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The baritone track was EQ’d, and we added compressor and reverb to it. I’d say you are correct, it’s the acoustic half of your uke that is preventing it from sounding like a solid-body electric.
WOW! We had 53 members participate this month! This challenge was a lot of fun! Stephen and I thoroughly enjoyed watching everyone’s performances. Bravo to each of you who participated on a job well done!
This month’s winner gets to choose ANY ukulele from Uke Republic valued at $250 or under as their prize! We’re excited to see what you select! So without further ado, the winner is:
Our March Challenge is LIVE: https://rockclass101.com/march-2024-challenge
Our March Challenge features 6 fun-to-play Irish songs. Hope to see everyone in the challenge!
Here is everyone on page 8.
@gi_gi_ – Beautifully played, Gi Gi! Your uke has the perfect tone for this song. This tune is great for working on fingerpicking. I’d say you excelled at it! And I like how you added more dynamics to your playing when the strumming section started.From here, I’d suggest working on one theme at a time. Start by focusing on timing/tempo, keeping it steady throughout. What makes this tune tough is that it’s got 16th notes galore, lol! After that, concentrate on the dynamics you want to use for each section. Keep up the great work, and I hope you feel better!
@dianna – Amazing job on transposing it, Dianna! That’s a huge feat in and of itself! Clawhammer technique sounded lovely on the banjolele. And I enjoyed the vocal at the end too. 🙂
@jody_hendrickson – Slower speed is totally cool as long as tempo/timing and groove are there. And they were! Very good job this month Jody, bravo! 👏
@christianwin – Absolutely phenomenal Christian! I’m blown away by how talented you are. It’s hard to believe at only 9, you can play with such feel and have such a great command on tempo. Keep playing, you are amazing! The rest of my feedback will be for your mom. 🙂I noticed that his right hand technique changes throughout the piece to achieve a different dynamic in different sections of the piece. First, it’s incredible that he has figured out how to play so dynamically on his own. But, his right hand techniques could use finessing to be more efficient and/or technically correct. Because of his age, I’d recommend taking a few skype lessons with Matt to fine tune his right hand technique.
@ksapp92 – Beautiful performance Kelby! One of the hardest aspects of this tune is playing it with finesse. And wow, you absolutely nailed it! The vibe of your performance perfectly conveyed what a love song should feel and sound like. Bravo! 👏Marianne, “Danny Boy” would be the only one that wouldn’t require any adaption to be played on low G. But that choice does require vocal accompaniment. If you prefer not to sing, I think you could make “Red is the Rose” work with some adaptation.
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).
@1481632_m – Tempo is spot-on now, Bravo Megan! For the rit., at the end of the tune, I think it’s the opposite from your first take now. I want to hear it a little bit more drawn out. Try playing along with me in the tab player. My playing will act as a guide and help you smooth it out and slow it down in a natural sounding way.
Here’s everyone on page 4 I hadn’t gotten to yet.
@musiclover – Well done Mary! Here are my tips for you:
@userwithauke – Very nice fingerpicking and strumming! I have a few tips for you. First, I’m hearing that the riff is played incorrectly. Double check the tab to spot the mistake here. Second, see if you can work on keeping the tempo steady throughout. You want to aim for the riff and the chord section to be played at the exact same tempo, making the transition to and from seamless.Third, for the end of the song, your ritardando is very drawn out. Try to make it more gradual, kinda like when the light turns yellow and you gradually slow down to a stop on red.
@anyon1 – That was awesome! Might be my fav performance of yours to date, Adriana 🙂I agree! We def need more electric tunes, they are super fun!
@leb397 – That was awesome Louisa! Such a beautiful performance to match mother nature’s beauty 🙂
@1481632_m – Excellent performance! You’ve got a great tone with both fingerpicking and strumming. I have two suggestions. First is to work on bringing the tempo of the strumming section up to match the speed of the fingerpicking section. Second, for the end of the song, your ritardando is very drawn out. Try to make it more gradual, kinda like when the light turns yellow and you gradually slow down to a stop on red.@willw18 – Much better! Well done 👏
@turkgoose – Excellent playing Turk! Great groove on the rhythm and lead 👏
Honestly, he could have written it as you sung word-for-word if it was titled Hurricane instead of Volcano. Nice performance Mark!
@shmu88 – Wow, Sam! First off, I’m honored that you choose my original out of all of the tunes we’ve done. And thank you so much for the kind words 🙂
Rhythm wise, you aced it! Nice tight playing and great groove lockin’ in w/ the band! That solo was extremely impressive! Going off the bar #’s in SoundSlice, measure 64 – amazing job! That was the hardest bar in the entire tune IMO. Great job on that! Everything before that was solid, the only part I’d work on tightening is the timing of the section that happens after that crazy lick, bars 65-68. Evan did some crazy syncopated stuff there. Try looping just that section in SS to tighten it up.
@clempek – I thought you played it beautifully Clem! I was really impressed with your performance, it’s crazy how fast you are improving. This is not an easy song to play and you did it justice!One thing I would work on is eliminating string noise when switching between chords. For example, in the video below, I play bars 13-15. You can hear no unwanted open strings ringing as I switch between chords. Watch my left hand, and then go back and watch yours in that section. Notice how minimal my movement is and how precise it is. I move like a surgeon’s blade (this is me being tongue-in-cheek, lol), precisely and perfectly each time. This is one thing you can work towards. However, you’ll have to practice at a much slower tempo to establish the muscle memory of moving between each chord perfectly.
Another trick I use can be seen at the end of bar 14 going into 15. Here, we move from a barre chord to mostly open strings. In-between the bars, I use the palm of my right hand to touch the strings to mute them, ensuring a clean transition when lifting up from the barre.
@planetfink – That was super fun to listen to, Kathy! I really enjoyed your take on it. I’ll have to check out Diana’s take, I haven’t heard it yet.
@annemarie – Awesome job, Anne! You nailed the playful feel. Only thing I’d work on is keeping the tempo steady when you transition to the chord section and the pull-off run up.
@jedart – That was an awesome take, Jed! Great feel throughout. I do have one area for you to look into.If you think of the chorus as 2 bar phrases, it sounds like the end of the second bar is trippin you up a lil bit with the timing. I hear you playing 2 quarter note hits, which means the very last 8th note strum got moved to the next measure, instead of tie-ing into the next measure. Try looping those bars (12-15) in Soundslice and just singing it out-loud alongside Matt, then jump in and play it with him on uke.
@marianne – That was amazing, Marianne! I shared your performance on our social media today 🙂
@anikali – I think the hardest thing about this tune is playing it with the correct feel – the swing! And you aced that! Overall, your fingerpicking sounded wonderful. I would just keep practicing at a slower tempo and working towards keeping everything perfectly paced. It sounds like you are going at your max tempo, while some sections are perfect, others sound like they are not quite ready for that tempo yet.Keep up the excellent work, I’m very impressed w/ your performance.
@lhamilton – Bravo Linda, great performance! And TY again for requesting this tune 🙂I only have one opinion. Starting on measure 9 and over the next few bars, you can really hear Matt dig in and play with more umph! I think that brings a really cool dynamic change to the intro and that’s the only thing I’d add to your performance.
@deadbuggy – I love how playful your take on this tune was! Super fun to listen to Sara! I really enjoyed it 🙂@muzikmama – Loved it! Listening to it made me feel like it was Halloween 🎃
@malku2603 – Consistency is spot on now! Well done, Akansha! I also like that you play the second melody section (starting at bar 9) without that technique. This actually adds variety to your playing, rather than using it in every measure of the tune, which could make the technique sound less special.