[Andrew]

Hey Vida, check out this recent forum post in which members wrote their tips for memorizing: https://rockclass101.com/forums/topic/tips-on-remembering-the-songs/. I don’t have any suggestions, as this is one of the RARE areas in music that I don’t have to try at. It just “clicks” for me.

That chord is all about proper form, make sure you are sticking to a T with the barre chord form in front and behind the neck: https://rockclass101.com/proper-left-hand-ukulele-form/.

[Andrew]

Thanks guys 🙂

[Andrew]

jakeypoo, you did so well, I loved it! You’ve got a really great feel on the instrument and I see how much you practice on Instagram, it really pays off! One thing I want to point out that you did really well on is the timing and Rhythm work. This song can be a toughie with so much going on, so major props there.

I sent you a video with feedback on fixing a couple things with your left hand form. How is that going? 2 additional areas I want to point out:

1) try to bring your thumb down a little bit, more so towards slightly above the middle of the neck. Check out this lesson for suggestion on placement.

2) The Am chord at 2:20, notice how your pinky finger is quite crooked, try and get it a little bit more straight and on the fingertip. Also sometimes, like at 3:25, on the D chord, your first joints (on multiple fingers) is curved inwards. Try to keep them curved outwards.

rickkhan, I thought you did really well and I love seeing you vibe to the music – it’s clear to see you can feel it! 🙂

So there’s really only one big thing we need to touch on, which is that your performance had a swung feel to it. This is a composition that should be played straight.

Now as I said already, you have a great feel to your playing, but your focus moving forward should be on correcting the feel. I’d encourage you to play along with the on-screen tab viewer, and focus on one theme at a time. Notice the difference in feels.

If you have time, I’d love to hear a re-submission. Even if it’s only one theme. Let me know if you have any questions.

brenna, such a wonderful performance! I actually shared this in our email newsletter the other week 🙂

I really love the tone your nails provide; sharp, crisp, very beautiful! You have a really great feel in your playing. I only have one suggestion: You played the “B” melody at a slower tempo, which is totally cool – I like the contrast in tempos. Try to smooth the ritardando in the two bars preceding melody B. And the same for increasing the tempo in the two bars before returning to Melody A. This will help to make the tempo change sound a little smoother.

poopsies, awesome job and wow, you’ve got some speed! Unfortunately, the video was black – all we have is the audio.

Again, major props on the speed and your timing was excellent! Now this is my opinion, because how you perform is always up to you, but I would suggest to slow the tempo down a notch, as I feel it would give the music more room to breathe. But overall, great job and keep up work the great work!

hafeez3115, bravo! I am continually impressed by your performances, truly fantastic job! The only thing I want to point out, and I think I’ve mentioned it before to you, is thumb placement of the left hand. Try and bring it down a little bit so it’s not hanging over the edge of the neck. Check out this lesson for suggestion on placement.

kmelton, that was an awesome performance Kevin. It’s been fun watching your performances over the last half year, I can hear a lot of improvement! It’s super awesome! Your dedication is paying off 🙂

So I noticed you were sitting in a classical guitar position. If you watch the video back, notice how this position doesn’t allow you to stabilize the uke as well as the position we recommend to sit with, which uses your right forearm to help keep the uke stable. You’ll notice in your video that it has a bit of a micro movement, kind of like it bobs up and down slightly as you play. I think it would be easier for you to perform if you try our recommended holding position. Let me know your thoughts.

planetfink, so good! I’m glad you joined us this month and I’ll be featuring your performance in our newsletter email tomorrow 🙂

Friendly reminder, you forgot to write “I AM A PREMIUM MEMBER”. For anyone else that is reading this, if you are a premium member, don’t forget to add that to your performance so you get two entries into the giveaway.

You have a great feel on the instrument, I really enjoyed your performance! A couple things I want to point out:

1) try to bring your left hand thumb down a notch. Check out this lesson for suggestion on placement.

2) watch through your performance and take note of your right hand picking. Sometimes you’ve got picado going, which is awesome! But sometimes you revert back to using just the index finger. Try and be cognitive as you play throughout it and focus on using picado.

3) as you continue to practice, play along with the on-screen tab viewer. This will help you tighten up some of the timing and fix a few incorrect rhythms (nothing super bad!).

But again, really great job!

