The Brief

Looking for a couple of seeds to kickstart a garden? How about a play kit with books and toys to keep your kids occupied? Or a sewing machine to finally hem those pesky pairs of pants?

No need to go to the mall or a hardware store, you can find all of these things at your local Los Angeles library.

But perhaps the most unique offering on this eclectic menu is the ukulele. More than a dozen L.A. Public Library locations have ukulele kits available to take home for up to three weeks at a time if you’ve been meaning to learn a couple of chords.

About the kits

All you need is a library card to check-out a ukulele, a tuner, a music dictionary, and a case. The kit also comes with a one-page sheet of instructions that goes over how to use the electronic tuner, including pictures to help you follow along.

Marc Horton is the children’s librarian for the Wilmington branch and one of the people behind the program. He told LAist the ukulele kits were originally intended for children, but they’ve quickly become an intergenerational learning experience for all ages.

“It's really an enabler of musical interest, and it's so forgiving and sort of easy for hands of all sizes and abilities of all sizes,” he said. “This is a gateway instrument for folks to pursue that love of music.”

He said he noticed that when schools go through budget cuts, arts programs are usually the first to go, and he wanted to try and fill that gap with library resources.

He was able to bring the kits to the Wilmington branch as a pilot program with a $5,000 grant in 2016, and in the years since, the program has spread to 16 other branches.

“If there's somebody out in the community who wants to teach a class, you can have these instruments to present,” Horton said.

The ukulele kits have been checked out more than 1,000 times now, he added.

How to take one home

When this musically-challenged reporter realized the Cypress Park library had both of their ukulele kits available, I had to go see it for myself.

You’re not allowed to put the kits on hold, and they’re usually pretty popular, so I rushed over to the branch with my recently renewed library card in hand.

A pair of ukulele kits ready to be checked out behind the counter at the Cypress Park branch.

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Makenna Sievertson

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LAist

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The check-out process was simple. I signed a piece of paper, got a quick tour of the kit from the librarian, and was ready to start strumming in fewer than 10 minutes.

Actually playing something that wouldn’t hurt my ears or my ego didn’t sound so easy. I gave up my dream of being in a band after a particularly stressful guitar performance in 5th grade, and I’ve never been able to muster up the courage, or patience, to give music another shot.

But, for the sake of the story, I was willing to try.

After a quick search for “easiest songs to learn on ukulele,” I settled on “Riptide” by Vance Joy.

And after about an hour or two of trying to figure out how my fingers could fit for a G chord, I was able to successfully, albeit slowly, play some of the song.

Suddenly, I didn’t feel so hopeless with an instrument in my hand, and Horton said that’s exactly what he hoped would happen.

“It's about having access to it, and people having the freedom to learn at their own pace,” he said. “And to dive deeper into music if they choose to, but I just wanted to create a positive first step into learning music.”