Learn to play the ukulele

“Despite the ups and downs of practice, I knew that I had made tremendous progress. Sometimes I would plateau for two days but then suddenly “get” something. I still had trouble with the most basic barre chord, but actually, when I counted, I had learned around twelve chords and could do some basic progressions in some keys. I was buzzing out less and my fingers were starting to go just where they needed to go (if the chord changes were slow enough). It was an amazing feeling, the feeling of being a beginner rather than being nothing at all (which was the feeling I had during the whole first week and part of the second week).”

“On July 22, I started “practicing” ukulele no more than five minutes a day (that’s as much as I could tolerate without calluses on my left fingers), and just trying to make the most basic chords after C work (which they never had earlier): G7, F. I kept on smudging and buzzing. [...] In my experience, when learning something new, the first two weeks can be very, very discouraging, but if you quit before the two weeks are up, you may never know how close you were to making the breakthrough that everyone else who persevered can make.”

“I’m 58 (f) and just started. I can’t play a single instrument. It felt impossible at first but I just practice for 10 minutes at a time, with no goals other than to do it! It’s all about just training your fingers to do things they’ve never done. That part is so awkward. It’s physical work, just remember that. It helps to learn C-G-Am-F because SO many songs are built on these! Then you can clunkily “play” music, which is a really sweet reward and motivation.”