[Andrew]

@mark1256 – Great playing Mark! And I’m glad to hear you are enjoying the mini lessons 🙂

For the Celtic etude, I want to hear a little more clarity with the pull-offs. Try/check out the advice I left above for @morrieuke1.

Blues piece was excellent! Well done!

[Andrew]

Dianna, can you click the “speaker icon” and double check the volume is on?

If that doesn’t fix the issue, please let me know what device and browser you are using. Also, can you try using the player on a different device or browser? Please let me know if it works there.

[Andrew]

@jgillard – Playing sounds great on both pieces! Well done 👏

[Andrew]

Welcome, @a4patch! You can play any low G arrangement on baritone. The only difference is that you’ll be playing in a different key. There are 2 mini lessons in this month’s challenge that are for low g. They are ML001 and ML004. Both are a bit challenging to play.

I’d recommend starting with an easier tune, such as this one for baritone.

I’d also recommend purchasing a high or low G ukulele. All of our courses, such as the Beginner’s Course, will be catered towards that tuning.

As for creating a practice schedule, please take a look at this page. It’ll help you create one based off your interests 🙂

[Andrew]

Thanks for letting me know. I’m getting the same issue on my end too. I’ll report the issue to their support team and update y’all when I hear back 🙂

[Andrew]

@ethankoenig – Excellent playing and a fantastic first entry, Ethan!

[Andrew]

@morrieuke1 – Well done, Michael and thank you for the kind words! I really appreciate it 🙂

I honestly have no idea if I’ll develop it more. Songwriting is weird for me. If I try to write, nothing happens. And when I don’t intend to write, I write. It makes no sense lol.

I thought your performance was great! The only thing I want to point out is that I’d like to hear a little more clarity in the 3-2-0 pull-offs on E. Try the same advice/video I left for @dianna in last month’s challenge for Etude no. 16.

[Andrew]

Bes, that was awesome! My best advice is to keep doing what you’re doing. It’s obv working!!

As far as where to go in your studies, take a look at this page. It’ll give you a bunch of ideas on creating a practice schedule based off your interests. Let me know if you have any questions 🙂

[Andrew]

Welcome, Bes! Happy to have you on-board 🙂

[Andrew]

We BLEW AWAY our participation goal with 62 members participating this month! Big congrats to each and every one of you! I loved hearing everyone’s performances! Y’all did SO well! 🙂

So without further ado, the winner of this month’s challenge is ** drumroll **

Our February Challenge is LIVE: https://rockclass101.com/february-2023-challenge

The theme is Mini Lessons and we’re giving away a VERY unique ukulele! Hope to see everyone in the challenge!

[Andrew]

@cartoonnatalie – You played it beautifully! A great first challenge post 🙂

One thing I want you to work on is proper holding technique. I’ll embed a video I made for another member a few years ago on how to hold the uke. Additionally, here is another lesson and one more covering this topic that I recommend reviewing.

@maryjanew – I love your interpretation, MJ! It reminds me of “We Are Gonna Be Friends” by the White Stripes. Well done this month! 🙂

[Andrew]

@gracme2 – Thanks for making it public 🙂

Your playing sounds great! It was beautifully fingerpicked and an excellent first challenge post! It sounds like a little more practice will smooth out the very minor hesitations. Keep up the great work!

[Andrew]

Here’s everyone on page 8.

@ben-j283 – Beautiful playing and excellent ritardando at the end. A fantastic first entry! I look forward to watching more of your performances 🙂

@ksapp92 – You played it beautifully! For that transition, or any transition that you need a little extra practice with, try stripping away the music (i.e. the fingerpicking pattern). And just work on moving between the two chords:

I’d also recommend taking it a step further by using a metronome. Set it to a simple rhythm, for example, strumming on beat 1 and 3 (half notes).

@jbmills07 – This was very good, Justin! Excellent clarity in the notes in the H/O & P/O licks. Timing and feel was spot on. You even nailed the fancy rhythm strum at 1:09! I am continually impressed by you!

@dividedsky – Beautifully played, Jane 🙂

@omaon4 – That was awesome, Helga! You played it so well!! My only advice is to memorize it so you can focus 100% on your playing.

@sarahmusic – Even with the underwater audio (lol), your playing still shined through! Great job this month 🙂

@mkstewart67 – What! A double take with both instruments! So cool! I sent Stephen your bass performance, he’s gonna love watching it!

