Category: Music

I am currently feeling quite stressed and anxious as the final creeps up on me quickly. I have spent the last week in my bed due to a concussion I gave myself by hitting my head quite hard last week. I am nervous for the final because do to this concussion I have not had the chance to practice my ukulele and being learning my final song “Sweet Home Alabama”. I am hoping to be feeling much better this week so that I am able to start learning it so that I give myself enough time to practice and perfect the 3 new cords that I need to learn that are required for this song.

I have been way more comfortable with my first two songs and have been showing everyone who lives in my residence building my talents! I even brought my ukulele to my work meeting the other day and showed them my skills. They are a bit rusty but not too too bad! It is actually super fun to walk around and play my ukulele, showing everyone what I am learning in class!

I also have a lot of friends I live with who also play the ukulele and other instruments and who like to all play together. I have already learned so much from them showing me in person how to strum, or play a cord, or even how to play a few songs! It makes such a difference practicing with other people, I find it so much easier to work through a song with someone there to show me and model the cords rather than me trying to just read the music and work on it myself.

I am hoping that depending on how my head is feeling that I will be able to start beginning to play “Sweet Home Alabama” this week as I already have looked at the music and figured out which cords I will need to play in order to complete the song : )

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This is my attempt at “This Old Man”. At first this song was quite difficult for me because it changes the cords a few times during the song which slows down my flow quite a bit. Looking back at the video I still need to work on my strumming and holding the cords tighter in order to get a better more defined sound when I strum. I think in this one especially my confidence was on and off, there were parts I felt I did really well and parts I felt I was a bit unsure of therefor, that is something I would like to continue to practice and learn going into the final. One thing I feel I did accomplish is the timing of the notes. Because of the music literacy  videos I was able to see and identify which notes to hold for longer and which were connected making them fast and upbeat.

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This is my attempt at “Row Row Row your Boat”.  This is the first song I learned and feel like I understand the most. This song is quite easy because it only asks for one cord change right at the end. I still have a bit of trouble switching from C to G7, so for the final I want to continue to work on that and making the change quicker so it doesn’t feel as though there is a break in the song.

Overall I am happy with my progress, but have a few things I would personally like to work on to further my understanding and confidence when playing the Ukulele.

I am so beyond proud of myself and how far I have come. I feel much more comfortable on  the Ukulele playing my two songs: “This Old Man” and “Row Row Row your Boat”.  I feel like the transitions between my cords are much smoother now allowing the song to better flow.

At first I had absolutely no idea where to start and was unsure of how I would ever be able to get through the songs without stopping and asking a question or looking up how to play the cords a million times. I now am able to confidently pick up my ukulele and play my songs at a relatively fast speed, and continue to keep the flow and correct cords allowing you to understand what song I am trying to play.

For the final I want to keep working on my transitions so that there is no need for me to pause when switching, thinking about where my fingers need to go.

I am also going to begin learning my final song: “sweet home Alabama”. I am a little nervous as this song requires 3 more cords that I had not used in my pervious 2 songs. I am feeling okay though as I have friends who are able to support me in this learning curve who are comfortable on the ukulele and have been so kind to help me practice and show me tips on how to improve my strumming, flow, and changing of cords.

Overall this has been a really big learning curve for me and something I was very reluctant to begin trying to learn. I am really happy with the progress I have made thus far, and am excited to continue to watch myself grow, learn, and improve my music literacy and competency of this instrument.  I am happy that I pushed myself and chose an instrument that was quite daunting and looked quite intimidating, because I now understand that with practice it is nothing but a simple instrument that can make create some beautiful pieces of music.

I am planning on continuing my learning of this instrument beyond this class, in hopes that I will one day be able to implement music and the learning of an instrument in my classroom one day.

I want to be able to greet my students into the classroom playing a soft inviting instrument with a fun and catchy welcoming song on the ukulele 🙂