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@bomarkt – Thank you for the kind words! I merged your post here since we already had a welcome post for Sammy 🙂
@leihali – My pleasure!
We had 41 members participate this month! I’m continually blown away by how talented y’all are! Watching everyone’s performance was a pleasure!
So without further ado, the winner of our July Challenge is…
Our August challenge is LIVE and the theme is: Free For All! Hope to see everyone in the new challenge: https://rockclass101.com/august-2025-challenge
@leihali – Here is my feedback for you 🙂
@terryfallon3 – Beautifully played, Terry! I think you nailed the intro and the first time thru the form. Feel was spot on and so was the vibe! When it picks up speed during the last time thru the form, this is where I’d recommend switching your picking approach.I’d switch from thumb + index (what you did in the first 2 parts) to either a 3 or 4 finger approach. That’ll give you more dexterity to tackle the fast passages 🙂
@gi_gi_ – Wow! Really well played, Gigi! There’s only 2 things I’m hearing that I’d focus on. The first is increasing sustain during the crazy finger-frenzy parts, like bars 5 and 6. There’s a lot of challenging finger placement happening here and keeping the sustain of each note ringing as we go from one to the next is hard.I’d also focus on keeping tempo steady throughout as you practice. But eventually, you’ll want to play it to taste.
@tessiert – Beautifully played, Trace! From here, I’d work on memorizing it and then practicing with the tab player, playing along with Matt. Try 4 bars at a time, that’ll give you solid bite-sized phrases.
@bibilele – That was very well played, Bianca! Great job 👏
@dianna – Such a fun song! You played it well too! Great feel throughout! As you keep practicing, try playing along with me in the tab player. Try one section at a time with a focus on keeping it steady and matching the rhythms as close as you can.
@abster – That was awesome! Great job on the Clawhammer technique, looks and sounds awesome!
@jbmills07 – Here’s my feedback for you 🙂
@ruthie-roo – You played it beautifully, Ruthie! Great feel and tone and TY for the kind words 🙂
@nat-uke – Lovely performance, Natalie! I really enjoyed it!
@xerxes – Try this: change the playback speed of your performance to “1.75”. What do you hear? I hear great fingerpicking tone and you nailed the rhythms! What this proves is the main thing you want to work on is increasing tempo. All the things you wrote about this sounding bad or that, is just overthinking. I do it, you do it, I’m pretty sure we all do it! You played it great Milo!
@jody_hendrickson – Your performance pleases the board. You may join @brettboy for the celebratory melon bar experience.
@rgillof – Fingerpicking and strumming sounded great! I’m hearing some of the rhythms are a little off, so that’s probably where I’d focus most of your practice on. Try playing with Matt in the tab player and counting the rhythms out loud.
@jobarjo454 – Amazing! Excellent rhythm playing and feel! Unfortunately, you just missed our submittal deadline. I tried to give everyone a friendly reminder the day of. So I won’t be able to include you in the draw – BUT, wow, your playing is 🔥. So I feel like you already won 🙂Friendly Reminder – The deadline for receiving feedback and an entry into the giveaway is tonight at 11:59 PM ET (check your local time zone).
@janaq1 – Very beautifully played, Jana! Well done 👏
@karenj – Your technique sounds great, as does your banjolele! What a fun song, I really enjoyed listening to it. 🙂
@jedart – I thought you played it very well and great singing too! I’m hearing a couple rhythm sections that could use a little attention. For example, in the first bar of the tune, the second half of that bar is strummed with 8th note triplets. I’m hearing more of a regular 8th note rhythm in your playing. Try looping that bar in the tab player, aiming to match Ashley as close as possible, or alternatively, you could practice alongside a click.But I’d say you’re at the fine tuning stage. I was very impressed overall with your performance! Keep up the great work, Jed!
@riley_ukulele – You played it brilliantly, bravo! I will send your message along to Evan. I’m sure it will mean a lot to him 🙂
@The_Bumble_Bard – I loved both performances! Great uke playing and singing Rachael!
