Live. Learn. Lead.

If you’re around my age (49) you may have some recollection of a ukulele musician named Tiny Tim. Or more currently(ish) a version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow by Israel Kamakawiwoʻole. There is nothing sexy about the ukulele. There is almost nothing (absolutely nothing) rock and roll, about the ukulele. I doubt very much that my rock n roll guitarist Mount Rushmore of Jeff Beck, David Gilmour, Eric Clapton, and Eddie Van Halen (Lots of arguments could be made for many others including Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, and Prince, among others I’m sure.) ever sat down and thought, I want to start shredding on the ukulele. 

All that is to say, I have always dreamt of being a rock star and playing the guitar. I love music and I have enjoyed playing music throughout my life. I played a little bit of piano as a child and I was an average to above average trumpet player through high school. But since then, I have toyed with the harmonica but really wanted to play guitar. I bought my son a guitar because he wanted one for his birthday and I would watch his lessons and try to do some of the things he was learning. I watched videos on guitar playing. I read about how to play guitar. I became pretty good at playing Guitar Hero on the Wii.

And none of it got me closer to playing the guitar. The notations of chords highlighted the things I didn’t learn or remember from my piano playing days around chord structures. The videos of average, above average, and excellent guitar players demonstrating fingerings and strumming patterns, or notes and arpeggios left me dumbfounded. But most painful were the people I knew who just “picked up” guitar playing. It hurt my ego. I feel like I’m a pretty smart and capable person. However, in this case I felt neither smart nor capable. 

Until the other day.

As part of an annual purge at the Anderson house whereby we go through rooms and closets and start sorting things into keep, throw, and sell piles I came across my daughter’s ukulele. I decided that the 4 string ukulele might be easier to connect with. I assumed that since elementary school students learn how to play the ukulele that I should be able to also. And I was hoping I could make some direct connections between what I knew about music with playing a new and novel instrument.

So, I grabbed the ukulele and Googled beginner ukulele songs and beginner ukulele chords. I positioned my fingers on the fret board and strummed. It made a sound that was vaguely musical in nature. I strummed it a few more times and then moved on to another chord. Looked to see that my fingers were in the right places and another generally musical tone emerged from the small, wooden toy. To my wife’s dismay, I sat on the couch and strummed out 4 different chords and asked her to name that tune. Unsurprisingly, she couldn’t. It had nothing to do with her musical knowledge and more to do with my rudimentary playing ability. But I kept with it and after an hour or so could string together 4 different chords with a very basic strumming pattern. I started to understand, in way that I can only begin to articulate, the difference between playing a rhythm instrument versus a single note instrument. While I can play a singular note on a guitar and play the identical note on the trumpet, the power of the guitar is the ability to blend individual notes and chords. I was good a reading and creating individual notes based on a sheet of music. I struggle with understanding how to connect chords and the different ways that strumming patterns change the sound.

But I jumped in. After lots of thinking about it. I decided that I wanted to start somewhere. I wanted to find a small degree of success. And fundamentally, the “Learn” in Live. Learn. Lead. is really about being a risk-taker and being curious. I was paralyzed by what ifs and struggles to find an accessible point of entry into the learning. I would say for years, I was paralyzed. Ideally, it shouldn’t take that long. But sometimes it does. I have jumped into some more complex videos and ukulele ideas – in fact I Googled, “rock n roll ukulele” and there are some videos there. I might argue that playing a rock song on a ukulele doesn’t necessarily make it rock n roll, but I can hold the notion that maybe I was wrong about the ukulele. I’m still learning. There is a vast expanse in front of me as I consider how to build my knowledge and skill. My hope is to one day strum along with my friend Tom as he shreds on his guitar and I can try and keep up on my 4 string ukulele.

Learning… It’s about having curiosity and wonder and then finding a point of entry. Good teachers spark our curiosity and wonder. Excellent teachers help us accept our fear of failure while guiding us toward a point of entry to the learning. Paralysis comes when we’re so afraid or unsure of ourselves that we cannot hold our curiosity and fear simultaneously.

Share with me in the comments a story about the time that you just jumped in! Live. Learn. Lead.