Participate in the February 2026 Member Challenge: Techniques or Concepts

[katazumiri]

For further experiments, I used Matt Carlson’s recording (I hope he’s not offended, since I shifted the last A.H. by two bars).

Besides, I was in a dreamy, nostalgic mood and longed for railroad romance, so I browsed through photos with some connection to Tennessee.

And this is what came out.

Have a nice day! 🎶 🚂 🎶

[dianna]

So impressed with the submissions this month…….I think the weather in some parts lends itself to hunkering down and practicing…….I spent January with the Tennessee Waltz….I loved Matt Carlson’s arrangement….absolutely gorgeous. There is definitely room for improvement….I may have over used rubato as an excuse for trying to remember what comes next and what my fingers were supposed to be doing. It seems there are a flurry of Tennessee Waltz submissions as this month comes to a close…..just Wow! Great job everyone! Do not include me in the draw this month – Thanks!

[dianna]

Correction: I spent the month of February🤪

[rgillof]

It’s good to hear everyone’s take on their chosen songs. I chose the Triple Strum Etude (no.2). It was tough to get the hang of the triple pick technique used in this piece. But as usual, another month or two of practice on it will go a long way! Here is about the best I can do right now. (Please exclude me from this month’s drawing.)

[nelsonlin2021]

Hi RC101,

Hope everyone’s had a wonderful month.

I couldn’t resist learning another waltz – they always pull me in. Here’s my performance of “Tennessee Waltz” for the February Challenge.

As always, thank you for listening and for this amazing community.

[rw1950merritt]

My selection is the Romance. I tried to learn it once before on guitar. Before I figured out my hands were too small to play a guitar. Was very happy to see it as one of the choices. I even played it live for a study group that meets at our house without it being too much of a disaster.

I am a premium member.

[maryjanew]

I took on Spanish Romance taught by Steven. I used my front camera on my iPhone and forgot that the image is mirrored! No, I’m NOT a lefty 😜. I am using a Hollyland Lark A1 wireless mic. I am not proficient with it yet- I don’t know how to work the equalizer in the app. I am using a Low G Uke and I did NOT make any adjustments in the arrangement.
This is my THIRD time in 6 years, (I think) trying to learn this piece!
I think I am picking it up way faster than the last 2 times but I still
have a lot of work to do on it. It has really “stretched” me in more ways than one!
My fingers are very sore!!😜 I do LOVE this piece of music, though!
I am a lot closer to having it memorized and being able to play it for a “safe” open mic
without the paper… almost!
-MJ

• This reply was modified 2 weeks ago by maryjanew.
• This reply was modified 2 weeks ago by maryjanew.

[The_Bumble_Bard]

Hello ukulele friends!! 🙂

Uh oh, guess what?! I learned this today, LOL, in literally one hour. Well, relearned it. If I hadn’t previously learned this a long while ago, I probably would’ve been in trouble, and thankfully the old gears in my brain turned surprisingly well. I have to do a bunch of stuff for my nephew’s birthday party today – including wrap gifts and make cookies, so there just ain’t no time for more tries! Overall, I am pretty pleased I was able to relearn this and get some of the feeling I hoped to achieve, though I forgot to do the vibrato; I got some rubato and dynamics, I think. I really love this one; it’s one of my favorite ukulele tunes. 🥰

Here is my not-perfectly-smooth take of Spanish Romance:

NGL, I will miss @Andrew’s feedback this month and any month where we don’t get it and it seems pretty much everyone feels the same – so I also hope for a Gandalf-the-White-esque return of his feedback. 😂

I also hope to smooth this out even more and post my take of this one on my lil’ YouTube channel publicly later because it’s such a lovely one – and quite obvs, attribute it to RC101. 🥰

Oh, I was going to say that I look forward to going back and listening to all the entries I missed! Good jorb everyone!! 🥰

• This reply was modified 2 weeks ago by The_Bumble_Bard.

[janaq1]

Hi everyone,
thanks for sharing your recordings. You are so inspiring!

I hesitated about what to choose for this month. In the end, I chose Spanish Romance… For a long time, I refused to learn this song on the ukulele. As a teenager, I learned it on the classical guitar, and it is one of three songs that I am still able to play somehow on the guitar when I grab it up about five times a year. Of course, it’s imperfect and worse than it used to be… And I carried the same flaws over to this ukulele version. I couldn’t break away from the guitar fingerings, so in parts my version sounds a little different from Steven’s arrangement. (I read that there are several sheet music versions of this song.)

@Andrew , please exclude me from this month’s drawing.

[grannieannie]

Everyone’s submissions were great this month. I so enjoyed the various renditions of the beautiful arrangement of Tennessee Waltz, that timeless classic that was part of the sound background when I was a wee one (and I smiled at the canine(?) accompaniment to @lhamilton).

I’m glad Stephen warned us that it can be slow going to get the fingers used to the triple strum technique, because it was two weeks before I could get that strum going smoothly while the other hand was learning the fingering. This is still pretty choppy – something to work on.

Please exclude my name from this month’s draw.

[nat-uke]

Hi All – I almost didn’t post anything this month because I wasn’t very happy with it. But then I realized, it’s about progress, not perfection, so – here it is. I choose “Spanish Romance” which was, I think, perhaps the first time I’ve attempted a ‘level 2’ song. It was a bit of stretch, but I enjoyed the point of learning to play with expression – like using rubato, vibrato and dynamics. I struggled with muting of strings in some crammed places, but I was happy with the expression part of it and honestly amazed I could memorize the piece.

[Andrew]

Friendly Reminder – The deadline for receiving an entry into the giveaway is tonight at 11:59 PM ET (check your local time zone).

[leihali]

Hi everyone,

My challenge for this month is “Spanish Romance”. I didn’t know this song would use so much of my left pinky finger before I started. After going through a couple of weeks of pain, finally my finger got toughened up. I have struggled playing each melody note clean. But since it’s coming together, I will keep playing this song after today too.

• This reply was modified 1 week, 6 days ago by leihali.

[frederic]

Hello everyone,
Here is my best try at Spanish Romance. Sorry for the constant whooshing sound in the background, I am not sure what it is (iPad recording this time).

Thanks

[lhamilton]

@grannieannie, Yorkies can be such fun! 😀

Linda

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