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Hi Rock Class 101 Community!
We are back with site member challenge #30! WOW, there has now been over 1,150+ 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 3 Rock Class 101 Strumming Lessons:
1) Add a Drum-Like Percussive Rhythm to Strumming * – Move beyond chucking with this unique and creative way to add a drum inspired percussive rhythm to your ukulele playing. * Taught in its entirety for FREE w/ FREE TAB!
2) Strumming Techniques: Beyond the Island Strum * – Learn four strumming techniques that help you break out of the island strum (D DU UDU) & chucking rut! If you choose this one, you must perform 1 exercise from each of the 4 techniques taught in the course. * Requires Premium Membership.
3) “Five Foot Two, Eyes Of Blue” Etude * – The capstone performance piece from our NEW strumming course (see #2 above)! This etude combines all 4 strumming techniques you’ve learned in a fun sounding vintage uke tune!* Taught in its entirety for FREE! But – and it’s a BIG but – it’s highly recommended you take the course before attempting the etude, as it will set you up for success with learning this piece.
** 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: Drum-Like Percussive Rhythm OR 4 Exercises from the Strumming Course
2. Intermediate to 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 Piece (from easier to harder): “Five Foot Two” Etude
3. Participation Goal: 35 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 3 Strumming pieces anytime between Sunday, September 1st until Monday, September 30th, 11:59pm EST.
The upload feature on the site only supports file sizes up to 5 MB. 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 October 5th, 2019. To qualify to win, you must submit your audio and/or video links of your playing by the deadline listed above.
Grand Prize:
1) $140 Grand Prize! Includes:
A) Islander MC-4-HNS Mahogany Honu Series Concert Ukulele
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THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS!
Uke Republic: http://www.ukerepublic.com/
Kanile’a: https://www.kanileaukulele.com/
Islander: http://www.islanderukulele.com/
Let’s crush this challenge!
What a challenge! The exercises can be dealt with easily, but “Five foot two” is rather difficult, due to the position of some chords. I’ll try!
Cool challenge…just working my way through the course….Triplet strum…I have been doing it down, up thumb, up index, which makes the fan very difficult as it builds on down, down, up…Suggestions or should I change triplet technique? Thanks, Lisa
@lisamcc – I’d recommend doing the pattern as Christopher recommends in the course.
If you are just doing the triplet strum alone, then there are many ways to do this technique 🙂
This is my submission for the September challenge.
Luckily, I already learned this while on vacation last month. Percussive/drumming techniques are my absolute favorite. It’s so fun and groovy. I hope to learn ways to incorporate more of it into other songs.
The new strumming course is a blast! It just so happened that I did a video practicing Five Foot Two and moments later…the contest announcement 🙂 As often happens with me, I’ve added my own little touches. My fan stroke gives me a stroke at the moment, so I’ll work on that. And while I can do the pluck strum I had more fun doing something else. Anyway, Happy Labor Day, Happy September, Happy Strumming!
apblondie – Ashlee, that was so awesome! So around 55 seconds till the end, that’s when you locked into the groove. And it sounds so good! You’ve definitely got the technique down! The only thing I can suggest is to practice the transition from basic strumming into the technique. Keep up the great work 🙂
deadbuggy – Great job, Sara! As always, I really dig the changes you through in. The one thing that I would work on though, is to try to bring the melody note out more. Most of the time this falls on the A string, so see if you can make it pop a little bit more. Other than that, right hand technique was awesome! Really fun to watch 🙂
Thanks, Andrew! I’ll work on it. And many thanks to Christopher — I love the course and I really admire his playing!
Thanks @Andrew! I will definitely work on that transition. Thank you for your feedback. You are the coolest!
I’m very excited about the percussive drum-beat challenge. I’ve previously had a go at this using the Ten Thumbs Youtube video which I found after watching the amazing Billie Jean cover by James Hill
I’ve made a start on the piece and I think it’s going pretty well. Whether I can do it in front of the camera or not is another matter entirely of course 🙂
I noticed I was moving my right (strumming) hand a lot to move from the thumb-hit to the up-strum, aiming to strum close to my regular position nearer the fretboard. However, having watched the video again I notice that Andrew is strumming very close to the bridge (with the exception of the intro), keeping his hand pretty still, so I’m going to work on that aspect now.
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