After getting home from the music store last week I took the ukulele out of it's box. I was excited to start playing and hearing the fun sounds of the ukulele. I ran my finger across the strings and was instantly disappointed. My ukulele sounded horrible! It hadn't crossed my mind to check to see if it was in tune before I left the store. So there my ukulele sat in its box underneath my bed for the next few days. It wasn't until Tuesday when campus was closed and I was home with all of my roommates that my roommate Jessica offered to help tune my ukulele. She has this really neat tuning device that clips to the end of the ukulele. As you play a string it tells you how to adjust the strings to get the ukulele in tune! It was pretty exciting when I finally got all four strings to the green area and the ukulele finally sounded like a ukulele. My excitement went away pretty fast as my roommate proceeded to tell me that when you play the ukulele there are certain strumming patterns and proceeded to say "down-down-up-up-down-up" as she strummed her ukulele. Puzzled is a pretty good description to how I was feeling as I attempted to get my right hand to go down-down-up-up-down-up. After a while of repeating the strumming pattern I decided that it was time to try and learn a song. So I did the only logical thing and started watching videos on YouTube. I found a video that had the chords displayed on the screen as the guy was demonstrating how to play the song. Being that I didn't know any of the chords, I paused the video every few seconds and drew each chord in sequence out on a piece of paper. Once this task was finished I then attempted to play the song. I would pause between each chord and awkwardly place my fingers on the strings and then say "down-down-up-up-down-up." Over and over and over again. Many times I thought to myself, I'm never going to sound like Jessica when she plays, but I kept trying. Tuesday evening I was feeling more comfortable with the ukulele and came out and played the "song" for my roommates and asked if they could guess what song it was. It wasn't until I was almost done with the song that they guessed correctly. I was actually surprised, because if I didn't know what song I was trying to play there is no way that I would have been able to guess. Needless to say there is still a lot of improvement to take place as I continue to learn the ukulele.
Learning to play the ukulele is my new occupation for the semester. Occupation, a word that is so comprehensive that it has many, many different definitions. . . . How does learning to play the ukulele fit in as an occupation?
Clark et al. (1991) described occupation as "the ordinary and familiar things people do everyday." Currently, there is nothing that feels ordinary or familiar about playing the ukulele.
Yerxa (1994) says that occupation is "engagement in self-initiated, self-directed, adaptive, purposeful, culturally relevant, organized activity." Well, practicing the ukulele has been self-initiated and self-directed with the help of people on YouTube. Adaptability - I am a beginner and am adapting practice to better meet my needs. Purposeful - I am learning something new and it happens to be a homework assignment.
Golledge (1998) offered a simplified definition of occupation, "the daily living tasks that are part of an individual's lifestyle." Playing the ukulele has only recently become a daily task but I wouldn't go as far to say that playing the ukulele has become part of my lifestyle.
Why would playing the ukulele fit well with one definition of occupation, yet not fit in at all to another definition of occupation? Isn't an occupation an occupation? Anyways, I guess that is part of the reason we still struggle to explain what Occupational Therapists do, and why Hasselkus explains that the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework provides many definitions of occupation.
If I were to apply Willcock's model of occupation "doing + being, becoming, belonging = survival and health" to playing the ukulele, the majority of what I am focused on is the doing aspect of the occupation. As far as the being, becoming, and belonging aspects of this model, over this week I have been frustrated and excited and everything in between, but there is less frustration the more I practice the song I learned this week. The feelings of frustration will hopefully continue to diminish as I find more enjoyment out of playing the ukulele.
It sounds like the ukulele is a lot more complicated than I ever imagined it! But hey if they were able to guess the song I think you have it figured out! =) I really like that you related the occupation of the ukulele to each of the different definition given in the book. Have you considered how playing the ukulele might help you discover your authentic self. In the book it says "Occupation is a principal agent in the selfing process that helps forge identity." Do you think playing the ukulele will be one of those occupations that help you forge your identity?
ReplyDeleteGood questions! I have not given any thought about how playing the ukulele might aid in discovering my authentic self until you asked the question. Honestly, I don't expect the ukulele to bring out my authentic self or become part of my identity. The reason I say this is that I grew up playing the piano and I do enjoy playing music, but music has never been something that I have been passionate about. So I am making the assumption that playing the ukulele will be similar to the piano where I hopefully will enjoy playing the ukulele every once in a while, but most likely it won't be a major part of my identity.
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