Participate in the April 2022 Member Challenge – WIN $6,000 Kanile’a Ukulele

[Andrew]

Here’s everyone on page 9.

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seoulkim – Bravo, excellent performance! You had a beautiful sustain throughout most of this performance, so I would focus on the chord shapes that were harder, produced buzz, or had less sustain. And one tip for the Dm7 in bar 2, keep your middle finger barred at the first joint (covering strings 1 and 2). That’ll increase sustain 🙂

jnjmalos – Well done! I’d recommend playing along with Stephen and I in the tab player. That’ll help smooth out any timing issues. Try 4 or 8 bars sections at a time.

And don’t be afraid to give the picado technique a shot 🙂

lisadmh – Performance was perfect, only thing I’m hearing is that you’re cutting that one bar (that repeats twice) of the C chord short. So just watch out for that. Other than that, it had a great feel! Very impressive to hear so much progress in your playing 🙂

riley_ukulele – A lot of the measures are played with beautiful feel. It just sounds like you need a little bit more practice and I did see your note about how busy this month was. Keep practicing when time permits and I have no doubt you’ll have it flowing from start to end beautifully 🙂

misterbones – That intro was epic! Love it and very creative. So for a lot of this song you’re locked into the groove. For ex: 39 to 49 sec is super tight. But there’s other times where you’re a little loose.

What I would suggest is to play along with the tab player with Evan. Take a four bar section but slow it down to at least 70%. And record yourself. Listen back and analyze if you matched him perfectly or not. If you’re locked in with him, record yourself playing at the same speed without him and analyze.

This has always been the best way for me to work on timing and groove.

dal08260 – Excellent performance!

pysanky – Beautifully played, well done!

ivo_zag – Well done! The one area I’d work on is increasing the sustain. I’m hearing a bit of choppy/staccato sound in your playing. Try playing at a slower tempo and keeping your fingers held down for the entire note(s) duration.

You can also check out this lesson that Matt taught for more tips for increasing sustain.

andrewvh – Nice job, Andrew! Give the picado technique a shot. Great song for working on this technique 🙂

tessiert – Excellent performance! Keep doing what you’re doing with your practicing, because it’s working! Only thing I’d say is to gradually start to push yourself to go faster. Try 5 or 10 bpm faster from here.

[Steven]

Here’s everyone on page 10:

ukealori – well done for achieving your goal of memorizing the piece. We would all love to play everything we learn perfectly, but with only a month to learn and record these pieces that can be really difficult to do. I think it’s a great idea to set yourself mini-goals and take encouragement from that. I think most of us suffer from performance anxiety. You should try recording yourself regularly during practice when you’re more relaxed. This will help you get more used to playing in front of the camera so when it’s monthly submission time its less of a big deal. Keep going!

ukukelley1 – Excellent job! I though your performance was great. I loved those dynamics you added into the melody C repeats, they sounded great ☺ I like how you switched between finger picking and thumb only techniques too. As you mentioned there were a couple of little hesitations here and there but I bet you played it perfectly before you turned on that evil camera! 😉

turkgoose – Amazing stuff! That sounded absolutely incredible. Well done for recording yourself along with the backing track too. Your sense of rhythm and timing is excellent. That performance was tight! Keep up the great work ☺

artcrocker – Great job. I think your performance sounded really good. With this piece that strict sense of rhythm is quite important so you could try playing along with a metronome to help with this (rather than all those kitchen noises!). Also, a tip for that melody B section is to play the 7th fret note with your fourth finger, rather than your third. This will help you to play that melody a little more smoothly. Keep up the great work though.

karenj – Excellent job! That sounded really good. Well done for pushing yourself to play along with the backing track too. I agree, it can be really distracting when you’re not used to it but I think you did a great job of playing along with it. Keep up the great work ☺

akukes73 – So sorry hear you’ve had such a bad month with Covid. I hope everyone is ok! I think your performance was excellent considering how little time you have had to learn this piece. Well done for getting your submission in on time. Hopefully next month’s challenge will be less eventful!

