Ukulele

Ukulele is hard.

I've owned my ukulele, Autumn, since I went to Hawaii with my family back in 2004/5/6 (not sure which year, my mom doesn't even remember). I don't even know why I wanted on so badly. I just saw it and thought, "Oh my gosh. I need one of those or my life will forever be incomplete." So, I convinced my parents to buy me pretty decent quality ukulele for around $50 at the Swamp Meet (or whatever it's called) on Maui. Then, being the typical Americans we are, my parents bought me a "Learn the Ukulele in 10 Easy Steps" book from a Wal-Mart near where we were staying.

Fast forward to high school. My ukulele sits unused on the floor at the end of my bed. One day, my dad asked me, "Do you ever even play that thing?" Well, to be honest, I hadn't really played it much since elementary school when I first got it. But after my dad asked, I probably played it at least once a month, if only for a few minutes.

Now that I'm in college, I get to choose how to allocate my time everyday. And I have more "free time." Whatever that's supposed to mean. For example: Right now, I should probably be starting my dynamics homework that's due on Friday, but instead, I've spent the past 2 and 1/2 hours practicing my ukulele in my dorm room. I was planning on playing and singing the song "Exterminate, Regenerate" by Charlie McDonnell on my vlog on Friday, but that song is waaaaaaaaaaay to hard for me to learn in three days time. So, instead, I've decided to do a song that I've pretty much had memorized since my senior year of high school, "Hey, Soul Sister" by Train. It's a reeeeeeeeally easy song to play on the ukulele; it's only 4 chords. I may push off "E,R" until May, when I've had more time to practice at home.

You're probably thinking, if you are musically inclined, that is, "Why don't you just transpose it to an easier key?" Trust me. That would just make it harder. I figure that if I practice the song at least once a week every week until the last Thursday in May, I'll have built up the finger strength needed to do all of the ridiculous chords Charlie used. Hopefully.

So, for now, I'll just stick with the easy songs and build my way up to the more advanced ukulele techniques.