This week I had the privilege of being able to watch a Ukulele class for 4th graders which I found both intimidating, because they are way more advanced than me with the Ukulele, and inspiring, because these children’s joy and enthusiasm for learning an instrument was clearly visible and because I realized if they can pick it up I can too.
I finally feel like I have gotten the hang of “Twinkle Twinkle little star” and am able to transition between C and G7 more fluidly now, although that still needs a bit of work. While playing this nursery rhyme my 22 month old son has been joining in with me and singing the song, which has been another factor in me being able to practice as well has been super motivating as I feel he is learning with me (out of nowhere he started singing the song and I was amazed because he has only ever sung “lalala” for Elmo’s song before).
I also began to work on learning how to play Skinny Love by Bon Iver and am finding it to be a much quicker process than learning “Twinkle twinkle” because I have already a decent base and its not all completely new and overwhelming. I am still having trouble with my transition from C to G, but since I was having the same issue with transitioning from C to G7 for “twinkle twinkle” I have been able to work through the transition much more efficiently. Before this week I was having severe anxiety that I have not been able to accomplish much with the ukulele and was worried that I had been way too ambitious with what I wanted to learn; although I do want to make some adjustments to my growth plan for the end of the semester, I am not more hopeful I will be able to accomplish some of my musical growth goals.
Photo by Gabriel Testoni on Unsplash