2017 Member Feedback – Your Suggestions for Next Year's Lessons

I never said this on the form but I just wanted to say thank you.

I got my uke last Christmas as I wanted to try it out. I tired a couple of basic strumming lessons to quickly learn songs but it just didn’t do it for me so I left it. Until I found your site around June time.

Since then, I’ve completed every monthly challenge (including Waimanalo Blues which I thought would be impossible). My confidence in attempting new material has come on leaps and bounds and I play nearly every day.

Now upgrading to a “proper” uke I’m excited to continue this into 2018. You have allowed me to re-ignite my love for music, learning and playing which is something I’d lost along the way somewhere.

For 2018 I want to finally move into that intermediate bracket, and keep going through the courses and revisiting songs I’ve done before to keep improving. In fact one of my favourite challenges was the accountability challenge as it gave a real purpose for developing/improving a particular skill and I’d like to see more of those in 2018.

So yeah, just thank you! 😊

Hi Andrew. Thanks for the survey and such a thorough video. We really don’t see just how much work goes into the site. Thank you for all you do for us. Really this is the best uke lesson site there is. Kudos.

A few people mentioned the idea of having an easier version of a hard song. I’m thinking it would be fun to try, of course counting it for two weeks of lessons. If it’s in the same key, one could maybe learn the easier version, then poke away at adding some frills fromthe harder version. I’d support a two week trial of it.

And remember to take time for you too. Self care first. Sounds like you work hard. We don’t want you burning out. ☺ Happy holidays to you.

Omg, I’ve Been Wanting To Learn Moonlight Sonata Since The Very Beginning Of My Ukulele Journey!

I’m a bit late to the party, but since I just joined I figure I’ll toss in my two cents:

Question 1) Rank from 1 (most important) to 3 (least important), what do you value most about Rock Class 101?
Detailed instruction – not just “here’s the notes to play”, but careful breakdown of the fingering, timing, technical aspects, etc. I also appreciate that you have lessons both on specific techniques and complete songs.

Question 2) Which level would you like to see more lessons on in 2018?

It’s all good. Right now for me, level one lessons are simple enough that I can learn them in a day, but are still helpful for learning. Level two lessons are going to be a challenge. I’m hoping that by the end of the year I’ll have progressed enough so that level twos are easy and I’m looking to the higher levels for a challenge.

Question 3) Do you want to see more community interactive events? Such as our 25 Question Lightning Round or the Q&A session with Taimane.

Community stuff sounds cool, but I’ll wait until I’ve been here longer to voice an opinion.

Question 4) Do you own a Low G ukulele?

Nope.

Question 5) Do you own a Baritone ukulele?

Yep, but currently with re-entrant tuning (high-D) to take advantage of the greater tab resources available for standard uke.

Question 6) Write any comments on what you would like to see in 2018 and/or how we could improve Rock Class 101.

A couple of thoughts:

I’d love to see song arrangements that include both vocal accompaniment (rhythm + any signature licks & fills) and a chord-melody instrumental solo. This is the way I would like to play during performance. I can come up with basic accompaniment arrangements (though not always with the cool fills) and I’m starting to learn the basics of how to build a chord-melody instrumental solo, but what I don’t have down yet is how to fit the two together so that the groove of the accompaniment fits stylistically with the solo.

Another fun idea would be to take some of your technique and theory lessons and show how they could be used to create different arrangements of the same song. For example, you could pick a simple folk song which could sound good with different interpretations and then have different lessons where you show how to create a blues version, a reggae version, a clawhammer version, a percussive version, a version using harmonics, etc. This might help make the technique lessons into compositional tools rather than just physical tools.