For the third time, I completed 100 Days of Ukulele marathon. Unlike the previous years, this time I recorded only the music I wrote. This means writing enough music to keep me busy for a hundred consecutive days. In truth, I wrote more than 100 days of music, for I started by arranging music in the “Daily Music Project” and then evolved to composing my own stuff.
The 100 Days of Ukulele 2025 Project gave me an opportunity to share my compositions with others through video recordings as well as identify what else needs to be done to get my work ready to be published.
To record each piece, I indicated fingering and dynamics on the score. Every piece has a corresponding blog post with sample scores. I also noticed room for improvement and changed the score.
Besides recording my new work, I also posted video tutorials and play-alongs I made for the six-week beginning ukulele course I taught for the Boston Public Library.
Given the limited amount of time, I’d choose composing over revising a composition. I’d choose recording a solo rather than multi-track with accompaniment, as I had done in previous years.
Takeaways & Lessons Learned
What I learned from these 100 conscutive days is the importants of revisiting and revising my compositions. It’s one thing to compose for myself. It’s another to prepare the composition for someone else to play.
By indicating the optimal fingers for the left hand and right hand, I provide a short cut to having to figure it out through experimentation.
I did not have time to record all compositions, for some required studying. The two-page “Up the Neck and Back” is one of those.
Background
The first time I participated in the 100 Days Ukulele project, I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. I learned quickly that batch processing was more effective and efficient than practising, recording, editing, and uploading every day. In other words, I’d choose and practice the pieces first. Then I’d spend several hours video recording. Participating in the 2022 project improved my ukulele playing and video editing skills greatly.
Two years later, I participated and finished with less angst. I chose a thematic category for each day of the week to help me with repertoire section. 2024 was smooth sailing. Once again, I noticed an improvement in both ukulele playing and video editing.
Video recordings
Unlike previous years, I posted my videos directly into Facebook rather than to YouTube. Here are some I posted to my YouTube Channel.
