The limited time for music education in generalist primary and early childhood teacher education courses remains a persistent challenge in initial teacher education. An initiative for student-owned ukuleles was launched at an Australian university to enhance the skills and confidence of pre-service primary and early childhood generalist teachers to include music activities in their teaching. This collaborative self-study explores the experiences of four music teacher educators across several years and iterations of core arts subjects where pre-service teachers purchased or borrowed a ukulele. The initiative for student-owned ukuleles began during the COVID lockdowns and extended into periods of online learning and the return to in-person teaching. Data collection consisted of individual narratives, document analysis and reflective discussions. Thematic analysis was undertaken to identify emergent themes. In this article, we report how the initiative built community and connection, supported confident and unselfconscious singing, using a pedagogy informed by participatory music making. The findings highlight the potential benefits to supporting generalist teacher skills and confidence to use music in their classrooms and the value of self-study to transform our practice as teacher-educator-researchers. The findings may be of interest to music teacher educators in similar circumstances.