PHEW! It has been a long time since I've been on this site. I'm renewing and revamping and this site will be getting a bit of a makeover. It's going to be fun to start this blog up again.
It's not really new year's resolutions, per say. But, I want to try something different this year. I started over coming my fear of performing (that is, singing and playing the ukulele, simultaneously). I know that might sound a little strange to some people out there who know me and know that I'm not really that shy when it comes to music. I've been singing in front of people since I was little. And I love to sing. However, now that I'm in my 40's, I've come to realize a deep anxiety when it comes to my own lack of confidence in learning to play a new instrument. And that lack of confidence of playing and singing at the same time brings a lot of anxiety for me. Six years ago, I started learning to play the ukulele. I love it. I love the sound it makes and the happiness it brings me when I play. It was, actually, pretty easy to learn a few chords and strum along to many songs. However, playing the ukulele (as a beginner/intermediate) AND singing at the same time gave me more anxiety than I realized. Playing in groups was fine. I could hide in the back and strum and sing and have fun and feel care free, but when I ended up singing solo, I became almost panicked. I froze. My fingers wouldn't form the chords and my singing wasn't the same.
Here's a bit of back story on why I am updating social media. Two years ago, I became an Auntie for the very first time. My nephew loves music and so I started sending him videos of me playing the ukulele and singing (mostly kids songs). He lives far away, so it was a way for us to stay connected. My sister told me that he loves my videos and to make more of them. That gave me purpose and a reason to keep doing what I was doing. It also helped knowing only a select few would see the videos, so I wasn't as anxious recording them. Then I began to venture out a bit. I became a little more vulnerable, but brave and put a few of those videos out there on YouTube and Facebook land. I thought to myself, if the response was "Meh" or bad, I would just decide to keep my videos private and send them to my family and that would be that. But, the response has actually been positive. People have requested songs and have told me how much they enjoy them. OK. Now what do I do?
Well, I decided to begin uploading more videos. I want to start to be consistent to try and post every week. I will continue to do that, but I am beginning to feel a lot of new ideas brimming and stirring. Lately, my posts are a lot of ukulele videos, but I have more ideas to vlog about the ukulele and tutorials, music (in general), places we visit, or cooking ideas, or local events or just thoughts in general. Who knows what my social media outlets will look like in the future? So, I'm updating my YouTube channel, Twitter, Instagram and Blogger sites to reflect the direction in which I'm currently headed.
Feel free to visit any of my sites and subscribe, like, comment and enjoy. I really just want to share the joy and happiness that comes to me through music, food, pets, travel, faith and anything that might come my way.
This is a process and a journey and I say, "The more the merrier"!
Peace and Blessings to you for the journey.
Kim and a ukulele