[Andrew]

THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO PARTICIPATED THIS MONTH! WE HAD 93 ENTRIES! YOU GUYS ROCK!

Hope to see everyone in our November Challenge!

Here is a list of everyone who participated. Please let me know if there are any discrepancies.

—-

BONUS ENTRIES (From our Q&A with Kanile’a):

timstacks
kayleighb

Count: 93

jakeypoo
deadbuggy
deadbuggy
flora-
kmelton
kmelton
cncamacho
cncamacho
pauvaliente
hafeez3115
hafeez3115
leahwoosley
leahwoosley
brettboy
brettboy
mheiden
mheiden
rickkhan
rickkhan
nggnmm
timolnz
timolnz
mweir1
mweir1
willymac
ukulelethemes
rickeymike
rickeymike
felixpitterling
felixpitterling
laurasil
ryzeonly
lisadmh
lisadmh
sprintingyogini
sprintingyogini
hotmilktea
hotmilktea
gstriph
gstriph
brenna
brenna
lyndallk
lyndallk
hondamom
hondamom
mycb3tm3n
mycb3tm3n
andracass
andracass
arbuscula
arbuscula
coffeemug
coffeemug
mycaptain
mycaptain
annefgodfrey
annefgodfrey
hzhuodie
incywincy
incywincy
kayleighb
kayleighb
cmab81
cmab81
awesomestrings
awesomestrings
crazihippichic
crazihippichic
curlyuke
curlyuke
robinboyd
robinboyd
frenchfries54
frenchfries54
benita
casadot349
ultramom
ultramom
cinichol
cinichol
mr_moltes
zukulele
zukulele
strizaldo
poopsies
rpina61
rpina61
suzums
suzums
kanae926
kanae926
kellyblackburn
kellyblackburn
akshxd
akshxd
mikkel
mikkel
ukuleleloo
ukuleleloo
springer1
springer1
timstacks
timstacks
shortman
shortman
cyberloh
cyberloh
cconuku
cconuku
hlglazi
hlglazi
lynettejd
lynettejd
bklynsoul
bklynsoul
edward
edward
karenj
karenj
houmar
houmar
john21403
john21403
ourmaninjapan
becky7777
toastedbrains
toastedbrains
ukukelley1
ukukelley1
der-binni
der-binni
peropata
peropata
stevenflautner
stevenflautner
uku_on
uku_on
ambera
ambera
malachi
malachi
apassionateplayer
benjamin
benjamin
jenaenlaxson
jenaenlaxson
awiealissa
awiealissa
suzie1
yukalele
yukalele
josephus
lisamcc
lisamcc
ineonfox
_elizabeth_
carmen-s
kcharles15
jlbross
jlbross

[Andrew]

Whoops – sorry got the pages wrong.

We are still working on page 16, above is for folks on 17.

[Andrew]

We are still working on page 16 (there’s a lot of entries on that page). But here is everyone on page 17!

—-

uku_on, well done! Here is the video with my feedback for you 🙂

ambera, great job! Here’s a video with feedback for you 🙂

malachi, nice playing! Here is my feedback for you.

apassionateplayer, I loved it! Very well done! Here are my thoughts.

benjamin, great job Ben! Here is a video with the special challenge for you 🙂

• This reply was modified 7 years, 7 months ago by Andrew. Reason: Correct Pages Listed

[Andrew]

Here is everyone on page 15

—-

houmar, nice job! Glad that you joined us and hope you participate in more challenges 🙂

I liked the accents that you made such as, hitting some notes harder than others, doing things like that really helps to add to the feel of the music.

Now I also noticed that you struggled a little bit getting to the second chord, and if you watch the video, you’ll see that your entire body re-positions to grab it. This can be avoided if we fix how you are holding the ukulele. Check out this lesson and this one for our guide. But overall keep up the great work!

john21403, great job! Timing and Clarity of the notes sounds great! What I would work on though is trying to add some of the Dynamics that were taught throughout the lesson; because right now everything sounds very straight and rigid – now don’t take this too negative, because on the other hand it shows that you put a lot of work into practicing the piece. But here’s a good lesson for you to check out, as it opens up the thought process into how we should perform the music.

ourmaninjapan, loved it, well done! Great use of building and decaying dynamics! And super happy to hear that you enjoyed learning the new technique. Picado is super useful!

