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Hi Rock Class 101 Community!
We are back with site member challenge #76! WOW, there has now been over 4,000+ members participating in our challenges! If you’ve sat on the sidelines, please join us for this month’s challenge! Challenges are a fun way to stay motivated and a great way to meet fellow ukulele players who are passionate about learning and becoming better players. 🙂
And I offer feedback on ALL submissions!
Please watch the video above and read instructions below carefully for details/instructions on this month’s challenge.
Pick 1 from the following 4 RC101 Lessons:
1) “Drunken Sailor” * – Learn to play this traditional sea shanty melody three times! The first time as a beginner-friendly chord melody, while the second and third time increases the difficulty for intermediate and advanced players.
* Taught in its entirety for FREE!
Note: Beginner players can submit a performance of theme 1 only. Intermediate players can submit a performance of theme 1 and 2.
2) “Margaritaville” * – A fun, fingerstyle take on Jimmy Buffett’s signature song!
* Taught in its entirety for FREE!
3) “Under the Boardwalk” * – A fun fingerstyle take on a classic summer song!
* Taught in its entirety for FREE!
4) “Misirlou” – Learn an iconic surf rock guitar riff on ukulele! But wait, there’s more! This song is arranged as a ukulele duet with a full band backing track (Drums & U-Bass), which makes this lesson infinitely more fun to play!
Note: You can choose to play the melody (lead) or rhythm. Performing to the backing track is required. Premium membership is required to download the backing tracks.
** If you need assistance with how to record yourself check out our FREE course on recording audio/video and/or private message me and I will be happy to help you out. **
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GOALS FOR MEMBER CHALLENGE:
1. Beginner Level: Be able to play one of the lessons as shown by Andrew smoothly and in time. Do not worry about trying to play fast; slow and steady wins the race.
Recommended Piece: “Drunken Sailor”
2. Intermediate to Advanced Level: Be able to play the lesson as shown by Andrew smoothly, in time, and at or close to the original piece’s tempo.
Recommended Pieces: “Margaritaville” [INTERMEDIATE], “Under the Boardwalk” [SEASONED INTERMEDIATE], OR “Misirlou” [ADVANCED]
3. Participation Goal: 40 Rock Class 101 Member Participant Videos/MP3 posted.
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GROUND RULES FOR PARTICIPATION:
1. Post your Youtube, Vimeo, or Soundcloud links of you playing 1 of the 4 RC101 pieces anytime between Saturday, July 1st until Monday, July 31st, 11:59pm EST.
The upload feature on the site only supports photos. Members must host their own files. Creating an account is easy and free 🙂 Here are the links to create an account:
YouTube (For Video) – https://www.youtube.com/create_channel
SoundCloud (For Audio) – https://soundcloud.com/signin
2. Submit individually, as a reply, IN THIS POST.
3. Feel free to submit more than one video for the challenge, but additional videos will not count as extra entries into the raffle for the prize.
4. Have fun and don’t be intimidated by this challenge!!! Use this challenge to help you set goals and complete them by a deadline. You can also use this as an opportunity to chat with your fellow Rock Class 101 members and share tips or tricks on this challenge that you think are useful.
5. You must perform the entire piece to receive an entry into the prize raffle. Performance must be submitted by the deadline listed (in #1) above to gain an entry in the raffle, as well as, to receive feedback.
* Note: In my opinion, it is better to show progress versus perfection with these challenges. So if you are a beginner and can only play the first couple of measures. That is completely ok. If you play two more measures of the next challenge piece than you did the previous one, you are on track to getting better. This is what these challenges are about… you learning ukulele and getting better. Remember we are all here to support you no matter what your current playing level is.
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COMMON FAQs:
1) The prize and the challenge is open to the entire world!
2) Premium membership is NOT required to participate, but will make participation easier as it gains you complete access to the full video lessons, tabs, and the on-screen tab viewer.
3) Basic membership (free) is required to submit a reply on this forum post. You can sign up for Basic Membership HERE.
4) To post YouTube video links (in which they appear embedded on the forum), simply copy and past the video URL in its own line. For example:
YouTube URL
5) If you live in the Continental U.S., we will ship the giveaway ukulele to you for FREE! If you live outside of the Continental U.S., there will be a shipping fee ranging between $40 USD to $80 USD. This fee will be collected by Uke Republic. You are also responsible for any custom fees or duties.
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Giveaway Rules:
There will be 1 winner, selected by random drawing on August 5th. To qualify to win, you must submit your audio and/or video links of your playing by the deadline listed above.
