Participate in the January 2024 Member Challenge – You Decide What To Work On!

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Viewing 15 posts - 31 through 45 (of 259 total)
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  • #60112
    misterbones
    Participant

    I’ll definitely join the clawhammer party this month. I already planned to do that before I knew what kind of challenge it would be this month, so it’s actually cool that I get to focus on that completely as part of the RC101 January challenge. I did the clawhammer course back in August when I learned “Bury me beneath the willow” for that month’s challenge, and while I kind of got addicted to the technique right away, I haven’t really practiced it very much ever since, as learning the arrangements for the following challenges took up most of my Ukulele playing capacity. Also due to lack of repertoire, as I had already learned the arrangements from the clawhammer course, and nothing motivates me as much to practice as new arrangements to learn.
    So as the December challenge was over early, I started revisiting the clawhammer technique, and by coincidence I came across some really good material by Aaron Keim, which I acquired and started to work on. I will keep working on that throughout the month. With regards to the clawhammer technique I’d still consider myself a beginner. My goals until the end of the month are:
    – build a repertoire of five easy to intermediate clawhammer arrangements to be played flawlessly by heart
    – add as much finesse to the basic bumm-ditty technique as to be able to control the volume of the brushes and plucks and make them sound interesting and contrasting

    #60117
    mysticrick
    Participant

    CORRECTION….I will work on the RC101 lesson “Freight Train” NOT “Folsom Prison Blues” for the January Challenge.

    Freight Train is in the Lesson Bank, Folsom Prison is not.

    I have already benefitted from and have become familiar with RC101 by reviewing left and right hand technique basics video lessons…good stuff. Links to lessons inside lessons are user friendly…easy to use.

    #60118
    leb397
    Participant

    Hi everyone! A new year with a great challenge
    I will be working on ML019 cord progression.
    I will practice everyday, as I have while being a member.
    Plan is to execute the rhythmic chucks, still my weak area, and hopefully get to speed.
    I’ll post my final entry .
    Excited to see everyone, especially claw hammer. That would be my next challenge. Louisa
    Ps welcome @mysticrick

    #60123
    jody_hendrickson
    Participant

    Hi all-

    I love this month’s challenge, and to see all the different things folks are working on!

    After submitting my December challenge, I decided I wanted to spend the hiatus working on something blues-y, so I chose St. James Infirmary. I also set a goal for 2024 of learning more music theory, and more about blues methods in particular.

    Execution: Learn Evan’s arrangement of St. James Infirmary from memory, review the RC101 lesson on Understanding 12-bar blues, work through Manitoba Hal’s Ukelele Blues Method Book (arrived yesterday!), and work on theory in general using musictheory.net and help from my musician son. I think I am a “seasoned beginner.” I practice an average of an hour or so a day, so I will divide this into theory, technique practice (in the piece as well as from the blues method book), and general practice of the piece. I’ve listened to lots of versions of it and so far Cab Calloway on the Betty Boop show is my favorite–so surreal!

    Application: Long term–play more blues!! Understand the differences between 12- 8- and 16-bar. And to use the feeling I get from the listening to blues to bring more feeling into my playing.

    Execution: Weekly updates on progress, and submit performance of St. James Infirmary.

    #60129
    nelsonlin2021
    Participant

    Happy New Year Everyone!

    1) Execution – I don’t have any vocal talent so I shy away from singing and strumming on ukulele. Learning to play fingersytle is what drawn me to RC101 at the first place. I would say I’m at the budding intermediate level at fingerstyle playing but very much a newbie in other ukulele techniques such as strumming, etc. I want to broaden my skills and learn ghost note strum and other techniques that are unique to high G tuning. So this month, I will leverage a well structured course on RC101, Next Level Strumming. I plan to devote at least an hour a day and go through each of the exercise modules. I will use the Tab Play Along feature to make sure I achieve rhythmic consistency before moving to the next module. I hope to complete all exercise by mid Jan.

    2) Application – I want to apply the techniques to learn and perform the capstone piece “Crossing Hemispheres”.

    3) Evaluation – I will do one recording at end of each week and listen to playback and ask my dancing friend for feedback 🙂

    #60130
    sarrafina
    Participant

    Hello, it’s Sarrafina.
    I know it’s been a bit since I’ve posted anything, however I’m back and ready to kick off the New Year with this amazing challenge!

    Song title: ‘River Flows in You’ by Yiruma
    1) Execution: This piece was originally made for piano and has been arranged for the guitar and ukulele, with most ukulele arrangements excluding the last 1/3 of the piece, including the bridge. Currently, I am working on transposing the complete guitar arrangement to the ukulele. I am a high intermediate to budding advanced player and by the end of January I plan to have a complete and clean arrangement of ‘River Flows in You’. I also plan to have basic notation along with my arrangement. I’ll spend about 30 minutes of my practice session working on this beautiful song, 7 days a week.
    2) Application: I’ll be using the techniques I’m learning to create my version of ‘River Flows in You’ to create other arrangements and add my own touch to others songs I am currently learning.
    3) Evaluation: I’ll be keeping track of what I’m doing on an Excel sheet and 1-2 times a week I will video-record myself to see what works and what doesn’t. The beauty of arranging, as would Matt say, is if it sounds good, it works.

