Radical Learner Proposal

I arrived at the decision to learn to play ukulele through a number of steps and considerations.

This project is titled the “radical learner project” meaning I need to demonstrate an impact in the fundamental nature that is learning. Both as a learner and a designer of that learning. With that said, I don’t know anything about playing musical instruments, none the less the ukulele. I am a lover of listening to music but not by any means a musically gifted person. I anticipate that this task of learning something so entirely new to me is going to be difficult. I have zero knowledge behind playing musical instruments, and as a learner to will need to push myself to stay motivated. I am taking this Multicultural Approaches to Education course with the intent to become an exceptional elementary school teacher. I want to learn how to learn something with little interest and lack of previous knowledge because I imagine my future students might be starting at this point before a lesson. The big objective for me is to be able to understand my future students needs as learners. Learning the ukulele might not benefit me practically in life, will take up some of my time, and require me to focus both mentally and physically but these are expectations that I need to be able to empathize with if I’m to expect them of students one day.

For the sake of this project only spanning a couple months, I hope to have learned a short song or half of a longer song on the ukulele as a measure of my goal as a learner.

Three ways in which I plan to this:

Observation through the use of tutorials:

Learning the cords of the ukulele is going to require visually seeing the different cords being demonstrated on the ukulele. There’s a few different ways in which I could have this info visually taught, but I think the best method for me is going to be through online tutorials. My hope is that seeing the instrument up close with the ability to rewind and pause the video as needed are going to make this step of the learning process a lot easier. I also will be seeing an actual person demonstrate the cord, and hear what it sounds like so I can compare my own finger placement and be able to mimic the sound the tutorial instructors ukulele makes.

Application through the use of tutorials:

In this step of my learning I will be following along more intently with the online tutorial instructors and watching their steps to showing different chords put together to form a song.

Practice by means of repetition:

At this step my goal is ultimately memorizing chords and the order they go in to learn a certain piece of a song.

The steps in which I planned to achieve my learning goal were thought out in way that I thought would spark the learning the quickest. For example, my source of learning comes from online tutorials and not from books or an in person instructor which I think would require more of my time and energy. As a very observational learner I don’t think books give me enough of the reassurance I need like seeing a demonstration of the skills and in person lessons would hold too much pressure for me. The online tutorials are very convenient, and are a good way to visually see the skill I’m learning, and also hear how the music should sound.

I didn’t decide to dive into music theory and understand why the notes I’m learning sound good together. I’m diving into something without understanding what makes good music. I also don’t plan to learn to read music. I feel a little guilty  because I don’t want my future students to ever walk away from a lesson not understanding the why of what they’re learning. However, since my ultimate goal is to understand learning the basics of the skill and not to understand the concepts behind music, I don’t think those concepts are what matter.