Lilli Haire´s journey of learning to play the Ukulele
Hey y'all, and welcome to my Genius hour Project! Prepared to be entertained over the next 12 weeks as I learn to play an instrument for the first time. I am not musically gifted whatsoever, so when given this project and prompted to "better myself", I immediately thought... I want to play the Ukulele! I recently spent $65 on a "Ukulele beginners kit" (thank you amazon), which included my very own ukulele, along with a pick, tuner, case, and strap. After receiving these things and realizing how horrible I am at creating music with this adorable instrument, I decided to call in reinforcements... Mikhail Harris. This gifted human being is one of by best friends and is quite gifted in many different things, including playing the Ukulele. It took some persuading, but he finally agreed to assist YouTube in teaching me how to play. I am going into this project with a goal in mind, to able to play one of my favorite songs, "Riptide" by Vance Joy, on the Ukulele. It may not seem like a very high achieving goal, but for someone with such a lack of musical talent is me, it will be a challenge. In order to push myself to succeed, and because Mr. Barker told me too, I am came up with an essential question... "Will I be successful in learning to play this instrument, and how will it benefit me?" I feel as if this is a valid essential question for my project because it will stretch me to perform this task to the best of my ability, and gain as much knowledge and experience as possible from it. I am not going to lie, I will be challenged to find time each week and/or day to better myself in striving to complete this project, because I am so busy. Although I feel as if I will be motivated to work on it and play each day because it is something I am passionate about learning how to do. To tackle this twelve week project in an organized fashion and prevent myself form procrastinating, I have decided to split it up by the week, so that I may accomplish a different part of my project at the end of 6 periods of time. Week 1: Purchase all necessary materials Week 2: Research the best way for Beginners to start playing and lesson from Mentor Week 3 & 4: Learn all foundation information (chords, basic songs, etc.) Week 5-8: Become fluent in playing easy songs Week 9-10: Begin playing harder/more advanced songs and melodies (“Riptide”) Week 11-end: Perfect technique and ensure ability to play “Riptide” I realize that the chances of me actually sticking to this timeline exactly are pretty low, but I feel confident in my ability to stay on track as much as possible in an attempt to complete my project and, accomplish my goal on time. Along with weekly blog posts, I will document my progress at the end of each week by recording myself playing something on my ukulele or learning how to use it. The inspiration behind this project came from watching someone of me friends play the ukulele. I have always pictured playing the Ukulele as a super "tumblr" thing that really cool hipster people do. I want to be a really cool hipster person that takes pictures for tumblr sitting in front of a sunset playing a folk song. That is what dreams are made of. I have also always pictured myself being able to sit on a beach somewhere and play the Ukulele like its one of my natural talents. I am going to Cancun this summer so I hope to be able to achieve that by this summer. So, my target audience is my friends, family, and social media followers, because I have a feeling I will be posting a lot of Ukulele videos there. One thing that I might find to be difficult, along with learning to play an instrument for the first time, is learning to play the strings. I have very small hands, so I'm hoping that since this instrument is so small it won't be a problem, but it might be hard to play the strings at first. I plan on sharing my acquired talent at the many social gatherings I have, including parties, bonfires, and camp outs. I also travel a lot, because my Dad is a pilot, so from now on I will bring my Ukulele with me on trips and hopefully be able to play in some really cool places. I will define my projects success by my ability to play “Riptide” on the Ukulele without messing up. I'll record myself, and/or perform in front of the class at the end of the 12 weeks, so that you all may determine for yourselves whether or not I have succeeded. I am so excited to begin this journey in am attempt to better myself and become somewhat musically gifted. Follow along to keep up with my progress, and to be highly entertained. See yah next week!
6 Comments
Hannah Shore
2/21/2018 07:33:43 am
This sounds like such a cool project idea. I've always wanted to learn how to play the Ukulele. I wish you luck!!
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Matty McKnight
2/21/2018 07:40:56 am
This seems like a really neat project. Good luck!
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2/25/2018 05:43:59 pm
This sounds like a really cool project, cant wait to see how it turns out!!!
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Riley White
2/25/2018 08:55:54 pm
I love that you're going out of your comfort zone and trying something new! Can't wait to see how this turns out!!
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Jess Crosby
2/28/2018 06:32:38 am
This is such a cool project and sounds like a lot of fun! Hope everything goes well!
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AuthorHi I'm Lilli Haire! I am a sophomore in High School, and I live in North Carolina. For my English two Genius Hour Project, I am learning to play the Ukulele. This is where I will keep track of my progress! Archives
May 2018
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