Participate in the September 2020 Member Challenge – Original Music!

[effortless]

I submitted an entry early in the month and before the month ended I want to share my song after trying to incorporate the feedback I got from Andrew. Thanks for the feedback!

[mark1256]

Rough month. I wanted to do Classical Etude but I couldn’t get a recording I liked. So I decided to try an original. I call this Strange Time because I used chords from People Are Strange.

[andrewvh]

I found this month’s challenge very difficult, and despite lots of practice I’m not really happy with the recording. That’s probably because I know I can do it better, but unfortunately not all in one go.
Anyway, great playing everyone. Here’s my best take:

[robinl]

Hi everyone, I’m excited to participate in my first challenge! I played Wonder Pt. 2:

[surrealflea]

My Wonder Part 2. Still working on bringing it up to speed. 🙂

[rockmyuke]

Hi Everybody,
Here is a tune I wrote I call WALKABOUT.
I think every month’s challenge should include the option of an original song. It clearly stimulates the songwriting in all of us!
Dennis

[ramiro]

I wrote a short instrumental song for this month’s challenge. I used ideas from the lesson “Beautiful Spanish Chord Progression on Ukulele” by Marco Cirillo.

[Andrew]

@cncamacho – So cool to see you play Robin’s song! And you played it beautifully, well done! 🙂

@effortless – I like the changes! The strum section sounds much more developed and keeps the flow going from the fingerpicking section. Great work!

[AJ]

Here is everyone on page 6.

kirpuff –

very well played! Great dynamics and technique. Keep up the good work!

rucha11 –

Great Job! Barre chords are a bit tricky on the uke for me as well since I have petty big hands! So try to to take those chords and make sure you are applying enough pressure on the strings to get the chord to sound right, but also make sure the other fingers playing the melody around the chord are not getting in the way of the ringing strings. So I would just take those sections and play them slow so you can really see you fingers and go from there!

bariton –

This is awesome! Great playing and performance. Awesome Job!

kanae926 –

Awesome job! Only thing i can say is more of a style preference, but I see you play with your palm resting on the bridge. I typically play with my hang hanging over the strings not resting on anything and to me it allows for more dynamic control as well as for some other strumming techniques. Again. more of a style preference but it won’t hurt to try both ways!

—-

Here is everyone on page 7.

mark1256 –

awesome job!! I would watch the timing and tempo just a bit. I have the tendency to rush a lot of the time, and when I start to really think about the tempo, I find everything flows a lot smoother and sounds way better. Keep it up, you sound great!

andrewvh –

your picking technique looks great! I would work on some of those quicker right hand melodies a little bit because you got the chords and even the harmonics! So once those melodies are clean, I think you’ll have this piece down very well!!

robinl –

Sounds awesome! Great performance. Keep it up, I really enjoyed listening to this!

surrealflea –

awesome job! Only thing watch out for that stubborn fret buzz on those barre chords. Make sure you finger is barring right in the middle of the fret and with enough pressure. I would recommend working on it with the transitions before and after the barre, so that way you’re learning how to go in and out of it. Keep it up!

rockmyuke –

sounds great! Love the piece. Really great picking pattern as well. Keep up the great work!

ramiro –

Super cool piece!! I love it. Kinda has a latin feel which is awesome! For the picking part, I would try to minimize the movement of your fingers after you pick the strings, They look to be going slightly too far up from the string which makes it sound a little choppy since you have to get your fingers back to the normal position. I used to do the same thing. Your finger should kinda curl once you hit the string instead of the whole thing lifting away from the string. Does that make sense? Great job though, love the tune!

• This reply was modified 2 years, 12 months ago by Andrew.
• This reply was modified 2 years, 12 months ago by Andrew.

[robinboyd]

Hey @rockmyuke. I absolutely love your ukulele. Is that a custom?

[andrewvh]

@AJ, Thanks for the feedback.

[ramiro]

Thanks for the feedback @Aj! I’ll pay attention to how much I lift off the fingers of the picking hand.

[aloooy]

Here is my take on Uke Blues No. 2.
Chord changes on some parts are not yet as smooth as I would have liked it. But its the last day today.
Looking forward to October’s challenge

• This reply was modified 2 years, 12 months ago by aloooy.

[rockmyuke]

Hi Robin (@robinboyd),
My uke isn’t a custom. It’s a solid koa tenor that I bought from a company called Sound Smith in Bend, OR. Their website is http://www.soundsmithgear.com. The owner’s name is Shannon Check them out.
Dennis (rockmyuke)

[Andrew]

@aloooy – Well played, Marlo! Good feel & phrasing throughout! One thing I wanna point out – and it’s the hardest part of this song IMO. Compare the first bar of theme 1 to theme 2. Look at the end of it, in theme 1 the pick up starts on beat 4 and in theme 2 it starts before beat 4. The latter feels very unnatural, b/c it’s quite syncopated. Double check the lesson video for that part, I remember going over it quite a bit cause it’s tricky.

[Author]

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