I’ve spent around 3-4 hours getting to know how to play the ukulele so far, and at the beginning it felt absolutely hopeless. I thought getting the hang of notes and learning chords was the meat of the requirement, but even strumming the guitar takes finesse and practice. I had trouble adjusting from wanting to strum with my thumb to strumming with my finger, and I kept catching on the strings when I’d try strumming with any speed. Also strumming down vs. strumming up was difficult to adjust to. I’m still intimidated by the realization that there are more complex strumming patterns - down, down up, (pause) up, down, down, down, down, up...etc.
Most recently I stepped a little bit away from actually playing it and have been on an information search. I managed to learn to do a simple tune that I really like (Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes) but am trying to learn the basic fundamentals so I can be thinking of them as I practice. The realization that I knew so little about what goes into the instrument makes me wonder if there are any other huge glaring chunks that I simply haven’t even thought of yet.
A lot of the success from this particular project is going to come from practice - and specifically focused practice. I need to learn about a specific chord, or pattern, and practice that until I get it down. Each little bit is like a tool, so the more bits that I learn the more things I can build.
Overall it feels like there is a lot that I am missing, and the learning curve is steeper than I expected. I think if I’d learned an instrument when I was younger I’d have a lot of this knowledge already, but I simply don’t. So right now the goal is simple: Continue to learn to comfortably strum up and down. Once I can confidently do that I will move on to learning different notes and chords, and a couple more complex techniques that I only recently heard of - but I won’t get into those here.
For now I’ll leave you with this cover that I’ve been practicing of Seven Nation Army:
I love this! Yes, when we start to get into other worlds, we see how complex they truly are! I think that moment happens a lot for us when we are children, less so as adults. I hope you can stay in that marveling.
ReplyDeleteIt is also fascinating to me that when things started to get too complex, you retreated into researching. A smart move to help you stay engaged. What do you make of that? How does that help you to see yourself as a learner?
Thinking about your emotional state and learning state as you attempt to learn the ukulele, how does this help you to think about your future students?