Goals?

I started ukulele with no goals at all. Just a slight distraction from real life. But, ukulele has taken hold of me, and it's no longer just a slight distraction from other things.

But, having wandered into it, I realized that I still don't have any concrete goals, other than learning various music as it attract my attention. (Currently quite taken with Daniel Ho's Polani.) I suppose that learning various pieces of music is enough of a goal, but wonder what kinds of goals you all have. Maybe I'll get some ideas that will work for me.

My goals are similar to yours in so much as learning to play what grabs me by the ears and the heart. Those are the large goals and the smaller goals fall into place. Learning new chords, learning different picking patterns, increasing speed and accuracy. These all must be mastered as I attempt harder and harder songs.

I started out strumming and singing now it is chord melody and finger picking. A goal is to learn flamingo and spanish style.

Joyful Uke,
Great topic.
I am a big fan of setting goals. Short and long term goals.
For me, one long term goal is the ability read music notation with as little effort as possible. Another long term goal is remembering every note on the fretboard.
My short term goals involve improving my timing and producing an even sound when I pick or strum.
At the moment, I am working more and more or interlaced and synchronous melodies a la James Hill's The Ukulele Way; but I also practice my finger-style with the Pekelo series too.

As soon as I can play five good songs competently, i'm going to head out busking. By the end of the year, i hope to have about 30 songs I can play really well. And when i return from my travels, i expect to be able to head down to my local markets on a sunday and play and sing my little heart out with out being told by council or stall holders to piss off. My busking efforts before that time, might be quite low key spots where it doesn't matter if i'm not very very good. I just want to play and sing in public. And if someone gives me some money, yay!!! Oh and also i would like to be able to play in open mike nights that i come across from time to time. i'm not good enough to sing even one song at our local though maybe I could if i tried really hard in teh few weeks i've got left before leaving home.

Now that i've bought my music theory book, i aim to have a solid grasp of everything in my book by the end of the year and be able to apply it. As mentioned elsewhere the book i'm using is https://www.scribd.com/book/269690778/Harmony-and-Theory-A-Comprehensive-Source-for-All-Musicians Incidentally if you become a member of scribd, it looks like you don't even have to buy this book. They have the hugest library adn i only didn't join up becuase I can't read the books on my kindle. The have limits now on non-fiction but i can't remember what they are.

In playing terms, my main aim for this year is be good with rhythm patterns and strumming. All the finger picking stuff can come later though i will start on it now as it's so alluring but i'm not putting myself under any extra pressure with regard to that stuff.

I'm viewing it as a goal-less practice - the fact that I'm doing it regularly and staying with it in and of itself is really all I need. I've never been the kind of person who is motivated by things like grades, or performance reviews, or milestones of any kind, and generally giving myself a goal - say, do (something) by (date) - is a great way to set myself up for failure, because I end up getting discouraged and abandoning ship entirely.

I'm with janeray1940. My goals are
[1] keep playing
[2] learn new things
[3] enjoy myself

My approach produces results more slowly than a strict structured regime, but gives me enough motivation to [1].

My 'goal' is to be as good as I can be.

I want to be able to play tunes that I like, as effortlessly as possible.

I have always liked instrumentals, & this is my main focus, but I will try & learn different strumming patterns along the way.

As for singing - I doubt it - but I have written a few 'little ditties', & recorded 'spoken words' for The Seasons.

I can play a lot of tunes reading tab and my next goal is to learn to play more of those from memory. After that, I want to arrange traditional folk tunes to play on the uke. Then I think I want to learn playing backup for melody instruments at sessions and blues/boogie improvisation.

That'll take me while but I'm in no rush and I'm enjoying learning all the time.

My goal is to learn to play an instrument, it really is as simple as that. It's one of the few things on my bucket list, don't know if I'll ever play well enough to check it off the list though. My wife has been playing the piano for roughly 20 years, still doesn't think she's any good.

