Participate in the July 2026 Member Challenge – WIN $549 Kala Ukulele

[Andrew]

Hi Rock Class 101 Community!

We’re back with a VERY SPECIAL Site Member Challenge #112! We’ve teamed up with Uke Republic to give away an INCREDIBLE Kala Revelator Tenor Ukulele! This slimline electro-acoustic ukulele has a beautiful mango wood top and includes a built-in pickup. This ukulele retails for $549 USD.

I’m beyond humbled to share that over 5,000 members have now participated in our challenges! If you’ve been sitting on the sidelines, now’s the perfect time to jump in! This month’s challenge is a fun way to stay motivated and a great opportunity to connect with fellow ukulele players who are passionate about learning and growing as musicians.

Please watch the video above and read the instructions below carefully for all the details on this month’s challenge.

Pick ANY SONG from our new course: Pathways: A Curated Guide to Learning Ukulele Through Songs

Please watch the video above for guidance on taking the course in order versus choosing songs out of order. Premium members have full access to all 30 songs, while free members can access only the first three beginner-level songs.

** If you need assistance with how to record yourself, check out our FREE course on recording audio/video or email 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 smoothly and in time. Don’t worry about trying to play fast, slow and steady wins the race 🙂

Recommended Piece: ANY SONG IN THE BEGINNER LEVEL

2. Intermediate to Advanced Level: Be able to play the lesson smoothly, in time, and at/or close to the original piece’s tempo.

Recommended Piece: ANY SONG IN THE INTERMEDIATE OR ADVANCED LEVEL

3. Participation Goal: 35 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 30 RC101 songs anytime between Wednesday, July 1st till Friday, July 31st, 11:59pm ET.

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. Your performance must be submitted by the deadline listed (in #1) above to gain an entry in the raffle.

* 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 (as this ukulele is very expensive, shipping costs may exceed this amount. It will be shipped insured). 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 3 chances for you to win this ukulele.

SUMMER CHALLENGES:

First Chance: Participate in our July Challenge.

Second Chance: Participate in our August Challenge.

Third Chance: Participate in our September Challenge.

There will be 1 winner, selected by random drawing on October 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) $549 Grand Prize! Includes:

A) Kala Revelator Night Owl Mango Tenor Ukulele with Pickup

LISTEN TO THIS SWEET UKE BEING PLAYED!

UKULELE SPECS

Tenor size with slimline Revelator body design
Solid mango top for warm, articulate tone
Innovative Night Owl soundhole for enhanced player-facing projection
Lightweight okoume body and neck
Florentine cutaway for easy upper-fret access
Beveled comfort edges for reduced arm fatigue
Passive piezo pickup for natural amplified sound
Bone nut and saddle for improved sustain and clarity
Black open-gear tuners for smooth, accurate tuning
Aquila Nylgut Low G strings installed

Other Features: Includes a deluxe padded Revelator gig bag

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THANKS TO OUR SPONSOR!

Uke Republic: https://www.ukerepublic.com/

AND A SPECIAL THANKS TO YOU! Let’s crush this challenge!

[nat-uke]

Ooh..I’ve had my eye on this beautiful uke for quite awhile! Time to get back rolling again with my Uke playing. I’ve been working on botanical watercolor and recorder playing instead. Uke playing has sadly been non-existent for a few months. Re-committing today though! 😆

[gi_gi_]

@Nat-uke This is a nice challenge to jump back into it.

I love the whole Course @Andrew. Do you ever sleep? 🙂 Thanks for all you do.

[nat-uke]

@gi_gi_ – thank you for the encouragement! I also really like the concept of the learning pathways course. I learn well when it’s a logical stepping stone progression (and who doesn’t like to ‘check off’ lessons completed – haha). I like the idea of it being ok to go back maybe in difficulty, but with purpose to pick up a skill you never looked at (or maybe never understood/mastered). It is always satisfying to tackle a difficult song that you like that has many new elements, but I don’t always have the time to devout to ‘leveling-up’ and getting all those elements to line up in a month. I’m going to restrain myself and pick 1 basic skill that I never gave attention to before. (I loved seeing some of the examples of intermediate and beyond – simply WOW!). Thoughtful practice leads to progress! (it works in watercolor – I know it works in music too!) Looking forward to how folks choose to work on this challenge.

