Ukulele: The Journey Continues…

This past week has felt extra busy and overwhelming with assignments, classes, work, etc. but I still found time to practice the ukulele! Learning the ukulele has been really fun thus far, so making time for something that I enjoy isn’t difficult at all.

Last week I had just started learning basic chords and basic strumming patterns so that I could get the feel of what it’s like playing the ukulele. This week I actually started learning strumming patterns for the songs that I am eventually going to learn completely. I set the goal for myself to learn “Sign of the Times” by Harry Styles, “Riptide” by Vance Joy, and “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” by Israel Kamakawiwo’ole.

I learnt the strumming patterns for “Sign of the Times” which are “DDDD” and “DDDD DU” and “D UUD UU DDU”. I also learnt the strumming patterns for “Riptide” which are “DD UDU” and “DDUUDU” and “D D D D”. Finally, I learnt the strumming pattern for “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” which is “DDU UDU”, this song is interesting though because there is dynamics included in it because the first down strum is supposed to be soft and the second down strum is supposed to be louder than the first one. The dynamics in “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” make it sound so much nicer.

For the chords, I still only know Am, G, C, and F. I know what Dm and Em are supposed to look like (my finger placement on the strings) but I just can’t quite seem to get my fingers to achieve the positioning properly. I will keep practicing and I’m sure I will get it eventually.

Below I have included the three Youtube video tutorials that I am using/going to use to learn the three songs that I have selected.