Day 7: Book

Now that I have gotten further into my book, I like reading it even more. I have also made more connections not just to my life, but also to this Dream Big project. For example, in the book, Amy Chua forces her daughters Sophia and Lulu to play instruments. I decided to play one by myself. Although, sometimes I wonder if my mom wanted me to play an instrument, but my dad wouldn't let her make me play one. I also realized my sister Sydney and I are like Sophia and Lulu. I am more like Sophia; I am the oldest, and I care more about my family and I listen to what they want from me. Sydney, on the other hand, is more like Lulu; she is younger, more dramatic, stubborn, and self-centered. We might have totally different personalities, but we still work amazingly as a team in sports, like how Sophia and Lulu sound perfect when they do a duet.

Day 6: Ukulele

I didn't have a whole lot of time today, but I did want to be able to have a little bit of time to practice some chords. I reviewed the chords C, F, G, and A. I also practiced switching between them. I saw progress in the time it took to switch between chords, but it is still something I will have to work on. I also learned that my hands are not big enough to bar. Barring is when you use one finger to push down all the strings on one fret. Because my hands are not big enough, I end up muting certain strings when I try to play a note involving barring.

Day 5: Ukulele

I haven't really been happy with my progress by trying to learn to play the ukulele just by watching YouTube videos, so I decided to look at different books I can learn from. After looking at different books available on Amazon, I decided to get the book, "Ukulele for Dummies," by Alistair Wood. Unfortunately, it would take a few weeks for the book to ship, so I ordered the Kindle edition of it and downloaded the Kindle app onto my phone. I now plan to learn from this book in addition to learning from YouTube videos.

Day 4: Ukulele

Lately, I've been very busy and haven't had a lot of time to sit down and practice. I knew my bad time management and busy schedule would be a problem coming into this project, and even thought the purpose of this project is not to teach me time management, it is something I can hopefully improve on. Anyway, I have been working a lot on my finger positioning and transitioning between chords. It takes me too long to try and get my fingers in the right place. So, to practice this, I am practicing switching between chords until I am able to do it more quickly. I am not yet where I would like to be with this, so I will be working on finger positioning and changing chords throughout this project.

Day 3: Book

In addition to learning the ukulele, I am also reading the book, "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother," by Amy Chua. This is not the book I initially wanted to read, but after picking it up and reading the first few pages, I find myself not wanting to put it down. I feel like I really relate to Amy Chua's daughters in many ways. This sometimes makes me wonder if my mom ever feels the same way the author does. The author really compares, "Chinese parenting" and, "Western parenting." My parents use a combination of both. I am not very far into the book yet, so I cannot make a whole lot of connections yet, but I know I will start making a  lot more.

Day 2: Ukulele

Today my goal was to start learning a short, easy song. After realizing my ukulele was even more out of tune than it was before, I decided to buy an app to tune my ukulele. The app I bought is called, "Guitar Tuna," but it can tune many different instruments like the ukulele, violin, banjo, or mandolin. The app was a bit expensive, but I now see why. Not only does it tune very accurately, but it also has a metronome, games, songs, and it can teach you chords. I much prefer, "Guitar Tuna," to, "Ukulele Tuner." Once I finally had my ukulele in tune, I could review my strumming and chords. Feeling good about myself, I decided to try and learn a song. I wanted to find a short, easy song for beginners, preferably a song I knew. I searched "Easy songs to learn on the ukulele" on YouTube and began browsing. I watched video after video, but most songs were either too long, or songs I didn't know. I finally came across a tutorial by The Ukulele Teacher on how to play, "The Fun Song," as seen on the show Spongebob Squarepants. I've been a Spongebob fan for as long as I can remember, and I thought this song would be a great first song to learn. I first learned the chords, which were C major, F major, and G major. Next, I learned the strumming pattern, which was D, D-U, D, D where D is a down stroke and U is an up stroke. I was able to learn the chords and strumming pattern quickly, but the hardest part was switching my fingers between chords. I would go very slow, and when I tried to go faster, I'd mess up the chord. This is something I will definitely have to work on a lot.

Day 1: Ukulele

My Kala Mahogany Soprano ukulele came in the mail today. I have never played a ukulele (or any musical instrument) before, so I didn't know what to think when I opened it. Taking it out of the box, my first thought was that it was really light weight. When I strummed it, it sounded awful. Even I could tell it was way out of tune. Before I could begin think of playing it, I knew I had to tune it. The only problem was, I didn't know how to do that. So, I went to my go-to teacher: Google. After reading about different ways to tune it, I decided to look for a free app on the app store to try and tune it. I downloaded the app, "Ukulele Tuner," because it had 4.5 out of 5 stars. This app would play the sound each string should be tuned to. I did my best to tune my ukulele to the sound the app played. After about 30 minutes, I could tell my ukulele was still out of tune, but I was getting frustrated and decided it was close enough. The next thing I needed to learn was how to strum. I went on YouTube and searched "How to strum a ukulele". There were many different videos about different ways to strum. After finding a way that worked for me and practicing it, I decided to learn some chords. I learned the chords C major, F major, and G major. I then practiced different strumming patterns on these different chords.