Songwriting On the Ukulele

 My journey into songwriting on the ukulele started like this: 

It was March of 2021, a year into the pandemic. My son was doing remote school that morning, and while he was in his morning classes online, I was doing my morning yoga practice. Just as I had finished changing out of my yoga clothes and into my jeans, I heard someone knocking at our back door. It was our neighbor from down the hill, and he said, "Can you come get your ducks out of my yard?"

I looked at him blankly. Ducks? "What ducks?"

"Those ducks."

He points to his clothes drying tree, and sure enough, there are about half a dozen huge Pekin ducks milling around eating up birdseed. 

"We don't have ducks," I said. 

Then it dawned on me. Our neighbors up the hill on the other side of our house DID have ducks. THOSE were the ducks. 

I laughed. "Shit, those ducks belong to the people up the hill!" 

We watched as they tried to make a break for the road, and then decided to settle down in our yard near the chicken coop. I grabbed Colden on his break between classes, and he helped me set up a spare chicken waterer for them along with some food and a handful of Goldfish crackers. (Ha!)

Meanwhile, I walked up the hill to the other neighbor's house and knocked on their door. No cars in the driveway, and no answer except for their giant hounddog who, without opposable thumbs, couldn't open the door for me. So I walked back down to my house, wrote out a note, and walked back up the hill and tacked it to their door.

Now we just had to make sure the ducks stayed put and didn't wander off. 

After lunch, I went back outside to check on the ducks and didn't see them hanging out under the pole barn where they were when I left them earlier that day. I walked all around the yard, and finally found them, all lined up behind the garage, some of them with their heads down for a quick afternoon snooze in the late winter sun, some of them awake and alert and looking around. 

The joke here was that for once, I had all my ducks in a row, and they weren't even my ducks.

So what does all this have to do with songwriting on the ukulele?

Well, there was definitely some magic in the air that day, and by the end of the day, I was enrolled in a ukulele meditation and songwriting immersion with a wonderful teacher, and I officially began my journey as a (somewhat hesitant) ukulele songwriter. 

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And I mean, why learn how to create your own songs on the ukulele? Why bother? For me, it was something new to try. I had always wanted to learn how to write my own songs. Because there's something about being able to set words to music in the creation of a song that is just...well, magic. 

My favorite parts of yoga teacher training were always the kirtans. And earlier this year, I was inspired to take a bunch of traditional Sanskrit mantras and write my own simple songs with them using something called "spontaenous melody" that I learned from one of my songwriting teachers and that I now use as a sort of musical meditation. (Not sure what the hell I'm going to do with all these mantras and songs that I wrote using them, but they're there, waiting for me.)

I'm still trying to define what songwriting is for me, but it inspires me to write (almost) every day, and it inspires me to pick up an instrument and just...play. 

Since that day when I (briefly) had my (some) ducks in a row, I've taken a handful of other amazing songwriting workshops with some wonderful teachers. Some of them have been multi-week workshops, some are just for a few days, some are free, and some of them are not. 

So without further commentary, here's a list of some of my favorite songwriting classes and resources:

• Danielle Ate the Sandwich I've taken Danielle's "Life As a Songwriter" class over multiple times. It's affordable and fun and meets entirely online, and I always take away new ideas and new techniques. Plus, Danielle is one of the most encouraging, thoughtful teachers out there. And her music is fantastic!
• Haji Basim  Haji was my very first formal songwriting teacher, and I was so grateful for his thoughtful approach to both ukulele and songwriting. He really understands how to get into the headspace of meditation while creating music and writing songs! Haji offers both online and in-person retreats and classes around the world. 
• At Home Songwriting with Chad Shank  Mostly on YouTube and MeetUp, At Home Songwriting is a fabulous online community (with a few in-person gatherings in the Minneapolis, MN area) that hosts regular free online workshops and song critique groups for songwriting. I've learned a ton about the craft of lyric writing from Chad, who is a graduate and now an instructor at Berklee College of Music. 
• Uke Camp with Caroline Scruggs I've been taking Uke Camp workshops with musician and artist Caroline Scruggs for a couple of years now, and she has some of the BEST songwriting prompts out there! These workshops are geared for total beginners, and Caroline's creativity and joy are downright infectious. 
• The SongFancy 5 in 5 Songwriting Challenge  Another totally fun, totally free songwriting challenge! This challenge is open to all songwriters, whether you're a complete beginner or a seasoned professional looking to bust out of a bit of writer's block. Songwriter Sarah Sheppard hosts these through Facebook and in her online community, and provides 5 fabulous songwriting prompts for 5 days in a row. 
• Berklee College of Music Songwriting Courses on Coursera  You can also find a few great online soungwriting courses for free through the Berklee College of Music on Coursera. These are some great in-depth songwriting courses for anyone interested in a more academic approach to songwriting.

So there ya have it. If you know of any other great online songwriting resources, drop the links in the comments for us! 

In a future blog, I'll drop some ideas for you to get started writing your own songs. But for now, have fun with these!