Participate in the March 2023 Member Challenge: WIN Classical Ukulele!

[richo_uke]

Hello Andrew, hello Steven, hello RC members,

I just finished my take on SWAN LAKE. I love this melody so much that it was for sure that I wanted to play this and in a way I’m satisfied with the result but of course I would like to play it better.

Could you please give me a hint how I can improve playing the notes on higher frets? They squeeze more than I wanted them to.

Thank you Andrew and Steven for this wonderful course.
Have a great weekend everybody.

Rici

• This reply was modified 2 years, 3 months ago by richo_uke.

[dianna]

To Morrieuke1 – My email is: [email protected] …..send me a message and I will give you the address …. it is a member’s house address.

[brettboy]

Hi Uke Friends,

(I’m a premium member)

I worked on Adelita this month. Lovely tune and great challenge. Here’s my best take thus far:

[june2020]

I’m playing my brand new Mainland uke courtesy of RockClass101 and Uke Republic. It’s a beautiful uke and I had it strung with a low G.
I chose Danse Paysanne this month. I find dynamics to be quite challenging and I hope I accomplished some of what was presented in the lesson.

[laurakarr12]

I am a PREMIUM MEMBER.
Danse Paysanne
I’m so excited to be at the point with this song to start working on all of those great stylistic approaches for performance mentioned in our style class.

[The_Bumble_Bard]

Hello again, uke friends! (I guess I unconsciously absorbed that phrase from brettboy without realizing it. Whoops! 😅)

Here is my entry. I was originally going to try Swan Lake, but was having some struggles with the technique, and need more time with it. So, I tried Study in B Minor instead. Very lovely chune (tune). That “freaky B chord” tripped me up big time (or rather transitioning from that back to the “sneaky E chord”) but I’ll keep working on this and hopefully can get it smoother.

Thanks to everyone who was kind and supportive in this thread earlier about the struggles I was having. Recording anxiety is real, as is feeling overwhelmed learning new techniques. But the course is wonderful and the songs in it are beautiful and everyone’s entries this month were amazing.

Thanks to Andrew and Steven and co. for all you do!

[bibilele]

Hi everyone,
I still have a lot to practice on this piece so this is more of a work in progress. But I won’t get further this month. 😱 Bar 3 and 7 seemed impossible for me at the beginning so I’m quite proud that I now sometimes make the strings sound okay – but still with a delay. 😅
I hope you enjoy the piece nontheless. 😁
Best,
Bianca

[smokealot]

Made it in time!

The classical course is great and Steve an excellent teacher! I really admire his tone and seemingly effortless playing.

I bought a set of low-G strings but they wouldn´t fit, so I stuck with my high-G.

[lynnzo]

I AM A PREMIUM MEMBER

Hi, I had to take a couple months off so I’m choosing Danse Paysanne by Ferdinando Carulli. I love the way this sounds when someone else is playing. I’ll keep practicing.

[morrieuke1]

brettboy so good, I always enjoy your performances keep em coming!

[Andrew]

Here’s everyone on page 9 that we haven’t gotten to.

@ldarrow – You played it beautifully! You def have not lost your touch! I hope your hands continue to strengthen and heal 🙂

@dianna – I love the expression in your playing! For sustain, can you try playing at a slow tempo and focus on sustain each note/chord into the next?

If you watch Steven closely, he’s doing just that to increase sustain. In other words, he keeps each note held for it’s entire duration (as notated).

For ex, if you look at measure 1, the p/o of 10 to 9, you cut the note (9) short to move down to 5. Try to increase the reach of index (9) to ring (5) so that you can continue to hold 9 for longer as opposed to moving your entire hand down the neck.

Another ex, if you look at measure 3, he barres 7555 and keeps that held down the entire measure. This allows the G and A string notes (out of that chord) to continue to ring.

In your performance, I noticed you remove your ring immediately after playing it. The same with 5 on A, that note is cut short by not holding the barre down.

These examples shine light on the subtitles of how we play the notes/chords.

@morrieuke1 – Bravo, Michael! Excellent flow and feel 👏

@leslieb – Great job on the timing, note clarity, and sustain Leslie! Very well done!!

[olemartin]

I am a premium member.

So, I started the course, which I realize takes more time than I’ve had this month. Therefore; here comes the Swan Lake theme 😊 (but I hope to finish the other two aswell – classical has been a nice challenge).

Ole Martin

[leb397]

@The_bumble_bard nice job with Study in Bm Sounds really smooth on that cool electric uke! Your concerns were SOOO similar to my playing. Some tricky cord fingering. I guess that’s why they are called challenges! 😉
Not sure I’ll get past the recording jitters. Sounds like WE are not alone there, when you read many of the comments.

Anxious to see what’s next for April!

[dianna]

@Andrew, Thank-you so much for your critique and explanation of the subtleties and nuance of sustain. It’s interesting….I can hear the music and feel it, but I definitely need to work on the technicalities of playing in order to play expressively. Anyway, Rock class 101 is awesome…..I appreciate the time you have taken to review my piece.

@The_bumble_bard thank-you for voicing what so many of us experience. It has made me realize that there is so much more to these challenges than just learning a new piece of music (though that’s a huge part of it.) I think we are also developing inner stamina, a discipline in itself.
It’s kind of funny….the actual playing of my uke helps to relax and calm me thru all of this.

Also, this idea of posting my imperfection is both frustrating and kind of exhilarating….I have to come to terms with ‘this is where I am now’….

@leb397 Yes! Can’t wait to see what April offers!

[Andrew]

My pleasure, Dianna!

[Author]

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