At the beginning of the semester I was really scared and not at all excited to begin learning how to play the ukulele. I was intimated by the instrument and really was going into this process completely blind with zero musical background. At first I did not even know where to start, feeling very in the dark as I did not know what strumming, cords, or evening tuning meant. Now I am so proud to say that I know all of these terms and feel way more confident picking up a ukulele than I did before.

Since my midterm I have been practicing on my strumming technique as well as exploring strumming patterns and finding one that fit well with my songs. I feel like my strumming has greatly improved since the midterm, and I have since realized what a difference it makes when you have a good strumming pattern.

The song I chose to show my learning for the final is “Sweet Home Alabama”. I chose this song because it is one of my favourite country songs, and I just love the tune of the song. I am quite proud of the video I have taken as this song was quite difficult for me to learn at first. I had to learn 3 new cords and was unable to change between the 3 of them quickly, keeping on the rhythm. It is most difficult to change to the G cord, but I have gotten much faster at doing it as I keep practicing. I am really happy with how far I have come in learning this song, and feel as though I have really improved in the last few weeks.
Because I have been enjoying learning how to play the ukulele so much, I wanted to challenge myself to learn a second song as well. I chose to teach myself “Rip Tide” by Vance Joy. I love this song, it has such a beautiful mellow rhythm to it and it sounds really nice on the ukulele. I am really proud about how this one turned out too. I was able to learn this one a little quicker than my other song because the cords were a bit simpler, and the transitions were smoother.

Overall, I have really enjoyed this experience and feel like this class has widened my view on music in the classroom. I have realized how fun learning and creating music can be, and how with time and practice it is possible and not too hard to pick up on. Because this class was such a positive experience, I am already finding myself wanting to continue to learn this instrument, practicing and leaning new songs that I can hopefully one day implement into my teaching. : )