Home Page › Forums › Monthly Member Challenges › Participate in the June 2025 Member Challenge โ WIN $2,250 Kanileโa Ukulele › Reply To: Participate in the June 2025 Member Challenge โ WIN $2,250 Kanileโa Ukulele

I once again blew up the forum with my posts, but oh well – I’m going through ukulele / ukulele community withdrawals after the last week of insanity. I did so much cooking and party-prepping, I don’t even know how I got it done… ๐
@grannieannie, I know what you mean! There are definitely just some songs where they are not as “natural” to play for whatever reason – maybe just because you play in a different kind of style or approach. I definitely have experienced that. Also, that’s really lovely that you have so much natural beauty around you that can’t be tampered with! ๐
@leslieb, that sounds very lovely! @Andrew left you some great advice just for keeping the pace, but your playing sounded very beautiful! ๐
@gi_gi_ absolutely gorgeous, friend!! ๐ I love the feel behind your playing so much and how you really “dug in” to the groove (as Andrew likes to say) and really drew so much feeling out of that one! I like that you really let the notes breathe and sound out in all their beauty and pizazz (?). Haha! Yes, it gets to a point where you start thinking “oh, gosh, I can’t mess up now” near the end of the song, or else I’ll start over. ๐๐ But you played absolutely perfectly! Yay!! Also that sigh at the end – that moment where you realize you were holding your breath through the whole song! ๐ I also have screencapped Andrew’s comments before because countless times they have made my day and lifted my spirits when I was feeling bad about my playing – and indeed to look back on when you’re struggling. Ha, yes!
@johanna2509, oh, okay, that makes perfect sense with the outdoor recording that you’d “dub over” it later! I also would like to get one of those pick up things, but it seems all of my technology is too outdated. Some day, lol. Thank you so much about Free Fallin’, that was such a huge deal for me to get over that fear of strumming. So much of the time, the only thing holding us back is our own self-imposed limitations (fear, self-doubt, etc.) – that was the case there, I think. Haha!! See, this whole time, all I needed to do was glue googly eyes to myself and I was able to break freeeeee! ๐
@kanique, such lovely playing! Really a flawless performance with such beautiful feeling / style! ๐ Wait, what? That one is by George Gershwin? How did I not know that…?! ๐
@anyon1, I think I missed your entry earlier, but wow, that was a lovely take on Free Fallin’! Absolutely perfect. Very clear and apparently you have a much better sense of rhythm because you seemed to sense the beat enough to not have to do the non-stop up’s and down’s with strumming. For me, that’s the only way I can strum remotely on time. ๐ Haha!! I should really trademark that somehow. You know, I have mailed googly eyes to more than one person in the uke community at this point, but I have other “targets” in mind for that. As always, TMI, but thank you so much, I was so thrilled and amused that actually worked!! ๐
@lhamilton, beautiful take on that one! I also had that exact same struggle with the high section – you do have to hit those strums somewhat exactly because otherwise you miss the melody notes. But it sounded very lovely! ๐
@bibilele, so beautiful! A really perfect performance! I also love the settings you always choose for your videos – very interesting! ๐
The End. Looking forward to more tunes in The Final Countdown of this challenge!! ๐
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This reply was modified 2 weeks, 1 day ago by
The_Bumble_Bard.