Participate in the February 2023 Member Challenge: WIN Ohana Pequeno Ukulele!

[abster]

Kindly accept my entry to the February challenge.

Abster

[nelsonlin2021]

I AM A PREMIUM MEMBER.

I chose the Country Riff as the February challenge. I enjoyed the rhythmic aspects of the play and learned many new and challenging techniques. I hope I got the rhythms down ok and as always appreciate any feedback on improvement opportunities.

I do have one question for Andrew. In his performance, he performed a left hand movement down the neck at the end of measure 4 and before measure 5 which looks very cool. Is this a personal stylistic flair or a technique that I should learn to jazz up my performance ?

[delugehound]

Hey Andrew!

Below are the videos I’m submitting for this months challenge. Whole I’ve been a part of Rock Class 101 for awhile I just recently began really picking up the uke. These are 3 progressive videos I’m sharing from 1st time to present speed. I look forward to your feedback! Thank you for building such a wonderful thing with a great community!

Jana

(1st time with whole ML 002)

(40% – ML 002)

(Faster-ML002)

[jvchong]

Hi, This is my second participation in the challenge. Definitely less stiff than the first time but can tell I still need to relax more. 🙂
This is the Navigating the Fretboard – ML002.

[Andrew]

@smokealot – Great playing! 👏

@abster – Way to go, Abster! That was awesome!! 🙂

@nelsonlin2021 – Great job, Nelson! I’d recommend practicing slower so you can focus on cleaning up your playing and keeping the tempo steady. Also, take a look at this lesson. Matt shares some great tips to help you perfect the triplet strum technique.

As for your question, it’s just something I do which helps me keep the time.

@delugehound – Very cool to see your progress, Jana! You were able to build it up to speed with fluidity! Bravo!

One thing to point out, is that you are playing it with a straight eighth note feel. We want to use a swung feel for this tune. Check out this lesson. It teaches the difference between the 2 feels and has a great exercise to practice switching between the two.

@jvchong – Your video is showing as private. Can you set it to public?

[jvchong]

Hi Andrew, I just set my video to unlisted. Should be available now. Sorry… still trying to get use to recording and posting on youtube. 🙂

[Andrew]

No worries! Your playing sounds great! But there is something important that we need to correct. Earlier this month, @jgillard and I left feedback for @ksapp92 in this post (and two above it).

I’d offer the same advice for you, but extended for both hands. The linked advice covers the right hand. For the left, try fretting a single note, but apply no pressure. Slowly start to push down and keep plucking the string as you do this. Eventually, the note will ring. Take note of how much pressure is needed to get it to ring. You should notice it’s less than you are applying now.

[ukealori]

I AM A PREMIUM MEMBER

Still working on getting a clear pluck of each note, and getting the same even volume. I really liked working on sliding up to the next fret.. This one will be in my daily practice, When I try for more speed I just can’t do it yet. I’m determined to make it super smooth and in the groove LOL Never too late to get my funk on!

[Andrew]

@ukealori – Great playing and well done on the timing, Lori! I have one exercise to share with you to help build dexterity in your left hand when playing out of positions (boxes) like this riff did. This riff assigned an individual finger to a fret, starting with position 5 (frets 5-8) and moving down to position 4 (frets 4-7).

Check out this exercise. You can run it as a warm up tool plus, you can do it to a metronome to work on timing 🙂

For this exercise, I want you to focus a lot on using the pinky and building strength and dexterity in it.

[ukealori]

Thanks for your feedback @andrew. I will take a look and give it a try. I am pretty musical, I feel the beat but really struggle to get my hands to co-operate. I am working hard to improve my tone and sustain – a work in progress for sure.

Thank you for giving practical steps to take 🙂

[Andrew]

My pleasure!

[omaon4]

I am a premium member

I chose the Country Riff for my entry. It was fun.
My triple at the end could have been cleaner.

Thanks!

[olemartin]

I AM A PREMIUM MEMBER

Hi, so here’s another take on the Celtic Etude – ML004.

Thanks for the fun! Made me look for more celting sound 😊🍀

Ole Martin

[yukalele]

I AM A PREMIUM MEMBER

Hi everybody!

I chose the Funk Riff – because it’s mini-lesson No 1 !

I find I can’t play it the way Andrew encourages us to, in that I bar my index finger on 5, rather than keep moving the index finger, dancing across the frets. Very difficult to do I found.

[johanna2509]

Hi, I chose the Funk Riff. My first choice was the Celtic Etude, but I struggled so hard to fret the first bar… so I had to switch. I would have never learned a tune in that style if not for a monthly challenge. But it is good to try out something new! I played it over and over again, it is kinda addicting!

@jbmills07 I love your videos with Ziggy on your shoulders, so cute!

[Author]

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