How did you do on your 2020 goals?

[Arcy]

At the beginning of the year RafterGirl posted a thread on 2020 New Years Goals . Whether you posted yours or not, how did you all do on achieving yours?

I hit most of mine - ironically, I hit the ones most affected by COVID before the lock downs, and the one missed the most should have been unaffected.

Performance:
Work up a song to the point where I can (and do) perform it at our local open mic.

Got it! Did a song at one of our last open mics before the shutdown.

Record 4 songs for Seasons of the Ukulele - I finished three in 2019 then quagmired on a bunch that I couldn't complete in a week.

Got it! 11 songs this year, and I hosted a season. Also had a few that quagmired and didn't make it to the upload

Play the UBass for the group that currently doesn't have a regular bass player. I did my first group bass effort on boxing day for a small group and it went ok.

Got it! Managed a couple of sessions before the lock down. Still need a lot of work

Learning:
Finish going through The Ukulele Way lessons. Aiming for a book a month, but I've got lots of room to slip that so long as I make consistent progress.

Nope. I made some progress, but I concentrated more on piano and bass than uke. I did take a lot of what JH taught into creating my own chord-melody arrangements, and I should roll that back into the formal curriculum to figure out what I don't know I don't know.

Stuff:
Finish the ukulele kits I've been working on for over a year. The first is done except for finishing once the weather warms. The second may get started inside.

Fail. I did a lot of non-instrumental projects before getting smoked out this summer, and I started a few new ones, but I didn't complete the ones in progress. I redid the inlay on the almost-done one, but never got around to finishing the finish. D'oh. The second kit is still in its box. I have a licence-plate bari-body finished and four neck attempts in the rubbish bin. A purchased neck is ready to go on, but I may need a new fretboard since it's not quite the scale I'd planned (it may be OK though since I haven't placed the bridge). My upright washtub bass is nigh-finished - it's strung up and test played, and I soldered up a pickup-wiring harness this afternoon. All goes well it'll be finished before 2020 ends.

Get rid of the ukuleles I'm not playing. One uke and two guitars already out, but I still have two sopranos that I'm storing but not touching and a baritone that's being replaced on Friday.

Fail. I didn't want to deal with people and didn't get anything listed before lock downs. I added two new instruments (a UBass & a bari) beyond the one that had been ordered last year but hadn't yet arrived.

I'm going to roll over reuse my goals for next year: I'd like to push through on Ukulele Way alongside bass studies and finish off the instrument builds. I hope we'll get back to in-person groups by end of summer and I can work on playing with others.

[pix.fairydust]

I didn't set any last year but am inspired to this year.

I think you did pretty darn well, about 50% resolution success is not a bad record!

[Croaky Keith]

How did I do...........badly!

I was going to get back to playing some of my ukes, even try The Seasons again - but it didn't happen, (instead, I just kept on with all my blown instruments).

Maybe this year........

[ukantor]

Same as usual - terrible!

JC.

[glennerd]

Oh you know, life got in the way...

No wait, that's not right. I spent most of the year at home hiding from the world. Well if that wasn't a gift of hours upon hours of ukulele practice handed to me on a silver platter, I don't know what is. Time to get serious about this for 2021!

[RafterGirl]

Well, I'm a bit late posting but here it goes.....

For 2020......
1. Continue to work on performance skills.
2. Be content with the wonderful ukuleles that I have. Quit looking.
3. Retire after 40 years of pediatric nursing, but continue as a music volunteer at the children’s hospital.
I think #3 will go a long ways towards fulfilling #1 &#2

1. I was terribly afraid that Covid would kill goal #1 since my in-person uke playing at church and with local groups was shutdown. However, it seems to have worked just the opposite. Thanks to finding weekly online groups to play with via Zoom, and church services via Zoom, I've been playing and singing a ton more than I did in 2019. I participate in a weekly online open mic with the wonderful folks from Ukulele Catskill. I occasionally would get up the courage to do an open mic piece with my monthly local groups, but now I'm playing & singing every week. Four of us have been rotating doing special music for Zoom church service on Sundays. Pre-Covid/Zoom, I never sang solo at church. I was content to just play and add that ukulele sparkle to the worship band. They kept trying to put a vocal mic in front of me, and I kept saying no. Well..... the cat's out of the bag now. My vocal skills have improved a little, but my courage to sing out has increased a lot.
2. I have accomplished this goal. I am very content with the ukuleles I have, and I have not had any desire to buy any more.
3. I did retire in April, but Covid pretty much shut down my hospital music volunteer gig. However, I've used this time to build up my music set lists for when I am able to return to my beloved pediatric hospital. I'll be better prepared with songs to uplift the kids & families.

So for 2021.....
1. Continue to improve my performance skills. Build on what I've done in 2020. Continue to "find my groove" song & key wise for singing.
2. Maybe experiment with effects & loopers?
3. Hopefully return to in-person playing by next summer or fall.

[Nickie]

I survived the BS in the States. I went bonkers over not being able to play in public, although we did manage two gigs in November.