richard_siegert – Don’t be too hard on yourself! This piece looks so much easier than it is. The constantly changing right hand picking patterns makes it crazy hard to play this piece through smoothly. If it makes you feel better I didn’t think I was ever going to be able to play it through but I just practiced and practiced and practiced. Then I did a bit more practice and eventually it all came together. One of the hardest pieces I think I’ve ever played though. I congratulate you on persevering with it!

concan – What a great performance, especially the melody A section. Well done for learning the picado picking style too. That really helped make the melody flow so smoothly. Lovely technique! Keep up the great work!

themccoys – Don’t worry about playing at slower speeds. It is definitely better to play well at a tempo you are comfortable with than force yourself to play faster and make mistakes. However, it sounded like you were ahead of the backing track on a few occasions though so you probably could have played it a bit faster than you think. It sounded great overall though. Keep it up!

zongozongo – I think you did an incredible job to memorise this whole piece and play it so well in just one month! It is a deceptively hard piece to learn and play. I don’t even want to tell you how many hours I had to put in and how many takes it took me to get my performance video for this piece!! I take my hat off to you for challenging yourself and persevering with such a difficult piece! You did a great job!

uku241 – Great job! I can tell you had fun with this one! Great tempo and you played really well with the backing track. I didn’t really hear a lot of extraneous sounds to be honest. I think we all over-analyse our performances and often hear things that others don’t pick up on. The melody A section was perfect. You looked more much comfortable playing that section and your left/right hand co-ordination was spot on. You lost that a little bit in the melody B section which is where those (very minor) extraneous sounds came from so I think it really is just practice. Also I think playing ‘plugged in’ can often accentuate those sounds.

akichman – Smashed it! What a fantastic and fun performance. I absolutely love how you played this piece. You nailed that bar 12 slow down too. Keep up the great work!

laurajax – It’s great to push ourselves. That’s how we improve after all and it’s so much more enjoyable learning the pieces we love! It looks like you’re making good progress with this one. It just needs more practice. You do look a little uncomfortable switching between finger picking and thumb only picking so maybe try and just stick with standard finger picking throughout. Keep going with this one though.

sarahd – OMG! That view! How do you ever leave that window?! I would have loved to have seen what you classed as you best take because I think you did an incredible job with that performance. Great rhythm, great tempo and lovely clean picking. Keep up the great work!

[Steven]

Here’s everyone on page 11:

janaq1 – Absolutely fantastic performance! I think this piece is really hard, way harder that it looks. As you say, a month is sometimes just too short, especially for such challenging pieces like this. Yes, there were a couple of little hiccups along the way but I can see that with a little more practice (and no camera putting you off) you will be playing this piece fluently and beautifully in no time at all. Keep up the great work!

cararozy – Don’t be so hard on yourself. Most of us aren’t great ukulele players! I thought that was a really lovely performance. Great tempo, great rhythm and you nailed that bar 12 ritardando! Keep it up 🙂

tules14 – Fantastic performance! Great tempo and really nice technique. I absolutely LOVE how much joy you took in playing that ritardando on bar 12. A happy tune made even happier by your lovely performance. Keep up the great work!

jayton – Great job on this one. Anyone who didn’t attempt this piece has no idea how hard it is. Probably one of the most challenging pieces I have ever played so well done for challenging yourself and persevering with it. This is one of those pieces that just needs hours and hours of practice. You’re definitely getting there. You have my respect!

robinboyd – See my feedback for Jay above. Again, respect for sticking with it and for putting yourself out there with a performance you weren’t happy with. I’ve seen many of your previous videos so I know you have the skills to play this piece. It just needs soooo much practice. After I had agreed to do this one for Rock Class I thought I was going to have to message Andrew and tell him I couldn’t do it but I persevered and eventually it came together – it will for you too. Your exasperated look and sigh at the end of the video literally made me laugh out loud. I feel your pain brother! Stick with it!

