[Andrew]

@cncamacho – Here’s my feedback for you 🙂

[Andrew]

@qiuyan – My pleasure and thank you for pointing that out. It’s tough when there’s 3 of us leaving feedback to remember who’s posted more than once per month. In the future, can you write a note stating this is my second entry. That will help us out greatly 🙂

[Andrew]

@mark1256 – Well done, Mark! I love that you’ve got a click going. But, I’m not hearing you locked in a lot of the time. Therefore, I’d recommend two things:

1) Play along with the tab player in synthetic mode, with the metronome activated. Slow it down to any speed you wish, but work on playing 1 section at a time. The playback will act as a guide to help keep you locked into the groove/click.

2) Make sure you understand the rhythms that you are playing. I’m a big fan of counting rhythms while I play, because it helps get the rhythms engrained. Jump into our Reading Course – learning to read standard notation is the the best way to truly understand how rhythm and timing connect.

[Andrew]

Wow, we had 78 members participate this month! We absolutely crushed our participation goal, but most importantly, everyone did an awesome job and should feel super proud of their work this month!

So without further ado, the winner of our July Challenge is…

Congrats! We look forward to finding out which uke you pick from https://www.ukerepublic.com/. 🙂

Our August Challenge is LIVE: https://rockclass101.com/august-2020-challenge. We’ve got a BRAND NEW Theme for this month and we’re giving away a BRAND NEW Prize! Hope to see everyone in the new challenge!

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Here’s everyone on page 12.

@lildevil – It’s a shame that the mic records at such low quality, because your playing is quite lovely. That was an excellent performance, keep up the great work!

@cncamacho – I think you’re off to a great start with a good base established! At this point, I’d recommend focusing on 4 bar phrases at a time. Work on getting the timing steady with one phrase before tackling and connecting the next. Work through the song this way, and later you can focus on gradually increasing the tempo. Keep up the great work!

@santai – I thought you did an excellent job, Marvin! Try using form 2 for C to G7. The index finger should prevent any slippage of the neck.

After listening through your performance, there’s only a couple things I’d suggest because overall, the rhythm and note/chord clarity is excellent. So I’d focus on the areas where there were little pauses going from one part to the next.

And take one section (at a time) and boost the tempo a little; I think you’re ready for that and it will be a good challenge for you. 🙂

@baileysr – Well done! So I wouldn’t call the overall sound “flat”, its more-so overly expressive, which happens when you pluck/strum too hard.

Therefore, I’d suggest to lighten up your right hand picking attack. Lighter picking and strumming will produce a softer, sweeter tone. Check out this video that I made awhile back for another member that expanded on this concept.

@isabelm – Well done, bravo! My goal for you would be to get it fully memorized. Keep up the great work! 🙂

@artsytricia – So much fun to watch you guys play together! Keep playing with Isabel, she’s doing amazing, she’ll be able to help you too 🙂

@verity2003 – Well done! Moving forward, I’d increase the tempo by 5 or 10 BPM. That would be a good challenge for you 🙂

@qiuyan – Excellent playing! I don’t think it’s beyond your level, I think it’s the opposite – a perfect challenge for you. It sounded awesome! The only thing I want to point out is to watch out for bending at the first joint:

For ex: the index at 16 seconds or the middle at 33 seconds. Keeping the fingers bent at the first joint increases dexterity and, 9 times out of 10, is vital for proper playing form.

—-

Unfortunately, both of you submitted past our deadline (11:59 pm EST). So I cannot give an entry for the giveaway. But I am happy to offer feedback 🙂

@tux4tgvf5 – Love the T-shirt and American theme, Tom! Your performance was perfect, next time I’ll just get you to do the performance for me LOL. And a cute ending, I enjoyed that too!

@goody2shoes – Well done, Joel! I think you have a great base established, but there are some questionable fingerings that you chose for some of the chords. So I’d recommend going back through the video to tutorial as it offers the best fingering recommendations to make this piece as easy to play as possible.

[Andrew]

@deadbuggy – beautifully played and what a heartwarming picture. Glad you found the uke on eBay, that’s really cool. I let Nicky know about the commission, she’ll reach out to you. I’d love to see it when it’s done 🙂

@smokealot – lovely interpretation, Ulli. Very well played!

