Participate in the September 2021 Member Challenge – Theme: Songs About Food

[Andrew]

Hi Rock Class 101 Community!

We are back with site member challenge #54! WOW, there has now been over 2,500+ 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 5 RC101 Lessons:

1) “Chopsticks” – The iconic piano duet arranged for solo ukulele! 

2) 2 Bluegrass Tunes for Banjolele – You have 2 songs to choose from:



Option 1: “Cornbread and Butterbeans”



Option 2: “Shortnin’ Bread”



Both songs have 2 versions: beginner and advanced. You can choose to perform either, BUT you must perform these songs using clawhammer technique. Which you can learn for FREE in our clawhammer course!

3) “Green Tea” * – Learn a relaxing, bluesy chord melody which you can jam along to with a bass and cajon backing track (or play as a stand alone piece).

* Taught in its entirety for FREE!


4) “Pineapple Uke Blues” – Learn a relaxing and melodic blues song that is perfect for the advanced fingerstyle player.

** 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: “Chopsticks” OR “Green Tea”

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 Pieces: 2 Bluegrass Tunes for Banjolele OR “Pineapple Uke Blues”

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 5 RC101 pieces anytime between Wednesday, September 1st until Thursday, 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. To qualify to win, you must submit your audio and/or video links of your playing by the deadline listed above.

Grand Prize:

1) $75 Grand Prize! Includes:

A) Kala Watermelon Pineapple Soprano Ukulele (KA-NV-WTML )

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THANKS TO OUR SPONSOR!

Uke Republic: http://www.ukerepublic.com/

Let’s crush this challenge!

[santai]

Cornbread and Butterbeans it is!
For two reasons actually:
1) This was up for a challenge one and a half years back. Got it down and practiced – but missed the deadline. So this is my chance to review what’s left and relearn the rest. 😉
2) While playing back the videos now, this was the tune that immediately got my 11-month-old daughter dancing. 😀

[smokealot]

“Songs About Food” is a fantastic theme! 😀 Makes me wanna think of more foodsongs.

[Andrew]

@santai – that’s awesome!

[henri0]

Pineapple Uke Blues.

Love this piece. I’ve been a bit loose in my interpretation in the latter part. But very much enjoying playing this.

[Andrew]

Fantastic playing, Rhian! You nailed the vibe of the tune! My only critique is to not rush the first 2 bars of Melody B. It’s a really cool lick with tricky timing! Here’s a video I made last year to help another member with the rhythm/timing of those bars.

[bibilele]

Hi guys,

I chose “Green tea”. Such a relaxing tune. 🙂 And now I need to do the lesson about the 12 bar blues so that I can write one by myself. 😀

[johanna2509]

Hi!

I chose Chopsticks because I grew up with it on the piano. I also wanted to include a piano part, but I didn’t like the outcome of it… that’s why the video is cut where the piano part was.

I started learning Moon River this morning, it’s such a beautiful melody and arrangement. Thanks again RC101!

[Andrew]

@bibilele – Beautiful played with a great, relaxed feel. Well done!

@johanna2509 – Aced it 🙂

[bibilele]

Thanks @Andrew 🙂

[johanna2509]

Thank you @Andrew 🙂

[shmu88]

Hey guys,

I enjoyed learning the clawhammer technique, not easy! I still have to work on it but here is my entry for this month’s challenge

Cornbread and butterbeans 🙂

Thanks!

[Andrew]

@shmu88 – Sounds great, Sam! I asked Chris to review your video and he had a couple tips:

“I’d have him move his hand up over the fingerboard, which will seem a bit weird at first, but stop him from attacking the strings too hard on the first stoke. He’s digging into that a bit too much and wants to bounce off the string a bit more.”

[katazumiri]

Hello everyone!

Here is my “Shortnin’ Bread”

Have a nice day!

[biancak]

Hi, I’ve been practicing Green Tea and struggling with having my picking fingers in place when there are the 2 individual notes at the end of a bar after strumming. When I do the last strum my hand swings towards string G so no finger is left to pick on string A, at least not within such a short time… Should I reduce the last strum before picking just to the 2 upper strings or just almost to a picking on A? Any tips? Thanks

[Author]

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