Participate in the March 2025 Member Challenge – Rewind & Replay!

[grannieannie]

This is a busy time for you, Andrew – thanks for viewing and commenting on all of our submissions. In your last post to @ukefinlandgirl (beautiful ukulele there!), you referenced a couple of links related to relaxing the arm and hand. Do you still have those?

[Andrew]

@grannieannie – Yes, you can find those 2 links in this post.

[johanna2509]

Hello!

Here is my updated version of House of the Rising Sun. I think I can hear the notes on the A string more clearly in the strumming section and I managed to use a four finger picking approach in the picking section, so I guess there is an improvement. 😊

[abster]

I am a premier member

Lot left to be desired even after lots of practice

[anyon1]

Hi!

Here’s my second try at Etude 30-Hammer Ons, Pull Offs, & Building Speed. I bought a baritone ukulele at the end of January and decided to use it for this take. In retrospect, it was not a good idea to try to “build speed” with a larger instrument! I do feel like I was able to improve my pull off technique this month, though, so I’m glad to have had extra practice with this piece.

[leb397]

Here is my second try at 4/4 Waltz. Far from what I wished for but I do see improvement and know I really need to work on barre chords. Managed to hit my left index finger 😩 with a hammer so still tender when pressing. Glad I have this song memorized. It’s so pretty. Thanks Andrew
Louisa

[frederic]

Hello everyone !

Here is my second submission for the Travis Picking mini Lesson (ML023).

[nelsonlin2021]

Post #2 – Premium Member

Here is my rendition of Prelude in C, which I first learned three years ago. Since then, my chord transitions and dexterity have improved significantly, and I can now play it closer to the original tempo. I welcome any feedback!

[Andrew]

@johanna2509 – The melody is shining through much better during the strumming sections. Nice job! And you’re fingerpicking that 16th rhythm accurately each time too. Very nice progress! The only thing I’d suggest to work on, is to eliminate the pauses during the transitions in the strumming section.

@abster – That was amazing Abhay! I just sent it to Evan to watch 🙂

@anyon1 – BIG improvement with your H/O & P/O technique. They are sounding spot on now! You played the piece with a great feel and a solid, steady tempo. Excellent work Adriana!

@leb397 – You’ve got it flowing beautifully! I’d call that a big improvement! It was a lovely performance and a pleasure to listen to Louisa 🙂

@frederic – You’ve got that rhythm down now! Excellent fingerpicking and great job on the timing/tempo. You kept it steady throughout!

@nelsonlin2021 – Your dexterity has improved dramatically in both hands. You always had a great feel, but now, you’ve got fluidity too. I’m continually impressed by how fast you’re progressing with your musicianship!

[karenj]

I AM A PREMIUM MEMBER

Here’s my March Challenge submission of Here Comes The Sun, Take 2. I’m still not as happy with it as I would like, but I am out of time and this is the best of a zillion takes. Sometimes my progress feels like a snail’s pace.
Happy Spring to all.
Karen

[ldarrow]

Waiting until the last minute makes getting a good recording even more difficult. Pressure is high especially when trying to show improvement from previous posting. I did ‘Red is the Rose’ for last years March challenge. Love this sound so wanted to give it another try and try to have fewer hesitations. I struggle the most with the picking part. Though not a great performance, I do think I have fewer hesitations. Got excited toward the end thinking I made it through, but then messed up at the very end. Accomplished the goal of improving but certainly did not demonstrate very well here.

[maryjanew]

I chose “Red Is The Rose” which I first started to learn last year, March 2024.
I have improved my technique much but I still have a long way to go to get up to speed. I also found myself still dependent on the sheet music. I kept making mistakes and I took at least 30 videos!😜 I was finally getting better but needed a break. After the break, I somehow recorded in “slow-Mo” setting 🙄- 4 videos like that! So I had to go back to my “best” video from before the break but had to cut a few mistakes out. and I forgot to lift my pinky off the 5th fret toward the end! If I get a chance tonight, I might try to play it again… maybe with my Baritone Uke w/ octave Tenor strings.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 1 month ago by maryjanew.

[The_Bumble_Bard]

Hello friends! 😊

I know there are so many amazing entries already, I haven’t gotten to listen to all of them, but fully plan to go back and comment in a “mega post” before the full flood of entries come in, lol (though I’ve gotten to read a lot of what people said and Andrew’s lovely feedback).

Oh my, Lacrimosa. This was quite insightful to relearn. I have so many thoughts and mixed feelings about this. I went through the stages of grief relearning this (fittingly). 😂😅 I felt so confident at first but turns out it was hubris. 😂

Well, I’ll write my thoughts out in a list:

– Relearning this helped me realize that I have a way of playing that I’m now most comfortable with and Steven’s style of playing is very, very different from mine now (also he’s an incredible musician, so there’s that 😂). One thing is playing melody notes with h/o’s and p/o’s on low G. Being 99% a high G player now, I’ve grown accustomed to avoid playing melody notes that way (and instead finding them on separate strings) because I do not enjoy that technique (though Steven plays that way so beautifully). 😂 Nonetheless, I did better with them this time around than the first, I think.
– This helped me realize that so much of playing has to do with confidence… and practice (I didn’t start relearning this a week or so ago or anything…). There are times when I’m so comfortable with a song that I feel extremely confident and times like this that I still feel overwhelmed and like I’m back to square one with my anxiety with recording (as this took about 25 takes to get – and this one still had a “false start” which I left in on purpose). Everyone has moments where they get inside their head and get stuck in a negativity spiral. That’s what happened with this for sure. Still, I’m so happy I relearned this and will try to remember this one this time and get it even smoother. 😊
– Also, this arr. is still incredibly difficult in places, that hasn’t changed, but I do think I smoothed out the second half a lot more than the first time.

That wasn’t even a list, still really rambling, oh well. 😂 Here ’tis:

Thank you for this amazing challenge, Andrew! 😊

[Kasia]

I didn’t manage to finish the challenge this time, good luck to everyone 🙂

[ukefinlandgirl]

Hello.

Thank you @Andrew for your feedback and your video. It really helped a lot.😊

Also, some hand stretch exercises should be applied before every practice session.😊

[Author]

Posts