This week marks the start of my music learning journey with the ukulele!
My learning goals for this semester include learning to play “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” and “I’m Yours” by Jason Mraz. I had the opportunity to learn ukulele during my last two years of elementary school, but have not played an instrument since. I am super excited to relearn ukulele and rediscover the joy of playing music.
I started off my practice by learning how to properly hold my ukulele, as well as how to tune it. Last Friday, I attended a ukulele tuning tutorial session with Dr Prest. We practiced tuning by playing the piano, singing the pitch, and then adjusting the strings. At home, I use the online UkuTuner, which provides the correct pitch for you to match your ukulele to. After that, I studied the names of the strings of a ukulele and focused on learning the finger placements for the chords C, F and G7.
Later on, I practiced strumming the chords C, F and G7 using basic strumming patterns. To begin, I used the YouTube video 5 Effective Strumming Patterns for Beginners to practice strumming down, down, down, down and down up, down up, down up, down up using the C chord.
What I found the most difficult during my practice this week was learning the finger placement for the chord G7. This chord uses three fingers: 1 (index) on E string first fret, 2 (middle finger) on C string second fret, 3 (ring finger) on A string second fret. When I first started learning, I referenced this YouTube tutorial and followed along with it. I can manage keeping my first and second fingers in the correct position, but my third finger continues to slip down to the third fret on the A string. This is something I will continue to work on, and hopefully get better at within the next few days.
For next week, I will continue practicing proper finger placement for my three chosen chords. My main focus will be learning to shift between these chords – namely, C to F, and interchanging between C and G7. One of my goals for next week is to be able to play and switch between these chords cleanly, without sounding muffled or buzzed.