@rickkhan – Here is my feedback for you 🙂

@dennisdickens – Well done, Dennis! Your playing sounds great, but the big thing with this tune – and what really makes it “shine” – is the slow tempo that accentuates the sustain, creating this beautiful flowing sound from one note or chord to the next.

Listen back to Matt’s performance and play along with him. Try to match that tempo and focus on the sustain. That’s the icing on the cake, b/c your playing is already great – so we just want to match that feel.

[Andrew]

Welcome, Paul! Glad you found us 🙂

[Andrew]

@b_ukes_101 – It’ll be posted here, no live stream and prob before the 5th, as soon as we get through leaving feedback 🙂

[Andrew]

Andrew what level would you rate me as a ukulele player I have been playing for 2 years.

Please send me an email with an additional video of you playing. I’d be happy to help advice you, but let’s keep this forum post focused on harmonics 🙂

[Andrew]

Yes, it’s a level 4 song – our most advanced level. Every song is ranked in 1 of 5 levels: from beginner level to levels 1-4. The Beginner Level and Level 1 are more beginner-friendly tunes. Level 2-4 takes you into the intermediate to advanced level.

[Andrew]

Here’s everyone on page 9 that we hadn’t gotten to yet.

@wongbrown – Well done, Sheila! You’ve improved A LOT over the last 2 years! Keep up the great work 🙂

@threepwoodjones – Great job! The only thing I want to point out is that I heard a couple melody notes that were incorrect. Just double check the lesson/tab 🙂

@elealong12 – Here is my feedback for you and the lesson I referenced is Module 4, Unit 1 from our Strumming Techniques Course.

[Andrew]

hey, Andrew one thing when I do the tapped harmonics do hit the fret bar or do I just don’t touch it at all.

Yes, you will touch it when tapping. Key thing to remember: it’s a quick tap.

Andrew, can you do two tapped artificial harmonics at the same time?

Yes, but that’s not something we’ll be covering at this time.

Andrew, I can do the harmonics now how do I make it louder?

I’d recommend practicing on what I advised for a few days to a week and then posting a video so that I can follow up to make sure things look okay 🙂

[Andrew]

I wouldn’t worry too much about volume now. The other areas I mentioned are more important to focus on.

[Andrew]

If you guys dig 80’s me (LOL), check out our new T-Shirts!

[Andrew]

@eszti5mail – Beautifully played! Try a little lighter tap at the end of the piece for that harmonic. The trick with that technique is to do a quick tap. Check out my reply to Dennis in this forum post for a more detailed explanation of this.

@lissid – Amazing, Melissa! I can’t believe you’ve only played for 3 months! I was so impressed, I shared this on our social media today! Keep up the great work 🙂

@samash07 – Well done! Only 2 things stood out to me. First, watch out for pulling down on the strings when fretting notes. For ex, pause the video at 19 seconds and you can see that happening. The issue with doing that is that it causes the note to go sharp and sounds a bit out of tune. Try to keep the strings parallel at all times.

Second, is what you mentioned – timing. Only a couple times though, you did very well overall! Just double down on your practice in the sections that are tough.

@stianukulele – So goooood!! I’m gonna send the to CDS, he’ll love it!

Your right hand technique is killer. Your speed is insane. And your rhythms sound amazing AND the dynamic build at 54 seconds was perfectly executed. Like I said – so good!

I do have a couple suggestions on what you may want to focus on. First, the ending of the intro – don’t rush that phrase, it sounded a little too jumbled together.

Second, right after the intro (Melody A), I want to hear the melody notes (C, B, A) on the first string a little more clearly defined. And that’s literally all my critiques – amazing job!

[Andrew]

@theukuelenoob – Thank you so much for the video! So you’re actually doing the same thing Dennis (the original poster) did, which was lingering too long on the tap – but, there’s an additional issue – your accuracy is not spot on. Make sure you tap directly on top of the second metal frets. Start with just the open strings (second metal fret, on the fretwire of the 12th fret) before trying the rest for that song.

I’d recommend reviewing the video I left for Dennis and the tutorial for this technique, as well as, running through the exercises for this technique from the course. Let me know how it goes 🙂

[Author]

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