Participate in the April 2025 Member Challenge – WIN $2,250 Kanile’a Ukulele

[anyon1]

Hi All!

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I chose to work on Rhythm Blues this month. I seem to have a knack for picking pieces that are too fast for me to play at full speed. This was a challenge!

@brettboy I really enjoyed your video. Great job!

–Adriana

[lhamilton]

Hi,

This month I worked on Walking Bass EP012. I couldn’t quite figure out how to hear the electric uke and record onto the mac so I just recorded by placing my little speaker near the recording iPad.

Linda
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[otzepeng]

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Heyho Rockclass,

i also let the april smile 😊
A sunny tune, that was definitly joyful to play, thx Andrew and also Evan for the lesson.
I really enjoyed your entries this month so far – you’re all did so great!

[leihali]

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Hi,
I chose to work on EP 014, 5 Strum Patterns – 5 levels. Chunking/chucking was pretty challenging to make it work every single time, but it felt good when good, crisp sound came out. 🙂 Also, rasqueado was a really cool technique.

[terryfallon3]

Hi all.

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And proud of it.

THE concept lesson I worked on this month was 2 Melodic Blues solos
Enjoyed learning them and practicing the techniques.

[dianna]

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I worked on EP015 Blues: Rhythm & Licks. Did not get it up to speed….my fingers were tripping over each other, especially during the arpeggio…..

Great job Uke gang, always impressed by the hard work,commitment and talent in this forum…

@The_Bumble_Bard little Mowgli is beautiful, thanks for sharing pics of the newest member of our community!

[kanique]

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This month I’ve chosed April Smiles. It’s not easy to record two lines of audio and have them come out evenly when combined. 😁 But I hope it didn’t turn out badly. 😊

[karenj]

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This month has been a challenge indeed. I have beed plugging away with the Music Theory Course and worked a long time on the EPOO2 concept lesson. But I realized it wouldn’t be ready enough for me to be happy enough to submit, so I switched to April Smiles. What a lovely song! This was also my first lesson with Evan and I am looking forward to many more. I learned all parts, although certainly the chord melody section still needs some work. I struggled mightily with my lack of video editing skills, however, and ultimately gave up trying to sync my recorded rhythm video with my recorded lead. So I switched to the backing track. As my third plan of having something to submit, here it is flaws and all.

[grannieannie]

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So many great entries this month! You all continue to be an inspiration.

This was an interesting challenge, my first time trying to combine two of my own tracks. Just as a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, the speed at which I can play something is only as fast as the part where my fingers want to get tangled. So my playing the melody against the backing track slowed right down when it was my own backing rhythm – my hand has a lot of trouble making a clean switch from an F chord to a G chord. (Everyone makes it look so easy!) So I also played the melody with the rhythm track in the lesson, set at 75%. (I can almost make 100%, but that still needs work.)

Thanks again, @Andrew.

@The_Bumble_Bard: Your little sweetheart is certainly lucky to have found her way to you. I can see she’s a lovely companion. I hope your dental issues get resolved soon – that kind of pain can make the rest of life difficult.

[suekulele]

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I chose April Smiles for this month’s challenge and really enjoyed learning it.

[maryjanew]

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I wanted to work on U-Bass so I chose EP008- Bossa Nova U-Bass with Stephen. I only got up to 60% speed. I recorded my practice session yesterday, and decided to use this cut for my entry, due to the month almost gone and I have been busy with work and had limited practice time.
I am a newby on Bass and need lots of work on technique (buzzing notes😬). I’ll keep working on it and see if I can get faster AFTER I get my technique and timing better. 😜
I also need to get out the recording equipment that I have and learn how to use it. 🙄

• This reply was modified 3 weeks ago by maryjanew.

[leb397]

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One week to pick a song and pull this out of my musical- bones.
Harmonizing C Major EP002

Needs more attention but I fully agree with @nat-uke the learning curve with iMovie and split screens… each time my brain discovers an easier path from complete frustration
I recorded at 80%. I did both parts because I only had choice of 75% on the mp3 or I couldn’t figure how to change so that was fine. Syncing is tough…
I like everyone’s comments and struggles because we share same experiences. You all ARE getting better.
Lots of comments and kudos to everyone but need to keep short this month. Great job everyone. BTW April Smiles is a beautiful tune. I’m going to work on that sometime. Louisa

[Andrew]

Here’s everyone on page 3 that I hadn’t gotten to yet.

