What I Have Been Working On
For my musical growth project, I decided to try learning the ukulele. This was probably a mistake and I almost definitely should have started off with something simpler, like the recorder. I probably should have taken into account the little amount of musical experience I have. Even my past music experience has never been with instruments and honestly, I do not know what I was thinking. I have been learning how to tune the ukulele, play the chords C,F, and G, switch between the chords, and strum. I know all these things may seem simple but I have learned I am very much not a musically inclined person.
Tuning The Ukulele
The very first task to learn and figure out for me was how to tune a ukulele. I do not have a handheld tuner so I have been using an online tuner. When I first bought my ukulele and brought it home I took it out of the packaging and went straight to figuring out how to tune it. This process took what felt like forever. I do not know if I am tone deaf or something but I literally had to call up a friend to help me. There were many times with my friend when I would think the sound was right and she would tell me it is way off. We went back and forth trying to tune the ukulele and every time we felt we were getting close to the right sound we would end up going too high or too low and have to try and navigate the sounds again. From what I can tell I have been able to tune it close enough to the right sounds but I still feel a little unsure in my own abilities. I have been trying to check if it is tuned before every use and it seems right to me. I would love to be able to buy a tuner to help me throughout this project but as of right now my job has been cutting hours due to covid and I am unable to spend any more money on school.
Learning The Chords
After trying to learn a couple of more complicated songs that included quite a few more chords, I settled on some simpler songs so that I am actually able to reach my goals. I expect if I choose any more complicated chords I would not be able to complete this project to the standards I have set for myself in my education. The chords I chose to learn before learning my first song are C, F, and G which are played like so on the ukulele:
When beginning I started with the C chord, which was quite simple and I was able to learn it quite quickly. I moved onto the F chord which again was quite simple. I began to work on switching between the two before learning the G chord. The G chord had me struggling for a while before I was able to find a good way to hold the ukulele to fit my monstrous hands. I have learned having big hands does not come in handy when learning an instrument like the ukulele but, I will learn how to adapt and make it work.
Switching Between The Chords
Switching between the chords is much more difficult than I expected. I have practiced enough that I am able to switch between all three of them quite well. Even though I do feel confident in this ability there is still the odd time I mess up and I am working to ensure this happens much less. I am a little nervous about how learning my first song will go in terms of switching between chords only because I will not be able to keep my focus completely on chord switching. I have no difficulties switching between C and F by themselves but I find I mess up more when I try to switch between C/F and G. This has been my point of focus for the last couple of days. I wish I was able to report I am able to switch between all chords perfectly but the G chord still gets me every once in a while. I am in no way worried about this though, I am sure with a couple more days of practice I will have it grasped.
Strumming
When I decided to try learning the ukulele I had no clue there were different strumming styles. This came as a big shock to me. I have been trying out a couple different simple strumming patterns and am doing alright with them. I find I mostly struggled when I tried strumming and switching chords at the same time. I am realizing my brain has a hard time telling both hands what to do at the same time. I am definitely noticing a bit of progression in my coordination but this is something I need to put more work into before recording my first song. With some more practice, I am sure I will be able to grasp this concept and meet my standards.
Thanks for reading!
Featured image was taken by Avi Naim on Unsplash.
