Participate in the November 2025 Member Challenge – WIN $2,250 Kanile’a Uke

[karenj]

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Here is my November challenge submission of Over the River and Through the Woods. I have fond memories of when my family of 7 would pile (all unbelted back then) into our van for the long trip to my grandmothers and sing the only verse we knew over and over. I have so much to be thankful for these days, including RC 101. Thanks for the many wonderful lessons and the challenge (aka love/hate relationship) to learn and record these monthly songs. I may revisit La Gitanita which was one of my first submissions quite a few years ago.

Happy Thanksgiving to all.
Kqren

[Andrew]

@karenj – Thank you for sharing such a lovely memory with us Karen! Beautifully played and great job on the triplet strum technique!

[leb397]

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@karenj lovely take on O.T.R. and your childhood memory. I can certainly relate to it. An added note we traveled in our old paneled station wagon and we were allowed to lay down in the back with our feet out the rear window 🤣😂. Good ole days.

Happy holidays everyone. Truly thankful to have RC to push me to want to learn.

Here’s my, Over the River through the Woods

[barbecueblack]

Dear Rockclass

I enjoyed learning new playing techniques through songs. It made learning so much more fun! Thank you for the lessons.

Here is my version of “Over the River and through the woods” for the November 2025 challenge.

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Cheers

[lhamilton]

Hi,

This month I worked on La Gitanita. I just couldn’t manage to get the tapped harmonics sounding right so ran into a different way to do a pinched harmonic and rather liked it, so I learned to do it instead.

Linda
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[ccwuke]

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I also recorded La Gitanita. Not much time to practice this month and it needs a bit more polish, but happy enough with this take.

Chris

[patizon]

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Hi, I discovered the ukulele about a year ago and luckily I found Rock Class 101 right away! I get motivated every day. This challenge is a great chance to improve. So as a beginner I tried Morning Dew. My fingers are quite twitchy, but in the end it somehow worked 🙂

Best regards

Ondra

[shmu88]

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Hello!

Here is my entry for this month 🙂

Sam

[clempek]

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Hey,
It’s my participation with la gitanita.

Because of the song’s repetition, I tend to get lost and lose track of where I am; it shows in the recording ^^

[rw1950merritt]

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Is it my imagination or all the selections for the contests getting a lot harder. I couldn’t even finish one last month.
Here is my latest. It feels pretty glacial compared to everyone else.

[katazumiri]

Hey everyone!

This month I’m picking “Over the River and Through the Woods”.
I’d never heard this song before, so I decided to check out the lyrics. It turns out the first verse mentions sleighs and snow. I thought sleigh bells would be a good fit. And here’s what I came up with:

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Have a nice day!

[darktoto]

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Here’s my 2nd entry, on the finger picking etude n°28. Harder than the finger picking etude n°25 for sure! 🥵

[akukes73]

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I missed getting in my entry for last month (given I was struggling with Bad Moon Rising it might have been or the best!) as I went down with the flu. A colleague said her test for whether she
has a bad cold or flu is whether she would pick up a £50 note next to her bed – mine is whether I pick up my uke – since that didn’t happen for over 2 weeks then that equals a nasty flu..

Anyway back now and here is my entry for this month La Gitanita. I hope I managed to get in a few rasgueado strums (or some variant) perhaps more towards the end.

Amazing entries from everyone!

[Andrew]

@leb397 – Very nicely played, Louisa! Your triplet strum technique looks and sounds great, but I’m hearing some chords that aren’t ringing clearly. So that’s what I would focus most on as you continue practicing.

@barbecueblack – Wow, for your first time doing the triplet strum, bravo! Incredible job!

@lhamilton – You nailed the energy and feel of the piece! And nice work-around for the harmonic. Keep up the great work, Linda!

@ccwuke – Rasgueado sounds great! Great performance, Chris!

@patizon – An excellent first post, Ondra! I’m gonna share your performance in our newsletter on Friday 🙂

For the ending, you added an extra bar. The main phrase in Melody A repeats three times before it moves into the final two bars. If you need more clarity, try playing section C (Melody A) in the tab player.

@shmu88 – Your triplet picking technique sounds great and you nailed the haunting feel of the piece. Great job Sam!

@clempek – That was amazing Clem! I don’t see any confusion in the form at all. I think this is one of the best performance I’ve heard from you to date!

Couple tips: For the picado picking, try to keep alternating between the index and middle as much as possible. And for the rasgueado, try to get a little more independence when snapping out the pinky/ring/middle/index as you strum down. Check out Matt’s lesson for more help on the mechanics of the technique.

@rw1950merritt – Last month’s challenge did not have a beginner’s piece as a choice. This month’s did.

The piece you chose is not beginner-friendly. But I will say, sometimes it’s good to push out of our comfort zones and try something more challenging. I thought you did really well! Timing was great and you showed a clear understanding of 8th note triplets. Keep at it, and keep pushing to boost the tempo.

@katazumiri – I loved the beginning, so creative! Great performance as always Lena 👏

@darktoto – It def is much harder than “Morning Dew,” but you did great!

@akukes73 – Glad to hear you’re feeling better! Great job on the performance, you nailed the feel of the piece 🙂

For the rasgueado technique, check out Matt’s lessons on it in our Next Level Strumming Course, starting with Module 4, Unit 1.

[lhamilton]

Thanks @Andrew! I enjoyed the piece. The harmonic pinch technique striking the string with my ring finger rather than with my thumb makes it easier for my hand to move quickly to the next note and feels rather cool.

Linda

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