This is the start of my progress in learning how to play the ukulele. This is done through my course EDCI 306A, Music Education. I have never played the ukulele before, so this is completely new territory for me.

I picked up my ukulele from the UVIC Music Education Resource Room at the end of September. I have created a growth plan for learning the ukulele. The growth plan includes how my progress can be documented, what I plan to accomplish by certain dates, the songs I will learn, the chords, and more details that will help me achieve my goal. My goal is to learn at least two songs by the time the final exam rolls around.

The songs I have chosen are “I’m Yours,” by Jason Mraz, and “Riptide,” by Vance Joy. If I feel that I need to challenge myself, I will also try and learn “Let It Be,” by the Beatles. All of these songs include the same four chords: C, G, Am, and F.

Something that I failed to include in my growth plan was the strumming patterns of each song. I think I did not include these because I did not understand what strumming patterns were. As silly as it sounds, I truly did not understand that there were patterns as well as specific chords to go with it, I assumed it was just random strumming to make it sound like a song. After doing some quick research, I realized that strumming patterns are very important in playing these songs. The strumming pattern for “I’m Yours” is down, down, up, … up, down, up (DDU UDU) and then it repeats twice with each chord. The strumming pattern for “Riptide” is very similar but shorter. It is the same DDU UDU, but it only plays once per chord, except for on the C chord, which repeats.

I plan to teach myself through youtube videos and other various online sources, which I will link in my future blog posts as I continue to make progress.