I’ve been playing 5.5 months now (since August 31), and have evolved the following basic strategy that so far seems to be serving me well - by which I mean I'm having a lot of fun and seem to be learning lots of stuff at a pretty satisfying rate.
First and foremost, my main aim is to always have fun. The moment I stop having fun, that's my signal to stop doing whatever I'm doing at that moment and try something different. If something feels too hard, find something easier. Too easy, find something more challenging. If I'm not loving the song I'm playing, play something else. If I'm not interested in learning a particular skill in this moment, learn a different one, or play something I already know. If I'm bored with a song I used to love, drop it. There are plenty more where that came from.
If I find myself fascinated with a particular thing - a song, a genre, a skill set, or whatever, I follow that enthusiasm wherever it leads me. (Jazz chords was my first passion - didn't expect it, didn't go looking for it - it just happened. So I learned a whole lot of chords very early - and, for many months, no right-hand skills whatsoever. Until I got interested in them, and then I did.)
I do whatever's most fun for me at each moment, and over time, I've learned lots of skills, without (except when there's a workshop locally) taking a lesson or following any prescribed course. There are tons of different skill sets you could learn ... most players master a subset of them ... some may never interest you, and you won't need them. Trust that if and when you do need a particular skill set to do a particular thing you want to do, you'll be motivated from within to learn it.
I never force anything. It's completely unnecessary and counterproductive, I believe, and so far my experience bears that out. Everyone around me seems amazed at how quickly I'm learning. I'm pretty sure that has much less to do with any innate talent on my part, and much more to do with my choosing this approach.
As an example of how this works for me, at one point I started to dislike the sound of my lame beginner strum (this after quite a few months of being perfectly happy with it), so I set about learning some strumming skills. Up till then I wasn't interested in learning that ... and then one day I was. You will be interested in any given thing exactly when you are and not one moment sooner, so follow your instincts and your interests, and let your joy be your guide.
Second - and this has been huge for my development
and my joy - I have been participating in the
Seasons of the Ukulele on this forum since week 4 of playing. Click that link and come check it out. The Seasons have me learning a new song (or lately, because I'm having so much fun, more than one) every week, videoing them in my very imperfect but improving-over-time way, and getting wonderful support, feedback, cheering on, and learning-help from the warm, friendly, and super-encouraging Seasonista community over there.
Each (weekly) Season has a different theme, and just about every week I think I'll take the week off, but then I end up thinking, well, what song would I do if I did? And then, usually I get inspired and can't help but go learn it.
I find lyrics and chords for my chosen songs by googling. I will usually find a whole lot of possible sets of chords to use for a particular song. I test out a few until I find one I like. Some are too hard for me, some are too simplified, many sound inaccurate to my ear, so I noodle around till I find one I mostly like. If some of the chords, rhythms, or words don't seem accurate or aren't to my liking, I just try stuff until I find what works for me.
If it's a wrong-sounding chord, I just test out every single chord I can think of until I find one that sounds right to me. If I can't find one, I start making them up. It takes time, but it requires zero knowledge (though, of course, I'm acquiring knowledge every time I do that), and it eventually works.
From what I’ve heard, that’s exactly how Edison invented the light bulb. He tested a huge number of substances for the filament before he found one (tungsten) with the right properties to make his idea work.
When in doubt I ask for help. I'm sure I could do a whole lot more of that than I do - I tend to like figuring stuff out on my own. If (see "Rule 1"
) figuring it out on my own stops being fun, I ask someone. There are plenty of helpful people and places to ask here, and if you look, probably also locally. (You clearly are already doing that, since you posted a question here ... so maybe this point is more a reminder to me than for you.)
Finally - and this is also huge - I participate in everything that interests me. Local jam groups and uke groups, the Seasons, workshops, uke fests, music parties - anything and everything that seems like it might be fun. Pretty much from day one I did this. With only a few chords that I could barely play, no ear training or ability to read chord charts or strum properly or anything. I just got out there and did everything I could. Played a lot on my own too, just for fun. But playing out with and in front of others, I believe, has been absolutely "instrumental" (pun intended) in my rapid development.
Every single person I know who tried to learn entirely on their own (in some misguided attempt to "get ready" before going out) has quit. Every single one. And then they tell me, "I'm not as good as you, so I can't yet." They're every bit as good as me, I promise. Playing out
in spite of my lack of skills is exactly how I have developed the very skills I currently have that they don't yet have. On day one, I had exactly the same absence of any of those skills that they had.
Related to this, and of perhaps more importance than anything else, is that I am perfectly happy to be exactly where I'm at, and I have no concern whatsoever for what anybody else thinks. (Or if I notice those concerns, I release them.) If I allowed my lack of skills to be an issue for me, I'd never have made my first Seasons video at week 4 of playing, when I knew only one song I could muddle through and a handful of chords and a really lame strum.
Mistakes are how we learn. Once upon a time we all learned to walk when we couldn't ... by falling down a whole lot. I'm pretty sure no baby in human history has learned to walk without a whole lot of falling. The difference between them and most adults is they don't let it stop them. If they did, we'd all still be crawling.
So I embrace my mistakes. I make them, I laugh at them, I smile at them, I make cute apologetic faces and winsome shrugs. You'll see that on pretty much every one of my videos. Sure, some day I'd love to get through a completely clean run of something. I believe that day will eventually come. But until it happens, I'll fall down, smile, get back up again, and keep going.
The paradox of perfectionism is that if I'm
not okay with my mistakes, I will never
reach that level of skill. Because I'll stop myself from taking risks or playing in front of people. (I have friends who bought a uke the same day I did who have let this stop them - they say they're not good enough to play in front of others - and they have pretty much given up altogether from what I can see. Every single one of them. Perfectionism
will kill all learning, all progress, and all joy.)
So I just keep putting myself out there, falling down, and getting up again. I'm pretty sure my rapid growth has everything to do with leaving the perfectionism in my past and just playing and having fun without concern for my mistakes and lack of skills. Here's the other side of the paradox: The more mistakes I make (and the less I let them bother me or care what anyone else thinks), the faster I learn!
So, bottom line, have fun, play lots, with others whenever possible, embrace your mistakes and enjoy those too, look around and let yourself discover what interests you, what works for you, and what's out there, judge nothing, and follow your joy.