smudge – Don’t worry about getting up to speed if you’re not comfortable. Better to play well slowly than push yourself too much and make lots of mistakes. I think this is coming along really well. Really nice performance. Just a little more practice and you’ll have this one perfected ☺

omaon4 – This is coming along nicely. It’s quite a long piece with a few different sections so you have done well to get all the way though it! I’d recommend working on your right hand picking technique. This link will take you to a course on fingerpicking techniques. Check out units 3 and 4 from module 1 and see which you prefer then try applying your preferred method to this piece.

timolnz – I’m so glad you decided to pick up your uke again because this was such a lovely performance to listen to. I loved your unique take on this by playing it with a swing feel. It gave it such a jolly sound – super fun. I think your ritardando on those bat 12 sections are some of the best I’ve heard. Absolutely perfect! Keep up the great work 🙂

kirpuff – Such a smooth and accomplished performance. I absolutely loved this. Great rhythm, great, tempo, great technique, great everything! I listened to it twice I enjoyed it so much! Keep up the fantastic work 🙂

canucke – Well done for challenging yourself and entering the monthly challenge. It’s a great way to push yourself and improve. I’d recommend slowing it right down and concentrate on getting the rhythm correct, either by playing along with the tab player or by playing to a metronome. Playing slower will also allow you to concentrate on allowing the notes to sustain a little longer. It sounds like your taking your fingers off the frets very quickly to try and get them in position for the next note. This is what is causing that staccato sound where the notes don’t ring for very long. Slowing things down will help with this. Keep at it!

[lhamilton]

Thanks, Stephen! The problem with the memorization wasn’t so much the chords as the different order of strings played by the right hand. I’ll keep playing this piece til I get it more memorized. Strangely, I found that, when I played more slowly I seemed to stumble more. I suspect as I get more comfortable with the piece, I’ll be able to work at different speeds more easily.

Linda

[Andrew]

Here’s everyone on page 12.

—-

gonzo-fett – Great performance and feel overall. Only thing I’d say is to double check the music as some of the notes were incorrect.

alysun1 – Performance was great! Only thing I’d say is to work on keeping it a little more steady (timing wise).

nelsonlin2021 – So listening to the opening phrase (first 30 seconds) of each performance, I can already hear that you have cleaned up some of the unwanted string noise and increased the clarity of picked notes in the chords. So off the bat, I can already tell that you know what to do and what to work on. As I listen to the rest, there’s only a few chords that have tricky transitions or just full barre chords (that are hard for everybody) that trip you up a little bit.

So I’d say target your practice in these areas and keep doing what you’re doing. Because you’re practicing has already produced a great result 🙂

maryjanew – Excellent start, MJ! I saw your note about being short on time this month, but I think with a little bit more practice you’ll have it down.

Also, give the picado technique a shot. Great song for working on this technique 🙂

puppylovesuke – Excellent performance with great feel!

qiuyan – Fantastic performance overall! There’s only a few times where you’re ahead of the beat. So my suggestion is to practice with the tab player with Stephen and I. And record yourself. Listen back to make sure you’re locked in with me.

jeg143 – Performance sounded great! Keep working on that B Melody 🙂

Unfortunately, you submitted past our deadline so I won’t be able to give you an entry for this month. I tried to give everyone a friendly reminder on the 30th. But the good news is there are five more chances to enter for the prize.

[Andrew]

Wow! 100 members joined us for this month’s challenge! Steven, Stephen, and I were BLOWN AWAY by how amazing everyone did! Big round of applause to everyone who participated this month. 🙂

Our May Challenge is LIVE and the theme is Beatles Songs. I hope each of you join us again.

Below, I will post a list of members who participated in the April challenge for your first chance to win the Kanile’a Ukulele. Please let me know if there are any discrepancies.

