Lesson Zero for Ukulele

My quick (free)) mini-course, Perfect-A-Song, has four quick lessons over four quick days, but it occurs to me that maybe there should be a lesson ZERO before the official Lesson One.

You’ve heard me rant about my love of lists.

I keep a list for everything, and, often, sub-lists as well!

For ukulele, I have lists on

• skills (skills I’m working on now; skills I want to work on in the future)
• helpful videos (ones I’ve watched; ones I want to watch)
• good books (same), AND —
• SONGS.

Because songs are the end goal for all my study and practice, I keep lots of song lists.

On a computer, it’s easy to categorize in multiple ways for easy cross-referencing.

My basic criteria for whether or not to add a new tag or category is just to ask: would I actually search for this term in the future?

I probably wouldn’t search for “love songs” because that’s so vague.

But I would search for, say, “rockabilly” or “1920s.”

My main song lists are:

• Songs I know (that is, I know how to play them well; performance-ready)
• Songs I’m working on (actively)
• Someday songs

• List 1 is a good reminder and gives me an easy reference when I just want something to pull out and play
• List 2 is always less than five songs. If it’s more, then I know I’m not “actively” working on them — I’m poking around
• List 3 is huge. I hate losing track of fun songs I’ve heard, so I try to get ‘em on the list right away for future reference.

So when I mentioned Lesson Zero, above, “starting your lists” is it!

Baby steps, my babies — that’s how we make progress!

Keeping you thinking, while keeping you playing,