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Hi Rock Class 101 Community!
We are back with site member challenge #84! WOW, there has now been over 4,500+ 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 6 RC101 Lessons:
1) “Danny Boy” * – A timeless Irish ballad; this arrangement begins as a chord melody, but transitions into a fingerpicked harmony with vocals.
* Taught in its entirety for FREE!
Note: If you choose this song, you MUST sing.
2) “Red is the Rose” – A bittersweet, yet beautiful Irish Ballad set to the tune of a Scottish love song.
3) “The Irish Washerwoman” – A traditional Irish Jig (dance)! This tune is perfect for working on hammer-on and pull-off technique.
4) “St. Anne’s Reel” – This traditional Irish folk song has a trick up its sleeve! It’s performed with a rhythmic backbeat AND a triple pick right hand technique.
Note: This song is played with cherry picking technique. This technique is taught in our Triplet Strum Magic Course. I’d highly encourage you to go through the course before attempting to perform this piece.
That being said, while this song can be performed using traditional fingerpicking and strumming techniques, it truly shines when played with the cherry picking technique.
5) “Smash the Windows” * – Learn an Irish Jig that’s equally melodic and rhythmic!
* Taught in its entirety for FREE!
Note: This song is played with cherry picking technique. This technique is taught in our Triplet Strum Magic Course. I’d highly encourage you to go through the course before attempting to perform this piece.
That being said, while this song can be performed using traditional fingerpicking and strumming techniques, it truly shines when played with the cherry picking technique.
6) “The Black Velvet Band” – A beginner-friendly fingerstyle arrangement of a beautiful Irish folk song.
** 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: “The Black Velvet Band” OR “Danny Boy”
2. Intermediate 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: “Red is the Rose” OR “The Irish Washerwoman”
3. 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: “St. Anne’s Reel” OR “Smash the Windows”
4. 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 6 RC101 pieces anytime between Friday, March 1st until Sunday, March 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. 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 April 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: Kala KA-CM-C Curly Mango Concert Ukulele
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THANKS TO OUR SPONSOR!
Uke Republic: https://www.ukerepublic.com/
Let’s crush this challenge!
Nice! @Andrew, which of these would you say are Low-G-friendly? Thanks!
Marianne, “Danny Boy” would be the only one that wouldn’t require any adaption to be played on low G. But that choice does require vocal accompaniment. If you prefer not to sing, I think you could make “Red is the Rose” work with some adaptation.
@brettboy setting the bar high….. 😁👍👏
@brettboy, that was so, so beautiful! Setting the bar high indeed. 😳😂
I have an idea for this challenge, but I’m not sure I can pull it off, so I also have a backup plan. That’s all I’ll say for now… 😂
@brettboy, 4 years…….that’s 48 challenges…..that’s a true commitment. I always enjoy your posts because you always set the bar high inspiring the rest of us. That is a beautiful take on ‘Red is the Rose’………have you actually submitted for all 48 challenges in the past 4 years?……..how many years have you been submitting?
@The_Bumble_Bard can’t wait to see what you have cookin’😁Hi Uke Friends!
Thanks for the kind words.
I have perfect attendance going all the way back to the very first RC101 monthly challenge (nearly 7 years ago!)
Here’s my St. Anne’s Reel video from October 2020 Member Challenge. (I love playing this arrangement!)
@brettboy that is impressive discipline – Cheers to seven more!….and thank-you – I always look forward to your posts.
@deadbuggy – beautiful playing …..and that is a ‘way-cool’ t-shirt!Oh my goodness guys @brettboy and @deadbuggy I’m looking over what I want to learn this morning and started to learn The Irish Waterwoman but after hearing your renditions of the Red Rose I now want to change ☺️
@Brettboy How long have you been playing ukulele? It’s so impressive that you haven’t missed a challenge in 7 years and it shows. You have great showmanship as well. I’m coming up on 3 years of playing in a couple of months so this encourages me to keep going. Can’t wait till I’m as comfortable as you are.Question: have you found it gets easier to learn and remember songs the longer you play?
@the_bumble_bard I can’t wait to see what you have up your sleeve 😂 I know it will be great.
@leb397 I won’t be singing this time. I’m in a cunundrum as to what I want to play now 😂 I was thinking the Irish Waterwoman so I could impress my Irish friends but the Red Rose is beautiful too. I think I will stick with the jig song. It’s so cool.@brettboy, your playing of St. Anne’s Reel is so magical! So perfect. That one has high clawhammer potential, but obvs is beautiful as is. So cool that you have perfect attendance with the challenges for seven years! That’s crazy. I don’t think I’ve ever had perfect attendance in any context for much more than a month… 🤐😂
@deadbuggy, that was so beautiful! I agree with Gi_Gi that your and brettboy’s performance of that one makes it tempting to learn.
@gi_gi_ and @dianna, ha thank you! Hopefully I can pull off what I’m imagining. It’s already in the works but it could be a minor disaster. Either way it should be funny. We’ll see what happens. 😂😅
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