Before learning to play any chords, I made an effort to know which string was which. In piano I was taught an acronym for treble clef lines, Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge; and treble clef spaces, FACE. This really helped when I first started playing piano so I decided to make one up for the ukulele strings, that being Good Children Eat Apples.

“Love yourself”by Justin Bieber:

There are different chord variations for this song, but I chose one meant for beginners that only includes four chords being C, G, Am, and F. I picked up C and Am quite easily, as they only require one finger. F was also quite easy once I started playing Am with my ring finger and added my index finger onto the first fret, third string. The one chord I continually struggle with is G. G takes me longer to get and the transition from C to G is still quite hard for me. The strumming pattern for this song is DU* DU* DU*. Between each Down Up, you are supposed to tap the strings with your palm. I found this tricky at first because I mainly concentrating on my chord transitions and ended up forgetting all about the pauses within the song. After much practice I got better, but the fingerpicking required in the verses was an element of the song I found too challenging.

“Hey soul sister” by Train:

This is my replacement song! I was nervous about changing songs with only a week to go, but “Love yourself” went beyond my zone of proximal development. The same four chords are used, the only difference is the strumming pattern. For the verses its D DU DU DU and the chorus is DDU UDU.