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samash07
samash07
deadbuggy
deadbuggy
laurakarr12
laurakarr12
johanna2509
johanna2509
evapaju
evapaju
slr4chums
slr4chums
rebeca
rebeca
yukalele
yukalele
jsanjuan
jsanjuan
katazumiri
katazumiri
terryfallon3
terryfallon3
barbecueblack
barbecueblack
ccwuke
ccwuke
leslieb
leslieb
dividedsky
dividedsky
jlbross
jlbross
simonalexander
simonalexander
june2020
june2020
ukandrea
ukandrea
nthibode
nthibode
moonshine
moonshine
shmu88
shmu88
peiching
tim0721
tim0721
casadot349
casadot349
ajk101
ajk101
ldarrow
ldarrow
gstriph
gstriph
biancak
biancak
kdeacon7
kdeacon7
rafaela
rafaela
brettboy
brettboy
lynnzo
lynnzo
joe150
joe150
kidelozzi
kidelozzi
lyndallk
lyndallk
marygrace
jbmills07
jbmills07
bibilele
lbilkie
lbilkie
lynettejd
lynettejd
kpurdy
kpurdy
ukulelee
ukulelee
debb1985
debb1985
kmoore925x
kmoore925x
sarrafina
sarrafina
wongbrown
wongbrown
mark1256
mark1256
leb397
leb397
sir_anzalot
sir_anzalot
joannetala
joannetala
dianna
dianna
gi_gi_
gi_gi_
lhamilton
lhamilton
felixhchan
felixhchan
cimarronsailor
cimarronsailor
pysanky
pysanky
mkstewart67
mkstewart67
followmemae
antotonin
antotonin
seoulkim
seoulkim
jnjmalos
jnjmalos
lisadmh
lisadmh
riley_ukulele
riley_ukulele
misterbones
misterbones
dal08260
dal08260
ivo_zag
ivo_zag
andrewvh
tessiert
tessiert
ukealori
ukealori
ukukelley1
ukukelley1
turkgoose
turkgoose
artcrocker
artcrocker
karenj
karenj
akukes73
akukes73
richard_siegert
richard_siegert
concan
concan
themccoys
themccoys
zongozongo
zongozongo
uku241
uku241
akichman
akichman
laurajax
laurajax
sarahd
sarahd
janaq1
janaq1
cararozy
tules14
jayton
jayton
robinboyd
robinboyd
smudge
smudge
omaon4
omaon4
timolnz
timolnz
kirpuff
kirpuff
canucke
canucke
gonzo-fett
gonzo-fett
alysun1
nelsonlin2021
nelsonlin2021
maryjanew
maryjanew
puppylovesuke
puppylovesuke
qiuyan
qiuyan

[wongbrown]

Hi Stephen,

Thank you very much for the feedback. Yes indeed I was too impatient. I need to start at a slower tempo and work it up. It’s such a great advice to start with the trickier bit first and surely I have taken it on board. Much appreciated again.

Cheers
Sheila

[dianna]

Thank-you for the feedback, Stephen. I hate to admit this, I have been a member for awhile, but have not taken advantage of all the tools available. This challenge not only has made me aware of them, but gives me wonderful opportunities to use them. I think I have also been witness to the growth of this site. There is so much available here now! What a wonderful site this is for ukulele enthusiasts. I am looking forward to diving in! ( I will start with that rhythm course that you recommended). Ty!

[debb1985]

@Stephen Thanks for the great feedback. I just love the sound of the baritone and try to play it any time I can. I will definitely try that new chord position and see if it works out better for me 😀.

[richard_siegert]

@Steven thanks for your kind words. This piece actually just needs a lot of practice, that’s right.

[maryjanew]

@andrew -thanks for the kind words. I definitely just started it and didn’t have a full grasp of the B section. I was beginning to practice the picado picking but under pressure of the recording, it must gone out the window!!!😜

[lbilkie]

Thank you @Stephen for the feedback. I will work on those strums!

[sir_anzalot]

Thank you @Stephen your praise means a lot! =)
I think my biggest takeaway from learning this is to never hastily underestimate a piece again even though it might sound very approachable – especially if I have other time constraints to factor in at the time

[nelsonlin2021]

Andrew – Thank you for taking the time to provide me with valuable feedback and letting me know I’m heading in the right direction on practicing and improvement. I appreciate it 🙂

[jbmills07]

@Andrew thank you for the feedback 🙂

[Author]

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