Grand Prize:
1) $200 Grand Prize: Leolani Moon Ebony Concert Ukulele
LISTEN TO THIS SWEET UKE BEING PLAYED!
_______________THANKS TO OUR SPONSOR!
Uke Republic: https://www.ukerepublic.com/
Let’s crush this challenge!
Ok, ok… I have been “lurking” long enough 😆. I like the thought mentioned that doing the challenge can help you improve as a player and learn a new song to boot (plus how awesome to win that beautiful uke?). I’m going to finally do one of these challenges. Will try drunken sailor with beginner and maybe also the intermediate verses.
Boom, baby! First entry.
This is Drunken Sailor, beginner level + clawhammer.
In the requests thread here, @wabbit (I believe) asked for the song The Wellerman to be arranged in clawhammer style, and that idea seemed so cool that I wanted to try that with Drunken Sailor. I still want to try to at least also learn the intermediate level of this song, as well, but I couldn’t resist this. I have the compulsion to try to turn any song into clawhammer anyway. 😂
Thank you, Rock Class friends for these great challenges, especially to @Andrew! 😅
OMG! @The_Bumble_Bard….you transcribed into clawhammer…..I want to learn this, how did you do it?
So cool – I’m impressed! Also, I think the intermediate part is probably easier than the clawhammering.@dianna, haha, thank you so much! I’m so glad you liked that. 😅 It’s basically Matt’s beginner level arrangement of that song and I took the clawhammer pattern, the “bum ditty” pattern (I think), and forcibly crammed what he created into that pattern. And added embellishments (HO’s, PO’s, and slides). There were places I really ended up changing a lot because the song didn’t seamlessly fit into the clawhammer pattern or I thought it sounded cool. 😅 Please take this with a grain of salt though, because my technical knowledge is sorely lacking. I figure things out by bumble-ditty-ing trial and error, quite literally. I Miss Magoo my way through everything… 😂😭 There’s a slim chance I might be able to write it down because Matt has shown me the basic way to do that by hand. I hope to keep getting better at that. I may be able to explain what to do without too much theory behind it, just saying the strings. Sorry for this rambling reply, this is the best way I can explain it at the moment. 😂
Also, with permission to do that because the original material (from Matt’s arr) isn’t mine, though I did change it a lot. 😂😳
@The_Bumble_Bard – I love it! The transition to clawhammer style was flawless! Very creative idea and I will def be sharing it in our newsletter tomorrow 🙂
@Andrew, oh em gee, I am so honored by that, man! Thank you so much!! 😂😭 I plan to cry about that, and just as much about your kind words. That seriously means a lot. Thank you! 😁😅😂😭
@The_Bumble_Bard…..I love clawhammer and would love to be able to turn straight tunes into clawhammer tunes….After I learn “Drunken Sailor” straight from beginning all the way thru the 3 themes, I will come back to your version and try to figure it out by ear….might be a good practice?
@dianna, same! I love clawhammer uke. I also have a banjolele that I need to bust out more often. 😅 Once you get really comfortable with the clawhammer pattern it’s not terribly difficult to turn a song into clawhammer, but some definitely more naturally fall into that pattern and I feel like that song did. There were definitely others that didn’t work so well, but I try to do that with most songs I learn. 😂 That’s so cool that you’re going to try to learn it and learn it by ear! 😁 I really am honored by that as well, that you’d want to learn it. I may still try to write it down though because that would be good practice for me and I need it. 😂 You’ve also inspired me that maybe I can try the advanced level, even though I’m really intimidated and spooked by strumming. 😂 Anyway, I hope you share the clawhammer version too if you get to that! Thank you! 😁💕
@The_Bumble_Bard …..that third part is a bit tricky….I get to practice my index finger strum….which is new for me, having always strummed with both thumb and finger……but the chording….eek! Especially the muted notes within the chord…that is tricky!🤪
@dianna, hahaha, gah, you’re right! I rewatched the video and the first thing in the intermediate section was “ghost notes” and I thought …… Ef, am I going to be able to do this?! 😂😅 But if you think about it, that is actually pretty similar to the clawhammer pattern (though the physical approach is different), so maybe that will be okay. And yes, the advanced section is even crazier. I also strum the same way you do with my thumb and index when I have strumpt (that’s correct grammar) so this will be…….. Challenging. I haven’t even gotten to try that section yet but I’ll let you know how that goes. 😂😳
@katazumiri – Bravo! Lovely duet and playing. Literally a perfect take! From here, I’d work on boosting tempo. Keep up the great work, Lena 🙂
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