Participate in the June 2025 Member Challenge – WIN $2,250 Kanile’a Ukulele

[The_Bumble_Bard]

@johanna2509, very beautifully played! Agreed with everyone else that the scenery is so beautiful! The thought of cold fingers right now seems pretty great, just because the heat index is 105F in Wisconsin. 😂😭 But things like that can really effect anyone’s playing for sure! So, you record the audio and the video separately? Somehow I never noticed that, so good job! 😂 Beautifully done with that one! 😊

@janaq1, very beautiful playing!! Your performances are always something to behold with your mad skills. Very lovely! 😊

@katazumiri, loved that so much! The slower tempo does give that an even more chill feel. Really magical with the whole “band” (you are the band)! 😊

Haha!! Yes? I think that’s what snow monkeys are? Clearly I have a strong grasp of what they are even now. But yes, I think they’re monkeys in Japan that bathe in the hot springs? So many questions marks. I don’t know why but that cracked me up all over again. 😂😂😅😅 I’m crying… Well, when my brother-in-law casually mentioned snow monkeys randomly, I thought he was just making it up as he sometimes does to troll me, but then it became this whole thing in my family. That does make me feel better that I wasn’t the only one who didn’t know they existed. 😂

I was hoping to record my take of Free Fallin’ this weekend. I may have to even though there’s a heat wave here and I might have to turn the AC off for that for the sound, and I might melt. I am weak. We’ll see what happens. 😂

[Andrew]

@rw1950merritt – That was awesome! From here, I’d focus on one section at a time. For example, take Theme 1 and play along with a metronome or with Steven in the tab player. Start at the tempo you recorded and focus on keeping things steady. Once that feels solid, gradually start increasing the tempo. So your main goal right now is building speed.

Keep up the great work! Feel and playing sounded great overall!

@johanna2509 – What a beautiful video and audio performance you’ve made! I loved it! My only suggestion would be to experiment with playing a lil behind the beat – especially with the chords that are strummed. That’ll give the song a little more of a relaxed feel.

And it’s crazy that your phone didn’t fall down with that setup lol 😂

@janaq1 – Bravo Jana! 👏 I’m def gonna feature your performance on our socials this week!

@katazumiri – Loved it! Great drumming too! Perfect beat and groove for this tune 🙂

[gi_gi_]

@johann2509 Beautiful place. Great performance.

Loving everyone’s pieces. Seems like everyone doing Summertime is playing an Anuenue ☺️

[ccwuke]

I am a PREMIUM MEMBER

Great performances this month!

I took on In the Summertime.

My household will be glad I’ve got a recording uploaded today, they’ve had enough of this earworm haha.

[janaq1]

@Andrew – Thank you very much. I really appreciate your praise and all the previous feedback.

@gi_gi_ , @The_Bumble_Bard – Thank you for your kind words. 😊

@jasdel – Thank you. But don’t worry, you’ll learn the song one day. I remember three years ago I gave up, too – I couldn’t learn it at all. So I was really surprised how well it fit me this time.

[The_Bumble_Bard]

I AM A PREMIUM MEMBER

Hello again ukulele friendos!! 😁

I’ve already rambled a lot about Free Fallin’, but boy it has been such a journey learning this tune! I never really thought I could overcome my strummophobia, but this ended up being the tune that helped me break through! Not even exaggerating, this was the hardest tune I have ever learned on Rock Class 101 because it caused me to face every single aspect of music (and playing ukulele) that I struggle with – strumming, chucking, sensing rhythm, (now) tapping, and my apparent dyslexia with chord numbers and shapes (where I constantly switch them around which makes it extremely difficult to read tab and learn songs – especially in the chorus of this tune; so if the number is 0889, I would constantly read/play it as 0899). Each section of this tune had so many challenges for me and each part took multiple days to learn, and I’m still working on it! All that said, I am so happy and proud with how far I came with this tune that I want to cry right now. 😂 I’m just so happy that I finally got over this mental block I had with strumming, even though learning this was incredibly challenging for me. I want to try to go back and learn some of RC101’s amazing strumming tunes that I was too scared to try before, even though it will be challenging for a while to learn tunes like that!! Okay, thank you so much, Andrew and Matt for creating this tune, hosting these challenges, and being so encouraging and lovely always! 🙂

One last very important note, is that even before I cut my nails I couldn’t get a solid “tap” sound during the tapping sections, so mid-way through the tune I stuck a googly eye onto the side of my thumb and used that to create a louder tap! Then, I removed it for the chorus (because it would get in the way of the chucks!). It ended up also sounding like a little tambourine. Ha!! 😂

Here ’tis:

(I also was going to post that tune to my YouTube channel, but then I couldn’t fix the sound, so it’s only shared here now.)