@ldarrow – Your feel was spot on, Linda! I think that’s one of the hardest things to get down with this arr. I see what you mean about the ring finger and the E7 chord. It looks like your fretting on top of the fret a lot of the time. That’s why that note isn’t ringing as best as it can. I’m sure you’ll regain more dexterity in time. But the break DID NOT effect your talent. You’re a great player!@rw1950merritt – I thought you played it really well! The one measure that needs attention is measure 5. You’re playing all the notes as eighths, but several of them are sixteenths. One option is to simplify the bar by treating the whole thing as eighth notes: play the double stop, then the next four notes, and finish with the last three (which carry the melody). That version would sound just as good, IMO, and is a bit easier to play than what Steven arranged.
@leb397 – That was awesome Louisa! Feel was spot on and great job on all of the techniques! The only thing I’d suggest working on is note/chord clarity and boosting tempo. Keep up the great work!
@marianne – I have a funny story on this arrangement, Marianne. Every arrangement I had given Evan prior to this, he had completed in a week. And by completed, I mean: arranging it, notating it, and recording the performance. So I’m sitting here thinking, HOW DOES HE DO IT THAT FAST!! 😂So I decide to challenge him by giving him Moonlight. Now I did send him a guitar transcription of it that we played in music college, so he didn’t start from scratch. But you wanna guess how long it took him to finish it?
2 weeks LOL
Your performance was outstanding! This song kicked my butt! Karma for me for trying to challenge the (at the time he was still a) “kid”. Serves me right 😅
@leslieb – Very beautifully played Leslie! From here, I would work on one a section at a time with a focus on keeping it steady. And then when that section is spot on, move onto the next, and piece the song together that way. I have to say, it doesn’t sound like it will take that much more work, cause you are already playing it brilliantly!@alojzy_bomba – Dude, that was awesome! This is a very hard arr. to play with all the crazy rhythm and percussive elements, and you did amazing! The video backdrop was a nice touch too. Well done! 👏
@nelsonlin2021 – Really well played Nelson! My one suggestion would be to play the first half at the tempo you did the second half at. A slower tempo gives the music more room to breathe and enhances the prettiness of the melody and harmony IMO.
@lhamilton – Lovely performance Linda! The only thing I’d do is target your practice on the B Melody, focusing on smoothing and cleaning it up. But, it doesn’t sound like it will take much work, cause you’re already playing it very well, this is more like fine tuning it 🙂
@ccwuke – Bravo Chris! You played it with great feel, very well done! 👏
@henri0 – I thought you nailed it! Incredible performance Rhian!!
@anyon1 – Beautifully played Adriana! For the pinky, it might be due to how you’re holding the uke. Correct me if I’m wrong, but it looks like there’s a gap between the body of the uke and your body. If you press it against your body and reduce the angle it’s pointing upward, that should put the neck in a more optimal fretting/playing position. I’d also recommend sitting on a firm chair. With a bed, we sink in, and that also will affect our posture when holding the uke.Below’s a video I made on proper holding technique. I’ll also paste additional lessons that touch on this topic. Here is the first and second lesson I recommend reviewing.
With proper holding form intact, I’d then run exercises to strengthen your pinky. These are a few I wrote specifically for stretch chords, but you could also modify this exercise to reach beyond the 4 adjacent frets.
@johanna2509 – 🙂@johanna2509 – That was very well played Johanna! I loved your approach and if you were on stage, you woulda heard this at the end 👏👏 😊
@mickan88 – Your hard work payed off! Flawless performance! Beautiful feel and tone and wow, such a beautifully filmed video to accompany it too! Def gonna share it on our socials this weekend 🙂@gi_gi_ – It’s an Apple TV show called Severance 🙂
@brettboy – LOL and that’s awesome! What a fun idea 🙂
@brettboy – Your performance pleases the board. You’ve earned a celebratory melon bar experience!
@grannieannie – Fingerpicking sounded awesome, Annie! There is one area I would work on and that is the rasgeuado strum.
The secret to the rasgueado strum is all about finger independence. You start with your fingers curled in, then flick them out one at a time like this: pinky, ring, middle, index, (and optionally) thumb. Each finger does its own little strum, and that’s what makes it sound like you’re squeezing 4 or 5 strums into one quick move!
Check out Matt’s lesson on it from the Next Level Strumming Course. It’ll be Module 4, Unit 1. He’s much better at the technique than I am and gives some great insights into performing it.