[Andrew]

Welcome, Marco! Glad to have you on-board 🙂

[Andrew]

@mozcyc – Well played! Here’s one tip: Try to keep your pinky floating above the neck so that it’s ready to be used if needed. It should look this:

For example, if you watch your performance in the G7 chord section, you’ll see that it is tucked beneath the neck, which limits mobility if it’s needed.

[Andrew]

I notated it as a tremolo, but it’s not really that. To be honest, I’m not sure if/what the proper terminology is for the opening vamp on that chord.

[Andrew]

Wow, that was incredible! Thx for sharing/requesting it Robin!

[Andrew]

Overall, we had 47 members participate in this month’s challenge! And I’ve got to give each and every one of you a big round of applause! Everyone played so well and it was amazing to see/hear so many original compositions. 🙂

So without further ado, the winner of the Islander Super Concert Ukulele is:

Our October Challenge is LIVE and it’s your first chance to WIN an $1,800 Kanile’a Ukulele! Hope to see each and every one of you in the October Challenge: https://rockclass101.com/october-2020-challenge

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Here is the last of the feedback that we hadn’t gotten to yet:

@anne_cote – very impressive for 3 days! Well done! My only critique is to slow the tempo down, this is a song where you want the music to “breathe”, so to speak.

@morrieuke1 – beautiful phrasing, Michael! I’m a little bit envious of your take on the B Melody. I made this video for Daniel yesterday talking about how I missed the mark a bit in my performance for that section. And the way that you played it was exactly how I wanted mine to sound. Bravo!

@turkgoose – excellent playing overall! Couple little pauses here and there that you want to target your practice on, but here’s the big one that I’ve heard a couple people struggle with:

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.

@funtime2018 – I like it, it’s a cute song. Keep writing!

@henri0 – nice composition! Sounds like something you can play outside on a nice relaxing sunny day 🙂

@emiliano – wonderfully played! I really like the subtle changes you through in, like sliding up on the diminished licks in theme 1 and the change in the walk-down on theme 2. Keep up the great work!

@themccoys – Here’s my suggestion for you. And here is the lesson I referenced.

@lissid – well done, I think that song is at a good level to challenge where you’re at in your playing! And I thought you played it very well. I do have 1 suggestion, which is to break it into little sections and focus on mastering that before trying to tackle the entire song. Focus on keeping the flow steady.

@santai
 – congrats, Marvin! I’m happy for you and the song is absolutely beautiful. Hope you write more 🙂

@mac1984 – well done! I thought you did a great job. Don’t forget to lift the (right hand) index finger up after you do the harmonic so that the string resonates.

[Andrew]

@oldan_ – Well done! Here are my thoughts for you 🙂

[Andrew]

My pleasure! Here is the feedback Steven ( @SGWarren ) left for Johanna for those who didn’t get a chance to see/read it 🙂

Hi Johanna, I’m glad you’re enjoying the course and I have to say you really have nailed the melodic etude!! The key thing is that it feels natural and I can see from your playing that it totally does. It has that all-important fluid, rhythmic flow and as long as you can achieve that it really doesn’t matter how you get there. The parallel hand position is just to help ensure that the single string picks are nice and clean and don’t catch the strings either side. Sure, your hand isn’t quite as parallel as mine but you are hitting those single strings really cleanly so it doesn’t matter that you are ‘less parallel’.

The same goes for the curled fingers. As these fingers are pretty much redundant with this technique it doesn’t really matter what you do with them – just whatever feels comfortable (for some strange reason fully extended ballerina fingers feel comfortable to me!). Everyone will have slightly different physiology so as long as you’re achieving the desired result (which you totally are) then just go with what feels right. It certainly won’t affect things as you progress with the course and won’t be a disadvantage in any way.

The slightly larger range of movement with your strumming isn’t a problem either. Your hand movements are still very well controlled and the thumb and forefinger are correctly doing most of the work. The hardest part of this piece is controlling the index down strum to just catch two strings at a time and you have totally mastered that!

So, in summary I’m loving what you’re doing! It looks and sounds great so just keep doing what you’re doing. I’d love to see your rendition of Out in the North when you get to that stage 😉

Keep up the great work,
Steven

P.s. that Flight Victoria sounds great too – lovely uke 🙂

[Andrew]

@lynnwatson – Well played! Watch out for the half note in the last bar before theme 3, as I’m hearing you play it as a quarter note. Try to count 3, 4 when you hit it to not rush the note. But overall, your timing is excellent. From here, I’d increase the tempo by 5 or 10 bpm to start challenging yourself to go faster to build speed. Keep up the great work!

[Andrew]

@johanna2509 – I fixed your post 🙂 I removed Ode to Joy since it’s not a choice for this challenge, but you can def share it here.

[Andrew]

@samash07 – No need to worry, Sami you did great! I have 2 tips for you. The big thing I’d work on is timing. When I recorded it, I tapped my foot to help keep the timing as steady as possible. You can try that, but also play along with me in the tab player. My playing will act as a guide to keep you steady. And try sections at a time – like 8 bars.

#2 – Watch out for the rhythm in bar 14. Double check the video lesson as I went over that with counting as it’s tricky.

[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.

[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!

[Andrew]

Glad to have you on-board, @yeryspl 🙂

[Andrew]

Bravo, Daniel! Performance has a great feel, you’ve made excellent progress. Keep up the great work! 🙂

[Andrew]

Thanks, Art! Please add that request here.

[Author]

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