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First off, I’d recommend checking out Learning Paths. It’ll give you a few ideas on where to start with our lessons 🙂
I’d also recommend creating a practice schedule that consists of 3 parts. It can cover any 3 areas of study, but here’s an example to get you started:
1) The Fundamentals – Coming from guitar, you’ll already be familiar with fretting, chords, technique, picking, and more. Our Beginner’s Course will help refine these skills specifically for ukulele playing. Feel free to skip around in the course, and if you’re ready to start playing the songs, go for it!
2) Rhythmic Study – Rhythm is 1/3 of music and is almost always the part that is overlooked. Developing a good sense of rhythm and timing is best accomplished through learning to read music.
3) Songs – Pick 1 or 2 songs at a time to work on. Think of these as the cookies, they are what help to keep you motivated and having fun! Try to pick songs that reinforce the 2 other areas of your practice schedule.
For example, strumming is a fundamental technique. If you’re working on this in the beginner’s course, you’ll find a blues strumming lesson that introduces down and up strumming with chunking. To take it a step further, pair it with EP014 from the Concept Lessons series, which introduces syncopation, rasgueado, and ghost note strumming. The latter two techniques are taught in complete detail in our Strumming Course.
If you ever need help on the lessons, please don’t hesitate to ask.
Here are folks on page 8 I hadn’t gotten to yet.
@rgillof – Your timing and fingerpicking was great Richard! There are a few minor pauses in the chord section, so try playing with a metronome. That will push you to stay in time, helping you eliminate those transitions pauses.
@mepasha – Perfect performance Peter! Great feel and strumming technique!
@robinboyd – Awesome take Robin! The only thing I would point out is the 16th note strums in Melody D. I want to hear those more defined. So try looping that section in the tab player, either with me or in “synthetic mode.” Activating the metronome would help too. Start slow and build it up to speed.
@ukandrea – Hi Andrea, since this performance was used for our October Challenge in 2021, I won’t be able to count it again for this year. If you do find time today to post a new take, that would def count!
@darktoto – That was awesome Thomas! Amazing speed and fingerpicking skills, bravo!
@lynnzo – That was a great performance Lynn! For a tip with transitions, try the same advice I left above for @rgillof.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).
@corey_mclean – An amazing first performance, you aced it Corey! Great feel and fingerpicking skills! Your recording quality sounded great too, but I could only hear you in the left speaker. Looking forward to watching more of your performances and TY so much for your support, I really appreciate it!
@marlongas – Beautifully played and wow, your tone is incredible! Fantastic job this month, Carlos!
@leslieb – Awesome performance Leslie, your fingerpicking sounds great! I only have two suggestions. The first is to work on getting the triplets to be more defined. Check out this lesson for help with the rhythm side of it. For practicing it with this song, try playing them with a metronome or with the tab player (w/ the metronome activated). And that’s also the second point, once you feel comfortable with the triplets, try playing the entire song along with a click. That’s a great way to work on timing and building speed 🙂
@giveittomebaby – An excellent first post Hanna! Fingerpicking sounds great! One tip, try not to curl your right hand pinky finger so much. Even though it’s not used for this song, it’s better to keep it closer to where your ring finger is, kinda like where mine is:
This will make it much more efficient to switch back and forth between strumming and fingerpicking, especially if you have to do a strumming technique that uses the pinky, such as the rasgueado strum (a.k.a sweep strum).
@anikali – You threw in some very cool and creative changes! Playing sounded great! I have one tip, and it’s an educated guess since you shared only an audio performance. For added fluidity, try keeping your right hand in a consistent 16th note down/up motion, even on the beats you’re not playing.Heads up: The 36th fingerpicking etude, which is number 35 in the series, will be released this Friday, November 1st 🙂
@suekulele – Great job on the timing, rhythm, and note/chord clarity Sue! Very well played!
@The_Bumble_Bard – Is that a quote from the movie Amadeus? Sounds really familiar! Playing wise, you are doing awesome! Keep at it!!
@grannieannie – Fingerpicking sounded great Ann! There’s really only one spot I’d target your practice at, which is that bar of 2/4, where it walks down from one chord to the next. Try looping that section and focus on keeping the tempo steady there.
@kelsey91 – Really well played Kelsey! You aced Melody A, very good job on note clarity and timing! I hear a few minor pauses in Melody B, so that’s what I would target your practice on. And honestly, it sounds like you could smooth that out with a couple more days of practice, you’re very close already! Very impressive fingerstyle work this month! Keep up the great work!
@otzepeng – Loved it!Here’s everyone on page 6.
