Category: EDCI 306
In this blog post, I will talk about the notes and my progression throughout the weeks that I practiced “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” So to start I did not know what I was doing. I could not believe how many chords were in this song. I started out by only practicing the first 1o notes and I actually did this for about a week and a half to two weeks. It took me quite a while to get in the flow of switching chords and also doing the strumming pattern at the same time (as you will be able to tell from my final clip, I have still in no way mastered this). Here I will attach an audio recording of me the first day I tried to do the first 10 notes vs. a week later of practicing.
As you can see there was some progress but still lots to be done. After about a week of practicing the first 10 notes I decided to add another 8 notes. I at first practiced the 8 notes alone but then after a day I started to play it all together. My strategy was to continue to play it through and then whenever I messed up I would go back and start from the top. About another week later I decided to add another 9 notes. I used the same strategy as I did previous. Then lastly, about a week after this, I added 26 notes to my piece of paper and decided to use the same strategy of starting all over again whenever I messed up.
I also found it difficult to switch chords quickly during this song because it is so fast paced with the strumming. I found myself easily switching from some notes but not so much for most, especially with notes that had three fingers on the strings (Em, G, and E7).
My final video is nowhere near perfect, I did not reach my goal of singing at the same time. I tried practicing but it was very difficult to multitask. I figured I should cut my losses and just focus on the ukulele. I am overall very proud of myself for not giving up and continuing to practice even though there were lots of times I wanted to pick a new song. I worked my hardest to accomplish what I could in the final video and that is all I could hope for!
For my final evidence song, I chose to do the song “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” I chose this song because it’s a very happy song that most people know and I figured I could make great use of this song in the classroom. Starting out with this song I was very overwhelmed because I realized how many more chords were in this song compared to the last songs I did, which were three chords. This song has 8 chords! That’s a lot to remember for a beginner ukulele musician. Anyways, so I started off by just practicing the strumming pattern. I did this for about a week or so for 10-15 minutes per day. This audio recording I have attached below is from the second day that I was practicing the strumming pattern (Down, down, up, up, down, up).
I was so frustrated with this song already I wanted to give up and try a different song, but I kept going with it. I have heard people play it at beach fires, so how hard could it be? Ok, so I came to the conclusion that this song is not for beginner ukulele players. The amount of time I spent trying to learn this song was insane! I looked back at my goal template for the class and realized I had to sing and play the song, so I told myself I would practice almost every day so I could master this song. Looking at my goal template I also notice that I listed the flute as an asset because I could remember sheet music more easily. Well, this is pretty funny because I did not even look at any sheet music for this song. I watched a YouTube video on how to play and I wrote all the notes down on a piece of paper and then put a “1” or a “2′ beside it depending on how many times I needed to strum the chord. I can also look at my disadvantages and one of them in a sore back. I could certainly feel this especially when I am bending over to look at my paper, but I felt it more in my fingers for sure. I never imagined playing the ukulele would hurt so much!
Here is the video where I learned to play the song:
Here is my piece of paper:
I have been practicing Joy to the World for about a week almost every day now and I am finding this song to be rather difficult. The thing I am struggling most with is trying to strum at the same pace as my singing. It is very difficult to focus on strumming while I am singing the lyrics so I find myself singing the lyrics rather fast while focussing mostly on the strumming pattern. I am also finding it quite difficult to switch from G major to C major, from C major to F major, and from F major to G major. Because of this, I find myself getting offbeat a little bit and slowing down. I do not deem this to be the major issue of my playing though, it just will not be perfect. Overall, I am pretty proud of myself for my improvement because I can now play the whole song even though it may be a bit slow.
I am adding onto this post the day before the midterm is due to say I have seen some minor improvements in the past week on playing “Joy to the World”, although I am not completely confident that my playing is what I had anticipated in my goals. However, I am still quite proud of myself for spending a lot of time trying to complete this song and I know I have tried my best.
Overall, this experience so far has been great and it is nice to spend some time almost every night practicing the ukulele and not being on a screen (for once). After this post, I will submit my videos of “My Little Sunshine” and “Joy to the World”. Enjoy!
I have been finding it very difficult to do the strumming patterns for Joy to the World, my second song of choice. The first song I did, “My Little Sunshine”, was a lot easier because there are no strumming patterns. You just strum the note so it is easy to sing along. I am finding it extremely difficult to strum, play the notes, and sing at the same time for Joy to the World. As a strategy, I have been doing the strumming pattern (down, down, down, up, down, up) freely without doing any of the notes. This way I can get used to the strumming pattern. My next step was to continue the strumming pattern with a C note. I continued this. I then thought I would switch between the C and the G over and over again while doing the strumming pattern. I find it easy to switch from G to C, but not the other way around. I then tried to sing the lyrics while doing this “and heaven and nature sing” x3. I found this very difficult, but I will continue to practice to master it and then move on to the first lines of the songs. This will be more difficult because the notes change more quickly.
The video I used to practice “Joy to the World” is here. I loved the instructor that taught me how to play “My Little Sunshine” and so I decided to use his videos again.
Beginning the ukulele, I have decided to look up a video on YouTube for an easy song to learn. A song that came up is “You Are My Sunshine” and I thought this would be great for younger children. I watched the video and went along with the video. I wrote down in my notebook a chart of what the notes I will be playing are. This was I can use this notebook for reference when practicing the song. This song does not have any strumming patterns so it isn’t too difficult. I have continued to practice this song about 3-5 times a week for approximately 20 minutes each time. I have progressively become better at singing and playing at the same time. I am very tone-deaf so this was a bit difficult at first.
Additionally, since I have just started to learn the ukulele and it has been a long time since I have read sheet music, I decided to use a YouTube video instead of reading sheet music. I do not see myself using sheet music for my second song, but possibly my last song for the final if I am feeling confident.
Here is a photo of what I wrote in my notebook. I sketched the finger placement for C major, F major, and G major. I have been able to memorize these finger placements very easily due to writing them in my book because I find I am able to retain information better when I write it down.
Here is the video I used for “My Little Sunshine”