becky7777, great tone and I like the Reverb 🙂 Your playing sounds great, practicing paid off! What I would focus on moving forward, is adding Dynamics to your performance. This is a really great piece where we can build sections up, as in a crescendo, or the opposite. Go back in the lesson to check out some ideas for Dynamics and try and incorporate them into your playing. Keep rocking!

toastedbrains, great job! I like your use of Dynamics, it had a pulsating feel with you playing 2 patterns strong and then 2 patterns lighter. The one area that I would focus on though is timing. The first chord was a bit faster than the second and the third, try to even the tempo out. But overall, keep up the great work!

ukukelley1, that was awesome Sheryl! I really think that was some of your best playing that I have seen. What was your practicing like? Def sounds like you put a lot of work into it!

So a few things I do want to point out; first two I think we’ve talked about before, which is the slight Bend of the right hand wrist and playing notes with the first joint of the left hand finger bent. So friendly reminder on those two areas.

But you had a comment about turning the camera on and it sounding less like music. It definitely sounded like music, so no worries there! But I think I know what you’re hinting at and it is timing. So all the pieces are there and your playing is great, we just want to work on your flow – getting it a little bit more steady.

Try and take a 4 or 8 bar phrase and play along with the on-screen tab viewer or metronome. This will help keep you in check with timing, after that it’s just looping. But try and start at the tempo you’re at right now. I think it’s a good starting point for you to work on. Don’t worry about trying to play the entire thing in time, just focus on one phrase at a time. Keep up the excellent work!

der-binni, well played! Excellent picking form! My suggestion for you would be the same feedback I left for becky7777.

lyndallk, I love your groove and that muted accent hit that you have throughout, that’s like the icing on the cake, love it! I’ve got to share this on our facebook page at some point, it was too good not to! I look forward to hearing you rendition on, “Moon”. But feel bad that you have to practice on high G, sorry to your ears LOL!

peropata, great job! You’ve got some speed! But definitely do slow it down a notch so you can focus on cleaning up the transitions. Also, take a look at the advice I left for becky7777 about Dynamics.

stevenflautner, well done! Actually we’ve had a few submissions for Bad Moon Rising, which is super cool to see! I thought you did really well on the overall feel and getting the rhythms down. That’s definitely the hardest aspect of this tune. But what I work on is your left hand form. There are few things that we need to fix:

1) notice how your pinky sticks straight out a lot of the time. It should always remain curved, relative to the other fingers, this way it’s in position ready to be engaged.

2) on the G chord, your index finger bends in at the first joint, we want to keep that curved and on the fingertip. Now you probably did this because it has the awkward stretch to the 5th fret on string one, check out this lesson for help with increasing reach.

3) you pulled the string(s) down sometimes when fretting a chord. for example, the third string at 55 sec. Again the reason is probably the same as above, but try to keep the strings parallel, because if you do pull one or more down, they will go sharp, and the chord will sound out of tune.

But overall I thought you did Super well, keep up the great work!

[Andrew]

Here is the video with, Joe! 🙂

If your question was picked, congrats! Because, you’ve won an extra entry into our $1800 Kanile’a ‘Ukulele Giveaway!

[Andrew]

Hmm, might be this song: https://rockclass101.com/our-first-song/

Depends on lots of things. That tune plays a G note on 4 and 2, because we get different timbre from open strings vs fretted.

Melody on string 2 or 4 could also depend on context of harmony in chord or passage of melody/chords before and after. It’s a hard ? to answer, but it becomes more “clear” which choice is correct the longer you’ve been playing/arranging or studying how others arrange.

[Andrew]

It is 🙂 Thanks for requesting it!

[Andrew]

Cool! We will for sure do it next year!

[Andrew]

Pretty, Lisa! I’ve thought about having a monthly challenge that was “share your originals” themed. Maybe we should do that!

[Andrew]

Hi Marni, here is a video with some help on bar 2. The rhythm should be: 1 2& 3& 4&.

[Andrew]

Should be fine, Robin. The important thing here is to create the harmonic with the right hand, not the left.

[Andrew]

Glad you enjoy the tune, Sudave! In the lesson, I show you how to angle tap across all 4 strings. But as you noticed, the A string’s harmonic rings truest. Feel free to single tap that note, as we do in this lesson.

[Author]

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