[grannieannie]

Thanks, @Andrew, for creating this step-by-step course that will walk us through so many concepts; you’ve spent a lot of time into putting this together. I’ve felt at loose ends for the last couple of months (not helped by a fair bit of travel), and I need to get back into a regular practice routine. I’m going to start at the beginning, as a refresher, and learn/reinforce the basics before moving on. This is perfect timing.

Thanks also for the online tuning tool – really handy!

[yukalele]

I’ve just got back from two weeks in Ireland where I dropped by the Galway Ukulele Festival. What fun that was – the Irish really know what the Craic is!!! Since I was born there I now claim Irish citizenship by proxy…

But to the point, this month’s challenge is any song from the new course. Wow! What a fantastic course it looks like too! I’ve dipped here and there, but realise I will have do the whole course, which may well take me a couple of months or more. But it looks great. Well done Andrew and co.

I’ll be posting an entry this month for sure.

David

PS Met a few folks in Ireland who said they would consider RC101. Look out for Eric from DC!

[mickan88]

I am a premium member

I’m loving the new course too, @Andrew —thank you! 😊
I can really relate to what @grannieannie said. I’ve kind of lost my motivation to practice temporarily, partly because of traveling and vacation. After getting back home, I found it surprisingly hard to get back into playing.
The new course (and, of course, the chance to win that gorgeous Kala Revelator Ukulele! 😄) gave me the push I needed to pick up my ukulele again. I decided to start right at the beginning and spend some time working on the basic techniques before moving on. It’s exactly what I need right now—slow and steady, building my way back into a regular practice routine.
Here’s my recording of the beginner piece, Fingerpicking Etude No. 37 – The In-and-Out Pattern. Back to basics! 😉

[planetfink]

I am a premium member

I decided on working on the ghost strumming technique. I’ll still work on getting it up to speed but I wanted to get a recording done so I can stop saying ONE two and three and ONE two and three in my head all the time. I spent a lot of time watching World Cup games with a ukulele in my hands strumming away.

[annyuke]

Hi folks!

Nice to meet everyone here for the Summer Challenge. And what a fantastic prize is waiting! I would absolutely love to win it, especially since my ukulele fell down last week and broke 🙁

I couldn’t wait, though, so I got a similar ukulele to the Kala Revelator but from Flight. I unboxed it yesterday, so I hope it’s in tune! (I feel like I have to tune it all the time, especially the A-string). It’s strung with a low G.

I chose to start with the very first lesson of the course, Aura Lee. It sounds a little different with the low G, but I hope it works anyway.

Here’s my take on *Aura Lee*

[gi_gi_]

Everyone’s submissions this far are very nice. I love your new uke @annyuke It is a beauty 🥰

[annyuke]

Thank you @gi_gi_ <3
I also love everyone’s submissions. Looking forward for more…

[mickan88]

@annyuke your new Ukulele looks and sounds great! Great playing, too! Sorry about your other Uke, what a nightmare.

[annyuke]

Thank you, @mickan88. Yes, it was a nightmare hearing the ukulele body crack. I guess that’s part of learning not to leave your ukulele standing upright on a chair. 😅

I’m really glad your motivation to play came back because you play so beautifully.

[carynjoy]

@annyuke, oh no sorry to hear about your previous uke!! The new one sounds great.

Lovely entries so far! @mickan88 that fingerpicking etude is very beautiful and was lovely to listen to your entry. And @planetfink well done, you’re inspiring me to keep at it!

The Beginner Song 4, the Chunking Etude, will be my song this month. It’s pretty and, I could use a nice go to chunking song, and the chord changes mid-measure are really throwing me off so I’m learning to slow down and work measure-by-measure. With another 2 weeks I’m confident I’ll be able to get through the whole piece. 🙂

Good luck everyone!

[jedart]

I was intrigued when you first emailed out the new course last month, now it part of the July Challenge. Awesome. I’m curious, is the course available a-la-carte, or just as part of the monthly subscription?

[Author]

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