd is done

This is what was purchased.
It is not as interesting as the gourd
but as an immediate start,
it's worth the effort.

OK, it's been a year and the gourd ukelele has not moved forward at a good speed. At one time, there was a decision to buy a cello leg and make the gourd into a ukecello. The idea has promise because then the instrument can be strummed as a ukelele held across the chest or plucked as a cello as it stands on the ground between the knees.

However, that plan is still in the making.  Right, in order to get moving on something, a concert ukelele has been purchased to get started with learning notes and fingering. That way, at least until the weather allows for working in the shop to finish building the gourd ukecello, some knowledge can happen in preparation!