Day 13: Ukulele

Today I spent a lot of time working on my video. I am using the app iMovie to make my video. So far, I have put in short clips of me playing a few different songs. The problem is, I don't really know how I should start the video. As of now it is a picture of my ukulele with the title, "Dream Big Project: Ukulele," but I feel like I need an introduction before my first clip. I also feel like I need to put something between the clips, but I'm just not sure what. Another problem is, my video is really boring. I'd like to find a way to make it more bearable to watch. Hopefully I'll think of something to keep my audience from falling asleep.

Day 12: Ukulele

Today I learned some a new song, and reviewed an old one for my video. They are "Count on Me" by Bruno Mars, and "The Fun Song" as seen on  the cartoon Spongebob Squarepants. The strumming pattern for, "Count on Me" is D, D, D-U-D-U, and the chords are C, Em, Am, G, and F. The strumming pattern for "The Fun Song" is D, D-U, D, D, and the chords are C, F, and G. I started playing this before, but it didn't sound very good. Now that I am better, it sounds the way it is supposed to sound. I plan on putting parts of these two songs in my video. I have also started piecing together clips for my video using the app iMovie.

Day 11: Ukulele

I finally realized today that I really need to start coming up with ideas for my video. I had been keeping track of ideas my friends and I had been coming up with. The first idea was to create a music video with my playing a song I learned. The next idea was to choose one hard song that I really wanted to learn and focus on just that one song. My last idea was to choose parts from a bunch of different songs I've been learning throughout the course of my learning. I ended up picking the last idea. My idea is to pick 3-5 songs and just show clips of them. I want to show a little less than a minute of each song, so the video won't be too long. I'd like to pick diverse songs to show that I have learned to play different types of music. The first song I chose is "Lava" from the Pixar short film. It is a Hawaiian song and I really like the way it sounds.

Day 10: Book

One thing I've noticed about my book, is that the author will go off topic and tell these stories and kind of lose her train of thought. This is similar to how I write. I'll be writing something and then go way off topic. It's one of the reasons I can't sit down and write for very long. I never get anything done because a lot of what I write is completely irrelevant. Anyway, I find myself making more connections between the story and this project. For example, Lulu wanted to quit playing the violin. I think she just didn't like the huge time commitment and all the pressure her mom put on her. This is similar to how I went through a period where I didn't want to practice because I just couldn't find the time, and then I'd stress myself out about the whole project.

Day 9: Ukulele

Today I read from my "Ukulele for Dummies," book, and I am finally ready to learn my first song from the book. The song is called "Lil' Liza Jane". It is a very short, simple song with only 2 chords: F and C. The strumming pattern is also very simple, it is D, D-U. Unfortunately, my phone ran out of storage, so I was unable to get a video for today's practice.

Day 8: Ukulele

I started out today by reading from the book, "Ukulele for Dummies," but I ended up getting bored pretty quickly. I really just wanted to be able to play a song. So, I went to YouTube and started learning part of the song, "Stitches" by Shawn Mendes. The strumming pattern for this song is D-D, U-U, D-U, and the chords are Am, G, C, and F. This is one of my favorite songs, and it is a song I definitely want to learn.