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

[anyon1]

Hi All!

I am a premium member.

I also chose House of the Rising Sun to work on the ghost note strumming. This is a fun one to play!

[nelsonlin2021]

@brettboy I’m very sorry to hear about your injury. That really sucks! Your perfect attendance over the past 10+ years (IIRC) is incredibly admirable. I’d sit this challenge out and give your wrist all the time it needs to fully heal. Wishing you a speedy recovery!

@andrew Awesome work on the new Pathway course! I can’t wait to work my way through all the lessons.

This month, I picked Mini Lesson 8 to explore different approaches to using dynamics.

[karenj]

Here’s my July challenge submission of the Feel Good Strumming Riff. Although I am a bit beyond the beginner level at this point, the modules provided a nice review. I especially liked improving on my chunking and exploring some new strumming patterns. It was a lovely day to be outside despite the neighbor’s excavation you can hear in the background. And the patio chair arms are certainly not uke friendly. I hope you are all having a great summer. Thanks again to RC 101.

Karen

[karenj]

@brettboy: I am just now catching up on posts and learned of your injury. I wish you a smooth recovery as you rest and recall the fun of what sounds like a fabulous vacation in Paris! I always enjoy your posts and am sure I am not alone in feeling inspired by your beautiful, relaxed style of playing, not to mention your perfect record. If you really can’t stand going uke free, check out Karl Jackson who has a One-Hand Strum Man YouTube channel.

[grannieannie]

I chose the In-and-Out etude, partly because I wanted something simple for this guest-filled month but mostly because I feel I need to revisit the basics – the new Pathways course came at the right time, along with Matt’s recent live lesson on simple songs.

This piece was interesting right from the start, when I realized that because I’ve been playing my low G almost exclusively over the past year, my brain wanted to hear the G playing an octave lower than the sound I was hearing. This led to a lot of finger stumbles, so to get over that I played the same pattern over and over but moved my fretting hand up and down the fretboard with my fingers on random strings, resulting in some really interesting combinations.

I also learned, from earlier attempts at recording myself, that I’ve been gripping too hard with my fretting hand and picking too hard with my fingerpicking hand, so I have to remind myself to lighten up.

[ccwuke]

Hi here’s my best take of many recordings of Hone A Ka Wai

I have wanted to learn Gymnopedie No.1 for a while and started on that this month, but had little practice time and realised I was never going to get there in time, so I switched to Hone A Ka Wai . I did manage to memorise the piece which is something I rarely do for some reason, however it still needs a bit more work.

Chris

[shmu88]

I AM A PREMIUM MEMBER

Hello all,

Here’s my 97th attempt at Georgia’s on my mind haha

Cheers!

Sam

[uketime]

Hello All, once again I am amazed and inspired by all of your playing!!

@planetfink @clempek @Idarrow and @Anyone1 who played House of the Rising Sun – I can’t wait to be able to play that one even remotely as well as you all! @shmu88 Georgia on my Mind was beautiful as was @marianne playing Gymnopelie, just amazing. I think I have the same Ukulele as you, but yours sounds so much better. I also want to mention how much I enjoyed @Katazumiri quartet of Whiskey Before Breakfast, a real toe tapper, and @Brettboy wishing you a quick recovery, looking forward to seeing your next post.

@Andrew I am so happy you put together the Pathways course, I was a little lost after I did the other beginner course, I like having the structure to follow, well done, I am also super happy there are these Summer Challenges, they really keep me practising and hopefully improving.

Here is my entry of Song 3 in the beginner section – Strumming and Adding a Back Beat 12 Bar Blues, this was actually the song I heard that introduced me to Rockclass101 and the reason I signed up, just loved that backbeat sound and wanted to learn how to do it. Im still finding the lick at the end a bit tricky, but its getting there 🙂

[gi_gi_]

@shmu88 Sam that was amazing. That was my first choice of songs to learn but changed my mind within 30 minutes 😂 That song is tough. You did a great job.

[cyman_t]

Hi everyone,
Just wanted to say, I am new to RC 101 and I feel amazed by what I hear in this challenge’s posts. It is really nice and encouraging.

Thanks all for that 🙂

[gi_gi_]

I am a Premium Member.

Enjoying everyone’s submissions.

I worked on Gymnopédie. It’s a song I always wanted to learn. Thanks @Steve for the beautiful arrangement and thanks @Andrew for this amazing platform.

[lhamilton]

Hi,

This month I decided to work on La Vie en Rose. I’d been wanting to learn to play it. It’s a lovely arrangement.

Linda
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[Andrew]

@jedart – Very nicely played Jed! Only thing I’d work on is eliminating the slight pauses/hesitations.

@monika101 – No tips needed, you played it beautifully and with great tone and sustain. I’ll be sharing your performance in our newsletter this Friday 🙂

@ldarrow – Try moving your strumming hand further up the neck so that your thumb doesn’t catch on that ledge where the neck meets the body. Here’s a screenshot of Matt using the technique in that performance. You can see how he positions his thumb to strike the G away from that ledge.

I do have to say, overall you played it beautifully! Was fun to listen to 🙂

[jody_hendrickson]

Hi friends,

There have been so many beautiful and fun performances this month! @marianne and @gi_gi_ ‘s performances of Gymnopédie are so lovely and inspiring! One day…

This month I chose Fingerpicking Etude No. 19, aka Song 3 in the intermediate level of the course, focusing on barre and stretch chords. While I made progress on both over the month, I have a ways to go. Probably should have picked something less challenging! I just loved Theme 4 and how it sounds like demented carousel music and had to try and learn it!

@brettboy I am so sorry to hear about your wrist injury. Wishing you a quick recovery and looking forward to seeing you back at it in September.

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• This reply was modified 3 weeks, 3 days ago by jody_hendrickson.

[leihali]

I AM A PREMIUM MEMBER.

Hi, I was cruising through the beginner level lessons until I hit the Chunking Etude lesson, which I stumbled so much and felt I wasn’t improving anything. But I really liked the melody and the technique that I decided to practice this everyday. Although it’s still not perfect at all, this is my submission for this month.

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