I've played a little over 3 years, but am a long-time pianist, so sightreading music is easy and it made it easier for me to pick up the uke. I LOVE the uke. I bought a cheap one, sounded terrible, but good enough to learn on. I now have a Kala uke which cost about $250, and I had a pickup with buit-in tuner installed on it. It's a super tenor uke for the price. And when I use my amp it sounds very 'guitarish'. I also have ordered a MyaMoe ukulele to be custom built for me. I'm behind 49 others waiting for their customs ukes. I hope to have mine by Thanksgiving or so. I went to two Ukulele Festivals in Sparks, Nevada, one each in March 2010 and 2011. Great fun. Brook Adams will be doing a workshop for our group in mid-September if anybody is in Las Vegas. I'm currently taking uke lessons from a guitar magician. He just puts his capo on the guitar's 4th fret [or is it the 5th?] & we play right along together. Getting late, time to sign off.
Carol