Hello! Welcome back!

This week I worked more on the neck of my ukulele. I attached the neack to the box with a nail and wood glue to provide more support. I also cut out a piece of wood from my board that matched the neck width and glued it to the neck and the box also to provide extra support. This also makes it so much easier to make the frets. Right now, I am working on getting the frets right because I found out they have to be spaced very specifically. This also goes to show how there is a lot more that goes into making an instrument than what we would normally think. There is an equation people use to figure out the width of each fret based on how long your neck is. If the frets aren't spaced properly, the octaves and the whole thing in general will not sound right. One of the main things that I want to accomplish on this project, is to make my ukulele sound like a proffesional one to the best of my ability. I know for a fact it is not going to sound as good as one made by a proffesional, but I do want it to be as close as I can get. That involves making sure I'm measuring everything right and providmg good support. What I plan on doing next is I want to attach my tuning hooks onto the tuning pad. Below is the vlog we were require to make this year about our inspiration and resources for this project.

Thank you for reading!

Hello! Welcome back!

This week as a part of my project I worked on the neck and tuning pad of my ukulele. For the neck I used a long piece of wood about an inch thick. For the tuning pad, I used the same piece of wood and another board of wood I used to make my acoustic box from a couple of posts ago. I used different types of wood because it creates different textures and the tuning pad needs to be a little wider than the neck. I also realized in the process that, in order to create pressure for the strings, the tuning pad needs to be a little bit angled, as opposed to parallel to the neck. This obviously causes a space between the neck and the tuning pad, so to fill it I used a small piece of wood to securely connect the two pieces. These two parts of the ukulele need to be strongly joined because if not, the second you touch the strings, the whole thing is going to collapse. This is actually a really important part of building a string instrument like this: provide proper support. To make the strings sound like they should, there needs to be a lot of pressure, and your structure needs to be strong enough to support that. Well, that's what I did this week. Thanks for taking the time to read it again. Please enjoy this (not) attractive picture of me cutting wood. Until next week, where I plan on working on the frets of the ukulele.

Hi everyone! Welcome back!

This week, as opposed to updating you on my project progress, our teacher told us to write something different on our blogs. We were told to explain how our Genius Hour projects might help us stand out to colleges and help shape our life plan. Well, personally, I think my project might stand out to colleges because building a ukulele is something everybody can do and will enjoy. A ukulele is one of the easiest instruments to learn and I think many people will benefit from making their own if they are in a situation where they cannot afford to buy a new professional one. Music makes anyone's daily life so much more vivid, much more vibrant. I believe everyone should get a chance to practice music and be able to create it. As for my life plan, I think this project so far has been teaching me a lot about myself and life in general. I learned that you really should plan ahead on what you have to do, I learned to be more responsible. But also, I learned that even if what happens does not match your plan, you have to find new creative ways to make it work. It's okay to change your plan right in the middle of your process. I learned that sometimes, when you think you absolutely need something to make sure your plan goes well, you might not be able to get that specific thing, and maybe you didn't need it after all. You can work around it, find new alternatives that will also make your project work the way the initial idea would. This project has taught me to be more creative, and to not be afraid to speak out loud about your passions.
 Thanks for reading!


(P.S. the ukulele on the picture is not mine.)