Many of you know that I am learning to play the ukulele.  I started back in February 2014 and in my post “Learning a New Skill – Ukulele Dreaming” I write how it was an impulse buy and how I ‘fell’ into learning to play this nifty little instrument.  Now, although many times I may come across as doing things on the fly – on impulse – usually, it’s not the case.  More often than not, there has been serious contemplation and rumination over plans.  So although it comes across as an impulse, in fact, I have been thinking about the process and the outcome for a while.  I just like to wait for the ‘right moments’ to come along and then I jump into action.  I know those right moments to be my gut instincts which I trust wholeheartedly.

At the time I bought my ukulele, what I didn’t write in this blog post was that I had a fascination of the soundtrack to the True Detective.  Series one aired in Australia and although I found the show utterly depressing and morose, I asked my husband not to fast forward the opening credits so that I could hear this haunting song.  The song is depressing too however, if you’ve seen the show then this wouldn’t be surprising.  The song is called Far From Any Road (this should already be sending alarm bells to you as it’s far from a happy song – it’s a murder ballad – yes you read right) by The Handsome Family (an alternative country and Americana duo).

If you’d like to listen to it, crank up the volume and be ready to feel despair. (As I’m writing this, I am playing this on repeat and tapping the keys to the music)...

I must have played this song over one hundred times and from different parts of the house.  Study, lounge, kitchen – you name it.  I even played it while pottering outside in the garden and I know I must have annoyed our quiffed rocker billy neighbour next door (or he may have been impressed by my musical choice, who knows).  Regardless, this song made such an impact on me that I wanted to learn how to play it.  I could have picked up the guitar (after all, I could have had my pick of my dad’s guitars) but I chose the ukulele because I needed to learn it quick – and I didn’t want to fail to achieve my goal so early.

So I guess you could say the main reason I learned to play the ukulele was just to learn how to play this song.  And I did.

Achieve Mastery in 10 000 Hours

About the same time, there were these articles being disseminated across the internet about achieving mastery required 10 000 solid hours of practice. Momentarily I thought that I simply couldn’t devote years of my life to master music and the ukulele – all I wanted to play was THAT song.

A few weeks back I was listening to Josh Kaufman being interviewed by Michael Bungay Stainier.  Josh Kaufman is the author of The First 20 Hours: How to Learn Anything Fast and this interview made an impression on me.  Josh dispelled the notion of the 10 000 hours as mastery denoted achieving the levels of say, an elite athlete or a highly trained musician.  Instead, by deconstructing the goal into manageable tasks, we can learn a new skill.  I hadn’t heard of this author or his book previously but what he talked about EXACTLY resonated with me.  In fact, without my knowledge, it was how I had approached learning to play the ukulele.

“Formal” Education

As I had never had any musical training whatsoever, I was starting green in every way.  I also had a bad experience of music since I recall my early high school years being sent to the library every time my class had music on in our timetable.  I felt like a rebel as I sat in the library while my classmates were singing in the choir.  Trust me, I preferred the library…

Anyhow why dredge up the past?

For a couple of months, I played my $26 ukulele and my husband was surprised that I was consistent about it.  I created YouTube play lists and taught myself the chords and strumming patterns.  I scoured the internet for tutorials and practiced along with Ukulele Mike.   It was a lot of fun – albeit a lone pleasure as my husband had banished me to the deep dark depths of the house so that he couldn’t hear the twang of the cheap ukulele and my warbling (I’m also a hopeless singer).

So on my birthday, my husband surprised me with a new more expensive ukulele and that’s when things started to get serious.  I had to start having formal lessons because I needed to improve.  Learning from the internet was not going to help me achieve my goal because I was straying from it!

I started formal lessons with a local guitar/ukulele teacher (although he tells me he plays a LOT of instruments which is mind boggling in itself) when I can’t tell the different between a full and half note but that aside, he was patient with me and started to do the lessons from Hal Leonard’s Ukulele Method Book 1 and the Beginner Ukulele Book. Through consistent practice, I was able to learn to play the chords required of my depressing song and did this while learning musical theory and other songs.  In the meantime, my interest in music grew because for the first time in my life, I saw that I was making progress and that I could READ MUSIC and play music at the same time.

So What Have I Learned?

You don’t need 10 000 hours but you need to have a goal and you need to have commitment to achieve that goal.   I believe that we are capable of a lot of things but too often we find the easy excuse of ‘not enough time’ or “too stupid” or “it’s just not for me” or “I’m too old”  or “what will people think?”.

I know, I think the same.  I’d be lying if I said that I don’t find most things challenging in some way or provide me with anxiety when the easiest option is to bow out or not attempt at all and take the safe route but at the same time, I think what if I had missed out on an opportunity to grow and develop in some way?  Surely that would be worse!

Learning inspires curiosity, it allows us to take risks, it challenges our values and beliefs and it allows us to reflect and create meaning.

Learning is not – and will never be –  risky.  We’re the ones who put pressure on ourselves that it is.

By not learning, we are denying ourselves one of the most wonderful experiences to learn not only about ourselves but of others too.

I believe that if we can inspire curiosity through always learning (and no, it doesn’t have to be about work related topics like your employer may think).  If you want to learn the ukulele, or to cook, or to play the piano then what are you waiting for? It’ll make your life richer, which by default will spill into your work life too so it’s good for your employer too!

My Final Attempt

Okay so you want to listen to me play Far From Any Road?  Here’s a snippet… my first public recital…

Photo Attribution Slider:

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/h4ck/308541164/

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