There are of course many smaller goals that make up the bigger one. One of my first goals was to be able to play Hotel California, then it was play it from memory, etc...

My goals were more the mechanical aspects, and were sometimes tied to uke acquisition - if I achieved this then I could get that.

First goal was the Uncle Rod Boot camp, then strumming smoothly, memorizing five strummed songs, then chord melody and memorizing five songs, then finger picking a basic pattern and memorizing five songs. I always learned more than five songs that I could play from memory, but that was my initial target.

I agree wholeheartedly with janeray1940 and Dan Gleibitz. Ukuleles are fun; singing is fun. Why turn these fun pastimes into drudgery? Inless, of course, you're preparing to take Jake's place away from him.

Put yer feet up. Sip a cool something. Relax! Take it easy. You don't have to "get 'er done . . ." AAAhhhhhh . . . ld:

My goal always has been to entertain other people with songs and music, and maybe a little razzle dazzle, in whatever venue opportunity presented me. So far, so good.

If i didn't have any goals, i wouldn't do it at all and I wouldn't learn anything. Goals do not make it drudgery, they make me do it.

I don't have any tangible short term goals. I just want to keep having fun. Maybe a goal for me would be not to be scared to play/sing in front of folks.

My simplest goal is to learn new songs, in a variety of genres/styles... I began contributing to the seasons as a deadline-driven approach appears to work well for me.

Down Up Dick said:

I agree wholeheartedly with janeray1940 and Dan Gleibitz. Ukuleles are fun; singing is fun. Why turn these fun pastimes into drudgery? Inless, of course, you're preparing to take Jake's place away from him.

Put yer feet up. Sip a cool something. Relax! Take it easy. You don't have to "get 'er done . . ." AAAhhhhhh . . . ld:

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Count me in with Dick, Jane and Dan............it's fun, relaxing and entertaining............No problems, Mon.

Rllink said:

My goal always has been to entertain other people with songs and music, and maybe a little razzle dazzle, in whatever venue opportunity presented me. So far, so good.

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I like your attitude! That is very close to mine. I've actually recently been playing and singing "Home on the Range" (first verse only) but I love it! I arranged it and that was my goal and I will eventually share that fun!

I think the word "goal" has to be defined first. It has a kind of negative sounding connotation for ukuleles. A goal is often very strong sounding, like I want to train and run the 10K marathon. Anyway, I would like to put forward that "goal" can be softened by calling it a "challenge" so for example, my goal (upcoming challenge) is to learn Honey's "Guiro" latin uke strum. Sorry, the video won't start at 2:20 where she does her demo.



I've already learned it and created a variation on it. So, goals can lead you to doing something extra and adding to the body of uke knowledge.

Petey

Very cool- thanks for posting Petey!!!!

Petey that was fantastic. I especially loved Honey's strum.

My goal for today is to ring up apple support and get myself au fait with my new iphone. I am scared of it

AndieZ said:

Now that i've bought my music theory book, i aim to have a solid grasp of everything in my book by the end of the year and be able to apply it. As mentioned elsewhere the book i'm using is https://www.scribd.com/book/269690778/Harmony-and-Theory-A-Comprehensive-Source-for-All-Musicians Incidentally if you become a member of scribd, it looks like you don't even have to buy this book. They have the hugest library adn i only didn't join up becuase I can't read the books on my kindle. The have limits now on non-fiction but i can't remember what they are.

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I had YEARS of theory when I was playing piano, and barely remember any of it. Then again, I was the one playing "Scales and Arpeggios" from Aristocats to practice scales and arpeggios. I found this little document and it seems very useful for ukulele theory: http://www.howlinhobbit.com/ukulele/

Good luck, I remember theory making my brain hurt.

My goal is just to have something I can have fun playing. I played piano when I was a kid, then oboe in JH and HS, then kind of fell off the music wagon, but I like playing too much to completely lose it.