Thank you all again for sharing such incredible tunes this month and for being such an amazing group! 💕😊

[gi_gi_]

@the_bumble_bard That was sooooo good. You’re like the opposite of everyone else who loves to strum and are afraid of fingerpicking. Now you can do it all. Great job!

@ccwuke I know what you mean about boring the family. I think I’m done listening to my song too 😂🤣😆 Yours was great.

[The_Bumble_Bard]

@gi_gi_ thank you so much, my friend!! It was such a big deal for me personally to get over that hurdle of avoiding strumming by learning this song. Haha do most people prefer strumming? Thank you so much, can’t wait to hear your entry!! 🥰😊

[grannieannie]

@The_Bumble_Bard: Well done, girl! You took on not just one aspect of playing that has frightened you, but a whole bunch of challenges, and you made it through the song just beautifully. Andrew has such a talent for adding little touches to his arrangements that seem innocuous at first, then I realize they’re there to help us learn something new, and there were a lot of those in that piece. (Nice touch with the eye-tapping too!)

I find strumming easier to learn and play, but I prefer the challenge of finger-picking – there’s so much more to think about, and the fingers have to have dexterity to move around the fretboard. Also, I prefer the finger-picked arrangements – I like to think they give a classical guitar feel to the songs, not that I have any pretensions about my own playing!

[Andrew]

@ccwuke – Very well played, Chris! Feel is spot on! From here, I’d work on fine tuning it. I hear few spots where it could be a little cleaner or the rhythm slips slightly. But honestly, it already sounds great, and I think you’ll have it locked in with just a little more practice (as long as the fam is okay with that 😂).

@The_Bumble_Bard – You should strum more! It sounds really good! Amazing work on this tune! It’s a toughie and you aced it. Really impressive playing, Rachael 👏

[The_Bumble_Bard]

@Andrew, thank you soooooooo much for your kind words! Your encouragement really means the world to me. It’s always a huge bonus when you are impressed by something. I feel like I earned a special gold star this day! 😂 I really do want to try more strumming tunes, but it may not be every challenge because learning those takes up about 100% of my brain’s CPU (and I don’t have much to spare…). 😂 Anyway, thank you again so much!! 😊

@grannieannie, thank you so much for that! I kind of want to cry from all this encouragement. I don’t know how repeatedly everyone here practices certain passages of music, but I probably played the chorus of the song… more times than I can count before I got it that far. And the “break,” oh my word. The verses weren’t too hard, but incorporating the tapping was very tricky. I also love that about RC101 tunes – that they are incredible pieces of music and truly fulfilling to learn and play, but also teach something valuable in the process. And you’re right that it’s very subtle, which is part of the brilliance of it. That really isn’t always true for all ukulele tutorials. You can just see that all the teachers here put their hearts into what they create – Andrew being one of the best examples, in that he never cuts corners and always strives for perfection (none of the teachers cut corners, but just saying – the love and dedication to quality put into these tunes carries through). I try to put the love I feel, the emotional expression, into playing them – for me that’s my main objective with music.

Haha, I really wanted Andrew to notice the eye-tapping, but I’m not sure if he did! Lol!! My goal is to eventually get it where I “don’t miss a beat” taking the googly eye on and off. 😂

I just can’t compute that you find strumming easier to play! That’s really awesome, though. I think that for all the reasons previously listed, I find every aspect of strumming difficult. It also has to do with physical comfort, kind of, which is hard to explain. But I agree – I also just love fingerpicking so much, and it is that “classical” effect that you can get and all the beautiful techniques you can experience while fingerpicking. There are a lot of techniques with strumming, too, but imo, they are way more difficult. Thank you for the lovely reply! 😊

Looking forward to hearing a bunch more tunes this month!! 😀

[shmu88]

I AM A PREMIUM MEMBER

Hello all,

Here’s my entry for this summer challenge, it’s summertime!

Cheers

Sam

[Andrew]

@shmu88 – Amazing performance Sam, bravo! 👏

[gi_gi_]

@shmu88 Bravo! That was nice….

[brettboy]

Happy Summer to my fellow Northern Hemisphere ukulele friends 🙂
I chose Summertime. Here’s my best take:
Thanks to Andrew and Steven for the great lesson!

(PS If you also wanna check out my “In the Summertime” video, it’s on my YT posted August 3, 2023)

[Author]

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