My Ukulele Experience

There are many things out there that I would like to do that I have never done before. Consequently, I had to choose something that would inspire me and my classmates. I chose the ukulele because it was something that I had always wanted to learn. During the ten hours of learning the magnificent instrument, I encountered many “aha!” moments. Although I am only required to practice playing it for ten hours now, I believe I will use it later in life. At first, I had no idea what I was going to do for my project. I thought about doing something simple and easy like writing with my other hand. However, I decided I should do something that I actually wanted to do and learn. I have always had a desire to learn the guitar but because I could not afford a guitar or guitar lessons, I went with a ukulele instead. Fortunately, a ukulele would be easier to learn and was in my price range. Now that I knew what I was going to do, it was time to start my project.
First of all, I had to buy the instrument.
I did not have much money to go and buy one at an expensive music store, so I went ahead and looked on amazon. Thankfully, I found one that was only thirty-five dollars and it included a case, extra strings, instruction booklet, and instruction video. It was perfect! When it finally arrived at my house, I knew I had made the right decision. I enjoyed strumming the strings and listening to the sound each one made. Later in the learning process, I encountered one major “aha” moment. This happened when I was trying to learn the song “Riptide” by Vance Joy and I was unable to do the strumming correctly. Getting very frustrated, I rewatched the tutorial one more time. Right when I was about to give up, I tried one more time and I finally did it correctly. I was able to do it again and again. All of a sudden everything clicked and I realized it wasn’t so hard after all. Of course I still made plenty of mistakes, but I got the general idea of the rhythm and strum
down. Due to the fact that I enjoy playing the ukulele, I believe I will use this new skill for the rest of my life. Although learning to play the ukulele is not an essential skill to have to survive, I think that it will not only bring me joy but others as well. If I keep practicing, I might improve on my skills and people might enjoy listening to me play. On days when I’m feeling upset and dismal, I’ll start playing my tiny instrument, and receive delight from it. Despite that there will be days when it is locked away in my closet, forgotten about, I believe that the moments it makes me cheerful, will make up for the times I do not play it. Overall, I have no doubt that I made the right decision in choosing the ukulele for my something new project. Although the process was tedious like, how I picked the project and the “aha” moments I encountered, I know it will be a useful skill for me later in life. Even if it wasn’t the easiest new skill to learn, it was the most enjoyable.