@brettboy – You play with such groove and feel, loved it!

@nat-uke – Both performances were beautifully played, Natalie! You nailed the feel and vibe of each. I really enjoyed watching and listening to them 🙂

Check out this lesson, it’ll give you a few more ideas to help kickstart your songwriting. Please do share your first tune with us! Would love to check it out!

@alojzy_bomba – That was awesome Michael! An amazing first performance! I’m really looking forward to hearing more from you 🙂

P.S. Your music studio is really sweet!

[Andrew]

@anyon1 – That was awesome Adriana! Your feel and timing was great! Only thing I’d do from here is work on gradually speeding it up. Try alternating between playing with and w/out a click when working on this.

@lhamilton – All 3 sounded great! Excellent playing Linda!

@otzepeng – Beautifully played, you nailed the feel and vibe of each! One tip, watch out for pulling down on strings when fretting chords. For ex, if you pause your video at 35 seconds, you can see that happening. I noticed it happen a few times in the performance. Try to keep the string as parallel as possible. Pulling them down is essentially a “bend” that sharps the pitch.

Friendly reminder, don’t forget to re-tune inbetween tracking both instruments. I’m hearing the tuning of the lead uke sound a lil off. And TY for the kind words, we appreciate it!

@leihali – Your strumming technique is sounding really good now Kay! Very soft and sweet, perfect for a tune like this! All 5 patterns sounded great. The only thing I spotted was the chunks. Try not to come down so hard when doing them. It should feel like the same motion as your regular strum, no extra force needed.

@terryfallon3 – You got those licks sounding good Terry! From here, I’d jump into playing them along with the backing track. Which is also a fun way to work on timing. You can use a tool like Transcribe to slow the backing track down to a speed that’s good for you.

@dianna – Rockin’ Dianna! The one thing I’d focus on is timing. Try practicing with a metronome, or play along with me in the tab player with the click turned on. You’ll notice even I wasn’t perfectly in time in every bar. This kind of lead-style solo playing is tricky to keep perfectly tight without a backing track giving you that beat and rhythm context.

@kanique – You aced both of them, Dorota! You nailed the feel and vibe of each. Excellent playing!

For the duet, the only thing I’d adjust is lowering the volume of the rhythm uke a bit, that should help with balance. Also, keep an eye on recording levels for the lead uke. I noticed a couple notes that clipped (they were recorded a bit too hot, which can make them sound fuzzy). Just to be clear, this is all feedback on the recording side of things, not your playing, which was great.

@karenj – I thought you played both of them extremely well Karen! Great feel throughout and you nailed the vibes of each 🙂

@grannieannie – Bravo on both parts Annie! It’s amazing to see how much you are progressing. This is not an easy tune to play and you are rockin’ it! One tip for the chord melody, try not to hit the open G as loud. That’s more of a filler harmony note that almost creates a drone-like sound to help fill out space. Playing it a lil softer will sweeten the sound of the piece overall.

@suekulele – That was amazing Sue, you rocked it! Great job on the tempo and nailing the feel/vibe of each piece. 👏

@maryjanew – Your timing was spot on MJ! Great playing! And love to see you playing bass! We’ve got a real fun U-Bass lesson coming out this Friday 🙂

@leb397 – Check out the link for Transcribe that I left in @terryfallon3’s feedback above. It lets you slow a track down in 1% increments. I’ve been using it for over 15 years, and it’s been incredibly helpful for both learning and practicing.

Your performance was great! Both parts were really well played. As you keep practicing, I think it’ll naturally lock in even tighter, but it’s already sounding really good!

[lhamilton]

Thanks @Andrew!

I played around with the fingering on the third piece to find something that worked comfortably for me. I think I know what to do now to record directly to the macbook from the fully electric uke: plug my wired earbuds with the extender cable into the mac. And — I’ll pluck three notes rather than rapping on the body as my “match video and sound” signal since rapping on the body didn’t record from the direct mac to uke connection.

Linda

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