I found the process of song writing to be a bit frustrating.  I was constantly judging my work as not being good enough and I was unable to think of myself as a beginner.  I wanted my song to sound as good as something you would hear on the radio and I did not think that it did.  However, with time I was able to recognize the hard work that I put into my song and think of it as a starting point for the rest of my music filled life!  I know that I want to continue with song writing and maybe one day I can write something that is good enough to be on the radio, but for now I am proud of the progress that I have made.  I think that this is an important life lesson as a future educator to teach my students too.  As they all say, practice makes perfect.   

The criteria for my song was to write a chorus and 2 verses and for it to be 2-3 minutes long. I also wanted to stay on pitch and hold my ukulele properly. I am happy to say that I achieved all of these things.

At first, I started writing a song about my family but given the recent events with the COVID-19 virus, I decided that I wanted to change the direction of my song. The COVID-19 virus has taken over all of our lives and it’s been hard not to think about anything else. I am a very social person and I rarely spend time at home. Throughout the school year I usually work 4 different jobs and all of those have been cancelled. It has been difficult adjusting to this new routine and social distancing but writing this song has helped me express some of the emotions I have been feeling. I hope that this song will convince people how important it is to stay home and flatten the curve of this virus.

Here it is… Stay Home by Maeve Poulin

Strumming Pattern: DDUUDU

Intro:

F (x2), Dm(x2), Bb(x2), Dm, C (DUD)

Chorus:

F                                                          Dm     

Schools out, doors closed, and we don’t know

                                                Bb

Everything’s getting out of control

                                    Dm           C

Once this is done, we’ll sing and dance all night

F                                                          Dm     

Right now, there’s time to make this right

                                       Bb

Instead of going out all night

Dm       C

Spread love within your own 4 walls

Verse 1:

Bb                                              F

Try something new to not stay blue

                                                Dm

Like online yoga or clean your room

                                                F                            C

Everything you’ve put off you now have time to do

Bb                                 F

Make a new recipe to eat

                                                            Dm

Set a challenge for your friends to complete

                                         F            C

One day we’ll miss all of this free time, cause…

Chorus:

F                                                          Dm     

Schools out, doors closed, and we don’t know

                                                Bb

Everything’s getting out of control

                                     Dm            C

Once this is done, we’ll sing and dance all night

F                                                          Dm     

Right now, there’s time to make this right

                                       Bb

Instead of going out all night

Dm         C

Spread love within your own 4 walls

Verse 2:

Bb                                                     F

Support the people who need our help

                                                Dm

Lock up and just stay in for them

                                    F                      C

Fill up the 6 feet with kindness and care

Bb                                            F

Keep going on we must stay strong

                                                Dm

I know you can keep carrying on

                                      F        C            F

Just know we’re all in this together as one

Since my midterm, I believe that I have grown a lot as a singer/ukulele player. I have continued to play 20 minutes of ukulele, 5 days a week and have been attending weekly 45 minute vocal lessons. My final musical growth goal was to write my own song but I still have been learning new techniques on my ukulele. For example, right now I am learning how to play “Here Comes the Sun” by the Beetles which includes a lot of finger picking. I have been watching an online tutorial by “The Ukulele Teacher” and have slowly been getting better at finger picking. Also, I have been spending a lot of time exploring different ukulele songs on https://www.ukulele-tabs.com/ when I need a break from song writing.

Writing this song took me a lot longer than expected, but I feel like I learned a lot about myself in the process.  Last year, I wrote a song for my EDCI 306A class and I read a few articles on song writing to help me with the process. I learned that you should start by finding the chord progressions for the song and then write poems to find the lyrics.  So, I started by playing different combinations of chords to see which ones I liked best.  While I strummed, I would just sing “la” in tune to get a basic understanding of what a melody would sound like behind the chords. My favourite combination of chords was F, Dm, Bb and C.

After I knew which chords I wanted to use the hardest part came next- writing the chorus and 2 verses. I started with a mind map to figure out what I wanted my song to be about. Next, I started writing poems and spent a lot of time looking up what certain words rhymed with.  I found that the chorus was very easy for me to write but the verses were more difficult.  I soon realized that writing a song is like writing a story and you have to make sure that story makes sense.  Due to this, I ended up changing my chorus because it did not flow well with my verses and the storyline did not make sense.  For my strumming pattern, I decided to do DUDUDD because it is a strumming pattern that I am most comfortable with and I found it flowed best with my song. Most of the song is sung in my mix/head voice so I would write my next song to fall more in my chest voice range.

For this class, I learned a few songs from “Ukulele in the Classroom: Book 1” by James Hill & J. Chalmers Doane.

1. Lavender’s Blue- Strumming & Singing: https://youtu.be/DtuF-x_8n14 

2. Lavender’s Blue- Ukulele 1: https://youtu.be/tsceSa-KrsM

3. Lavender’s Blue- Ukulele 2: https://youtu.be/i7V8NKosgCU

4. Oh! Susanna- Strumming & Singing: https://youtu.be/5jD452gDiWA

5. Oh! Susanna- Ukulele 2: https://youtu.be/wq77qriqDrk

6. Oh! Susanna- Ukulele 1: https://youtu.be/gmHjwA8gcqs

For my midterm, I decided to play “I’m Yours” by Jason Maraz and “Stay With Me” by Sam Smith.

I believe that one of the biggest things I have to work on with my ukulele playing is learning multiple strumming patterns. I am a self-taught ukulele player. This is something that I am very proud of but it also means that I have developed a lot of bad playing habits since nobody was there to help me fix them. One of these bad habits is that I always resort to the same strumming pattern. No matter what song I play, I always use the strumming pattern DUDUUDU. Both of the songs that I chose to do for my midterm have very different strumming patterns. For example, the strumming pattern for “I’m Yours” is DXUUX (X=chuking) and the strumming pattern for “Stay With Me” is DDU DDU.

Even with all of the practice that I have been doing, I still found it difficult to perfect these new strumming patterns. I am able to do them without singing, but as soon as I start singing I always resort to my old strumming pattern. I hope that with more practice I will be able to fix this bad habit. As well, I found it difficult to chuk while keeping my ukulele in the correct position. I often found that half-way through “I’m Yours” my ukulele would have slipped down to my lap.

I also have been trying new strumming patterns to use with other songs on ukutabs.com. Moving forward, I want to learn even more strumming patterns and to be able to chuk with more confidence. I am able to chuk now after having to do it for “I’m Yours”, but I would like it to sound clearer.  

I started playing the ukulele 3 years ago and my obsession with this little instrument only grew from there. I used to practice every day up until September of this year. I still loved playing my ukulele, but with new school and work schedules, I found it very difficult to make time to practice. This is why I am so thankful for this course because I have been able to make time for my ukulele again! Since the middle of January when I create my “Final Growth” assignment schedule, I have been sticking to the practice days I have outlined on my schedule. It has not always been easy to make time to practice but I am thankful that I have because I have already started to see growth.

Before taking EDCI 306B, I had no idea that I was holding my ukulele wrong. Because of this, I was never able to stand up and play because I was not supporting the base of my ukulele correctly. When I began to practice properly holding my ukulele, I quickly found out that it would be difficult to change my old ukulele handling habits. Even after the midterm, I am still struggling to keep my left thumb down on the finger board, as you will see in both of my midterm evidence of growth videos. Before, I would always play with my thumb resting halfway up the board so my thumb will start to creep back into that position as I am playing. Moving forward, I will have to continue to practice keeping my thumb down and supporting the base of my ukulele. My goal is to be able to easily play the ukulele while standing up and to keep my left thumb in the correct position.