The ukulele is not an easy instrument to play. I have realized why it has taken me so long to immerse myself in a string instrument (versus my usual piano and saxophone) it is because there is no medium ground for strumming and chord playing, you either know the chord, can play the chord, have long enough fingers to reach the chords, know the strumming pattern, and can consistently play the strumming pattern as you play your chords OR you don’t. Some if not all of these listed problems have been brought up over the past 2 weeks however, what has assisted me is friends who know the ukulele and YouTube. Up to this date, I have learned and memorize the six chords I wished to know, and these chords have led me to learn the songs I wanted as well. I realized pretty fast that I preferred picking a song then learning the chords needed, then learning the chords and then seeing which songs can be found needing those chords. The chords, however, were chosen because of the original songs I chose in my musical growth plan and these chords have of course helped me learn to play each song. Something that I didn’t realize even existed before starting the ukulele is that there is such thing as individual strumming patterns for each song, and if you don’t use these certain strumming patters the song does not end up sounding anywhere near to the original. This was honestly mind-blowing to me and made me realize just how difficult this process was. The first song I have memorized is “Riptide” by Vance Joy I chose this song as my starter song because it consists of only 3 main chords: A major, G and C. These three chords repeat throughout the whole song until the chorus where an F chord is brought in. It has taken me a while to even begin to have fluidity switching from chords to chords especially from the G chord to C, as my fingers cannot communicate well with my brain. Once I had the chords down I turned to learn the strumming patter and this is where “The Ukulele Teacher” came into my life (https://www.youtube.com/user/TheUkuleleTeacher). This man offers free ukulele lessons on the web and it the man who taught me the “Riptide” strumming pattern down, down, up-down-up” whereas you play the pattern once for A major and G and then twice for C. t was pretty chaotic combining both the chords and the strumming pattern but after a few dozens of minutes my accomplishments could be easily seen. For fun, I thought it would help me by singing the lyrics as well while playing but that ended in the most awkward experience ever and I have decided to perfect this first milestone before I move on.

Today marked 3 weeks of my ukulele journey and also a huge milestone for me as I FINALLY finessed how to sing and strum at the same time! This is a huge goal for me because this was an extension of my musical growth project that I wasn’t expecting myself to complete until way later in my ukelele-ing journey.  Another goal that has been reached in this video is my almost perfect strumming patterns, it took me a while to be able to strum a continuous set while also playing chords and now to add to all that singing. This video I will admit does show slight inconsistency with my correct strumming but this is a result of stage fright and stiffness in fingers as it is exhausting and hurts after hours of playing. From here onwards to the 22nd I hope my strumming continues to be without error and that soon my chord switching continues to develope more fluidity.

My musical journey began the day I went into MacLaurin to retrieve my first ever ukulele. When I picked up my initial ukulele she was a dark brown one who when I attempted my first strum literally sounded like a cat dying, I took her to my teacher who then informed me that the instrument had very little hope and would most likely never be able to keep a tune. After learning about this I decided to go back to chose a new one, she was light brown and her name was Leila, she is now the one I see sitting on my bed next to me.

My goals for this project, in my opinion, consisted of the perfect amount of difficulty without expecting too much of myself. The three main goals are:

1. Learn the basic universal ukulele chords that can be applied in almost every song. These chords are A major, G, C, D, E major and F
2. Learn and memorize a simple song. I chose either “You’re Beautiful,” “Riptide,” or “Let it Be”
3. Have correct strumming patterns, and fluidity while playing

These goals I have chosen will have to be achieved by October 22nd, as this is our mid-semester check-in date. At this time if I have not met these goals I will know that I am behind in my learning and may have to rethink my further growth plans for the end of the year. To achieve my goals and to stay on track I will have to make myself practice guidelines that take into apart my busy lifestyle of school, work, and volunteering and mental health, and I will have to also aim for lower then the expectations of my practicing time as life tends to throw curveballs every which way. I hope to accomplish my goals and to be able to be proud of my efforts by the time of our final evaluation, as this musical journey is generated more to the beneficial feelings I will receive by learning the ukulele vs. the mark I receive.