As mentioned in a previous learning project post, I am unable to read strumming chord sheet music. While the sheets may look simple, I am unsure of how long to play the chord, as well as unsure of how long to count for. So far, I have been learning all of my chords and snippets of songs through videos, so I just follow along with the creator of the video and memorize the chords and snippets. For example, to learn the beginning of Stand By Me by Ben E. King, I watched a video, and then continued to practice until I had a good memory of it. After not playing it for a while, I needed a quick refresher. To do this, I watched an old video of me playing it. I would like to be able to read the music and know how to play a song without needing to use a video or other resource aside from the sheet music. 

The part I find very tricky is thinking about and preparing for the upcoming chord while playing the current chord. 

To help me practice the timing and chord switches, I looked up some very simple songs that only involve two chords. These songs were Row, Row, Row Your Boat and the Itsy Bitsy Spider. 

From my searching, it appears that one simply just plays a chord until the word with the next chord over top of it comes up, then switch! For instance, in the first line of Itsy Bitsy Spider, you start playing F on the word “itsy” and switch to playing C7 on the word “up.” Learning this task was much easier than I thought it would be! I understand the concept, but I struggle to actually do it. The website could have been more informative. I had to draw my own conclusions rather than be exclusively told. 

Here is the website: LiveUkulele

Here are videos of me playing those two songs!

Row, Row, Row Your Boat

Itsy Bitsy Spider