@abster – Amazing playing Abster! One tip, if you pause your video at 42 seconds, take note of the C string. You’ll see it’s pulled down quite a bit. This causes the note to go sharp. Try to keep the string as parallel as possible. Also, don’t forget to check your tuning before recoding 😉
@anyon1 – Timing and feel were spot on! Very well played Adriana!
@lhamilton – Wow Linda, every section was extremely well played. Very impressive!
@kickass – An excellent first post! I really like the fingerpicking change you made to it, sounds great combined with the strumming! Well done this month and hope to see you again in next month’s challenge 🙂
@barbecueblack – Very well played! A few of the chords in the Verse sounded like they were cut short, so that’s the only section I’d target in your practice, focusing on getting them to sustain fully.
@ccwuke – I thought you did a great job Chris! Timing was very good, which is super important with this song. Only thing I’d do is to practice at a slower tempo, bringing it back up to the current tempo, while focusing on note/chord clarity.
@katazumiri – Love the bass play along Lena! It was a beautiful duet, great playing on both instruments 🙂
@karenj – Playing sounded great Karen, excellent fingerpicking! For the nerves, try recording your practice sessions. That’ll get you use to playing in front of a camera. Or you can try playing a few easier songs in front of the camera on the day of the performance before playing the actual performance tune. That’s a trick I used at gigs. I’d start with a few easy songs until the nerves went away.
@morrieuke1 – That was awesome Michael! Great playing all around! I really liked your interpretation of the piece. It had more drive compared to my rubato/fermata-y take. To my ear, that gave it more of a scary element, as if Michael Myers is after you lol. Really well done this month!
@jasdel – Fantastic performance, Jasdel! You effortlessly switched between fingerpicking and strumming, and your feel and timing were spot on. I don’t think this piece is beyond your skill level at all. I think you rocked it!
@johanna2509 – Perfect performance, great strumming Johanna!
@ldarrow – Very well played Linda, your strumming and chunks sounded great! 1 minor suggestion: The opening vamp, try to play that at the same tempo as the rest of the tune. Keep up the great work!@yukalele – Great to see you back David and with an awesome performance! Very well played and I loved the cameo by the Thing 🙂
@misterbones – ️🔥 performance Michael! Bravo! The only suggestion I have is stylistic. I would add a little more of a gap between themes. For ex, between theme 1 and 2 (52 seconds in your video), I’d hold that Dm longer, letting it sustain and fade out to add more tension instead of jumping right into the next section.I appreciate your kind words on the arr., and yes, Bach is the greatest!
@leb397 – My pleasure! I added a new FAQ covering it, incase it happens to other folks. I appreciate y’all bringing it to my attention.
@dianna & @leb397 – I actually got an email earlier this month from another member detailing this issue. As I looked into it, I found this post on Reddit.
It seems to be something that YouTube has just started doing, but there doesn’t seem to be a solution other than signing into YouTube via the browser you use to access RC101. Doing that will bypass the warning.
And just to clarify, the log in warning is not saying to log into Rock Class 101 but rather log into your YouTube account via the browser you use to access RC101.
@ruiafonso70 – Excellent first post Rui! Fingerpicking sounds great! The one thing I would work on is getting those triplets to be more defined. Check out this lesson for help with the rhythm side of it. For practicing it with this song, try playing them with a metronome or with the tab player (w/ the metronome activated).
@leb397 – You nailed the vibe Louisa! Great playing 👏
@dianna – LOL @ the ending. I thought you did brilliant! This is a tough tune and you played it beautifully. From here, I would work on polishing. I want you to try practicing along with Steven in the tab player w/ the metronome feature on. Try to match his playing as best as possible. This “copying” approach is the same method they taught us to use when practicing in college.
@kittycatlin – Excellent performance Cat! The only thing I would practice is getting the transition a little smoother going from the first chord to the second. Overall, fantastic playing!
@planetfink – That was awesome Kathy! Great feel and timing! The only tip I have is for the strumming section. Make sure your wrist and forearm are as loose/relaxed as possible. That is the trick to getting those fast 16th and 32nd strums to be effortless and fluid-sounding.@ruiafonso70 – My pleasure! And TY for the kind words 🙂
@ruiafonso70 – Hi Rui! My apologies, we have spam protection for the forum, and it looks like it placed your post(s) in the spam folder. I think this happened because it was your first post and it included a video and quite a bit of text. I approved the post and it’s showing now 🙂
Keep at it Betsy, you can do it! Try to practice that one song, SSS, every day this month, and if you need help on it, don’t hesitate to ask 🙂
@brettboy – Bravo Brett! Amazing performance and I loved the ending 🙂