Category: Free Inquiry

Through out this past week of learning the ukulele, I have been focused on learning with and from my peers, playing games and sharing our progress. Outside of this, I have been trying to find music games for children to help me learn, and create a music resource package for when I am in practicum. Thanks to my L2P teaching days this semester, I learned about Music play Online, which I could not find more helpful. Seeing how the kids are engaged playing the music games is great. It has also been extremely helpful for me to listen into the students music class to help me learn different keys, notes, and they sound on different instruments. On this website, you can create a musical staff, and select which instrument you want the website to play. When I do this, I put in the notes of the song I am learning, to break it down step by step and hear what it sounds like correctly.

While practicing strumming, I was using the photo above as guidance. Hearning the lyrics also helps keep me on track!

The above link is a video of me practicing my strumming. Although it is not perfect, I have come a long way!

Over the past week, I have set aside a bit of time to continue my progress with the ukulele. As the semster is getting busy, I did my best again to strum the instrument while following a video, and although I have not yet mastered it, I began watching tutorials on learning My little Sunshine on Youtube. As a result of our technology class a few weeks ago regarding generative AI, I thought I would ask it some questions about tips and resources it may have for my learning.

Check out some of the resources it gave me!

I’ve found Chat GPT to be very useful because it has given me resources I had never heard of. Like stated above, I have never heard of the apps listed, and I am going to make it my goal to download and play one of them. As this is an independant learning project, I find it helpful to have all of these resources to support me along the way. I have been having trouble learning and keeping up with the beats and chords in my own music class, so listening in to my students in practicums music classes has been the biggest help. Being taught this at a very basic and beginner level is exactly what I need. Because of this, their music teacher showed me the site MusicPlayOnline, and it includes lesson plans and grade levels for teachers, games and quizzes. I am also going to continue to check out this site for any additional resources.

I like the video below alot because it only includes 3 chords, C, F and G7. This is simple enough for me to teach to myself and get me comfortable beginning to play a song!

Over the past week, I have put in some more time into learning the ukulele. I have found it to be somewhat of a struggle making time to learn a new skill in the midst of the semester, but it is also nice knowing I am setting aside this time for myself. It has been very useful for me to watch videos of people teaching the basics, as I have trouble learning on my own and teaching things to myself.

I decided this week that the first song I learn will be You Are My Sunshine, it is a classic beginner song and nastolgic of my childhood. I am still getting comfortable with chords, so I have been referencing videos such as the one above to begin learning the song. Learning the ukulele has taken patience and time so far, so I have been taking the learning proccess slowly. This week, I tried putting chords together with strumming. I am somewhat slow at switching chords and strumming, so my goal for next week is to get more comfortable with this.

I have also enjoyed reading blog articles such as this one above because it has very useful images that videos sometimes may not use. Feel free to check this one out! Theres an endless supply of beginner ukulele information on the internet, but I find that I register the information best when I am learning with others. Next week, I plan to work with some peers on practicing the instrument, and seeing what they have learned this far. If I work with others and continue working on my chords and strumming, I will be one step closer to completing my goal of learning the ukulele.

References:

Your First Ukulele Lesson: A Beginners Guide to Playing Ukulele, Ukulele Magazine, October 20, 2023.

Over the past week, I have decided for my free inquiry project to be about learning how to play the ukulele. I am a beginner at learning the instrument, and haven’t played one in 10-15 years! Therefor, I have dedicated my time this week to relearn the basics. I have used my music professor and other classmates as a resource, as learning on my own isn’t natural for me. As I have worked with this with my classmates, I feel like I have a strong understanding of the basics, and think that this method of learning has been successful.

The photo above shows the notes I have taken to refresh my memory of music terminology. As you can see, I have been trying my best at learning musical notes, the lengths of their beats/rest, and what the different notes mean. I find taking a photo of the notes and uploading it works best, but as I learn how to actually play the ukulele, I plan to record my progress to share!

Although the video above is intended for kids, I found it to be extremly helpful at breaking musical notation down for me. This video brought me back to the basics, and now I feel confident and prepared for next weeks learning. Along with this, finding helpful videos like this now will be beneficial for my future self, because I can set them aside for when I am teaching music to my students.

https://www.twinkl.ca/teaching-wiki/musical-notation#:~:text=Music%20notation%20are%20the%20symbols,ways%20of%20writing%20down%20music.

This link above is also a very useful website for me to refresh on. It has similar information to the youtube video, but is just another way of explaining it.

Throughout the past week, I have been trying to decide between two options for my free inquiry project. My options are either doing yoga and taking time to try classes and styles I haven’t before, or learning the ukulele. I am learning the ukulele for my music class, so it could over lap, while I focus on the recording and technilogical side as my inquiry. I was very passionate about the ukulele as a child, and it was my favorite instrument that I learned. Using the ukulele as my free inquiry topic could rekindle a past interest of mine. If I choose the ukulele, I will record while I play, assesing if the quality and sound is better with my phone, Mac, Ipad and keep notes on the technology. The link below is a video I’ll check out to get started:

As for learning yoga, I am passionate about it, but can never find the time. It is hard to afford yoga classes and fit them into my schedule. Although, yoga is something I love to do when I have free time, and using it as my free inquiry topic could hold me accountable. This could be very helpful in setting aside time for myself in a busy schedule. If I coose yoga, I will record small clips and photos if possible and keep track in a journal.