That led me to creating a family tree and researching the people who led to me! Then I presented my Genius Hour research to all my classes as a model for them to use. I followed the scoring rubric very closely to ensure I would "get an A." They liked it.
Well, learning is an addictive thing. I recently bought a concert ukulele, and thought I'd start learning this summer, but the thing about learning is there is no reason to wait. So I've begun.
I use this guy's website. If you look on the left, he has a link just for ukulele lessons. His video lessons are fantastic, and the written portion has the visual for the chords, too, so you can "read" them instead of just playing and listening to them. I looked at several other ukulele instructor's videos, and they were either too fast or too simple. This guy's speed of instructional delivery is just right for me. He repeats what we just learned a lot. I'm thrilled to say I now know four chords--C, A minor, F, and G--well enough that they come easily, and I don't have to look down at my fingers to get to them, (except the F chord) and I'm adding a fifth one. My goal is to get the ten most common chords down pat, and then begin learning songs that use those chords. The other chords I am adding are C minor, C7, F minor, F7, G minor, and G7. With a total of ten chords, I can play hundreds of popular ukulele songs.
One thing I learned is that I had to cut all my fingernails really short. I thought I could use my strumming hand nails to strum, but the uke's strings are thin enough that using your nails just sounds brassy, for lack of a better word. A guitar's strings are much thicker, and you can do that, but not on a uke. And the nails on my fingering hand just made things really difficult. Without them, it was much easier, though I have to say, my left hand fingertips were bruised and sore after a long session of chord playing.
Overall, the ukulele has been surprisingly easy to learn. If you ever want your hands to look GIANT, play the ukulele! This picture was taken before the Great Nail Cutting:
Keep Learning,
Mrs. H