    Happy 2024 everyone!
    Sarrafina

    #60131
    malku2603
    Participant

    Hello andrew I picked to work on Travis picking first, and here is the progress made so far.

    #60132
    wannabgood
    Participant

    Hello everyone,

    What a great challenge! So interesting to read everyone’s goals for it. For me, I’m going to try a 12-bar blues riff performed by Evan (https://rockclass101.com/rhythmic-blues/). When I first attempted it, it was too advanced for me, so I set it aside. Since then, I’ve concentrated exclusively on finger-style playing, so I feel like branching out into something different for this challenge. I’ve been playing for a year now and practice about 1 to 2 hours a day, so I guess at this point I’d consider myself an advanced beginner…budding intermediate.

    I chose this song because as a newbie, I was enthralled by Evan’s rendition (You can do that on a uke?), and set as a goal to play it someday. The other thing is that I feel my playing is a bit stiff, so I thought a little blues might help me to loosen up a bit…focus more on the joy of the music rather than the fear of making a mistake. By the end of the month I would like to play it loose and clean.

    My plan is to practice this piece for 1/2 hour per day and submit a performance piece by the end of the month.

    #60135
    Andrew
    Keymaster

    @malku2603 – Beautifully played, keep up the great work! 🙂

    #60137
    janaq1
    Participant

    Hello everyone!

    Great challenge and great to read what you are working on. I didn’t have to think about what to do at all. I knew right away that I wanted to return to the song that I had put aside because it was too difficult for me. When I started here at RC101 almost 4 years ago, I was unable to learn the strumming technique, my brain didn’t understand and my right hand didn’t cooperate. There are also a few difficult left-hand stretches for me. So switching from a concert to a tenor sized ukulele doesn’t make it any easier.
    I feel like an intermediate player, but my big weakness is strumming. So my challenge for January is “Don’t Stop Believin”.
    By the end of the month, I want to learn the entire arrangement fluently and rhythmically correct. So I plan to practice this piece for at least 30 minutes a day.
    Week 1 = go through the whole lesson and practice chord changes in the first part of the song
    Week 2 = focus on the second part of the song, practicing in sections with Tab Play Along feature
    Week 3 = start playing the whole piece, record the exercises
    Week 4 = fine-tune the piece and record it for a maximum of 30 takes 😉

    Happy New Year!
    Jana

    #60138
    kelsey91
    Participant

    Hello! My goal for the month is to work on Harmonics.

    Execution:
    Complete the Harmonics course. I remember I had watched some of this awhile ago but never finished it. I am going to work on completing it and learn Amazing Grace.

    Execution:
    I will practice at least 10-15 minutes each day. I will complete the Harmonics course and also use end of the month to work on playing Amazing Grace.

    Evaluation:
    Record and submit the performance song Amazing Grace by the end of the month. I will also work to add some harmonics to other ukulele songs.

    This will all be by end of January so that is good that’s it’s before I get super busy with tax season in Feb – April.

    I wish everyone well with their goals !

    #60141
    ldarrow
    Participant

    I did something similar this past year. I started the year with a plan to improve strumming by working through the advanced strumming course with final Crossing Hemispheres. Was a wonderful journey, but took well over a month. I fear my goal set this January may also, but it fits well with the January challenge. I love Ed Sheeran and his tunes use different percussive techniques. My goal is to learn to tap a backbeat while playing a melody. I will practice this technique using @andrew’s exercises for ‘tapping backbeat plus melody simultaneously’. I will attempt to learn ‘Perfect’. Also, I consider myself to be seasoned beginner/ budding intermediate.

    • This reply was modified 1 year, 1 month ago by ldarrow.
    #60143
    jedart
    Participant

    1) Execution – I have a couple of goals in mind ( I trying out a new practice routine I learned about recently that I will be employing) First, I want to get comfortable with the metronome, I’ll be working with an arrangement of “Summertime” with the metronome. Second, I’ll be working on the intro riff to “Purple Haze”.

    2) Application – For the metronome part, I hope to play through the song, with vocals, in time. For “Purple Haze”, I just want to get fluent with that riff and perhaps perform the whole song with vocals.

    3) Evaluation – I did record myself trying to play “Summertime” with the metronome, I won’t be posting that publicly though 😛

    #60146
    annefgodfrey
    Participant

    Execution: Want so badly to learn to play Always With Me, for a number of reasons.

    Application: Will give my best to closely follow fingering suggestions & will give more attention to proper execution of hammer one’s & pull off’s, especially where keeps melody going. Will make concerted effort to practice every day in constructive manner.

    Evaluation: Plan to pay more attention to daily & weekly progress & keep you informed.

    I am still playing at a beginner level but not giving up. Please be blessed & give my best to Ricky Brown. I often listen to “We’ll Meet Again” which he recorded when Tom died. In March, will have been five years.

    Anne Godfrey

    #60147
    firebladetim
    Participant

    ~1 week progress video.
    I spent the week memorizing the 12th Street Rag arrangement, and evening out my tempo. I used a metronome for the first time (through my earpiece) while making this video, which was a bit of a learning experience in itself. You can see sometimes where I stared into space and this was when I was getting back on the beat.
    This week I’ll pick up the tempo (this was 100bpm, working toward 175) while keeping in time, continue to work on strumming technique, and try to get those diminished bar chords near the end to ring out better.

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