Both takes sounded great! I really enjoyed watching them. Keep up the great work, Melissa!

@gisele – Both takes were great! I love that you use a metronome. Keep up the great work, Gisele 🙂

@gracme2 – Your video is showing as private. Can you please make it public? Here’s how to change the privacy setting.

@jody_hendrickson – Your performance was awesome! I was grooving in my chair watching it 🙂

And yes, definitely pick up a copy of transcribe. It’s so useful and totally worth it!

[Andrew]

Here’s everyone on page 7.

@hannia – Way to go, that was awesome! I do have one suggestion. Try practicing the second melody with a metronome. Work on one bar at a time. Start slow and focus on keeping it steady before working on the next bar. Then go back and connect those two.

Do the same thing for bar 3, then 4, then 3-4, and finally 1-4.

This will help iron out the pauses and make it fluid 🙂

@dianna – Great job, Diana! You aced the tempo and timing! The one thing I want you to work on is clarity in the notes for the hammer-on and pull-off licks. Currently, they are all blending into one note. I want to hear more distinction between the three notes. To work on this, slow down the lick and loop it. Just like this:

Work on keeping it steady and attaining a clear distinction between each note.

@leslieb – That was awesome, Leslie! I was very impressed by how well you played it! Not only in the tempo and speed, but also in playing with a great feel throughout. And it shows with your laugh and smile at the end 🙂

Keep working on that main hammer-on/pull-off lick. I’d like to hear a little more clarity between the three notes. Check out the video I left right above your feedback. Try to match that sound. Practice slow before bringing it up to tempo.

@sarrafina – You really impressed me in the last challenge with a huge improvement in your timing. This month was another step in the right direction. From your performance, I can tell that you have a good understanding of the rhythms that you are playing. But this month, rather it was intentional or not, your performance incorporated rubato tastefully.

Therefore, I’d like you to continue experimenting with a rubato approach. But also, work on keeping it metronomically steady. Like you did in the previous challenge.

P.S. Keep an eye out for our new classical music course coming out this Friday. It’s got a lesson on rubato. Check it out, it’s got a lot of great ideas in it 🙂

@evapaju – That was awesome, you played it great! I sent your performance and kind words along to Stephen 🙂

@hiouke – Beautiful playing 👏

@richard_siegert – Great playing! My only suggestion is to target your practice on eliminating the pauses in a couple of the transitions.

@erin99 – Your timing sounded great to me. You’ve got a natural sense for it! Your performance was very enjoyable to watch, keep up the great work!

@mueleski – Love the last two pictures! Playing was great! Only a couple transitions to target your practice on, but nothing major to point out. Keep up the great work and I enjoyed the humor 🙂

@antotonin – That B Melody!!! 😮 so fast, so clean, and you aced the technique! Bravo!!!

@mademoiselleannette – Beautifully played 🙂

@acornjasper – Kelly! You KNOCKED this one outta the park! Wow! My fav performance from you to date!!

[Andrew]

Here’s everyone on page 6.

@starry – It was awesome! Great job tackling two this month! Keep up the great work 🙂

@ukele12 – Excellent playing and a great first entry! One tip: try not to bend your ring finger at the first joint (like at 4 seconds in the video). Instead, keep it curved (like at 22 seconds in the video).

@anyon1 – Beautiful playing! I’d offer the same advice I left above for @ukele12, but in regards to your pinky.

@nelsonlin2021 – Wow! I’m just sitting here amazed that you’ve progressed to be able to play a piece of this difficulty so fast! I don’t really have feedback for you this time, other than saying keep doing what you’re doing. It’s obv working! I am very impressed with your progress, Nelson!

@ccwuke – That was a fantastic performance, Chris! About speed. I think most of my speed comes from my subbing out traditional fingerpicking for the pseudo-strumming technique. Which is the same technique I used on this song.

Give the technique a shot. It uses more of a claw-shaped strum attack hitting the strings with the nails. Here’s a video showing how the technique mirrors strumming:

@biancak – Way to go on the tempo! Blisteringly fast, bravo! One thing though, I want to hear the pull-off note clearer. I noticed you hammer-on directly down, which is correct, then pull-off directly up. This is incorrect. You want to slightly tug the string down as you pull-off. This will help get the final note to ring out. Check out this lesson for a recap on the fundamentals.

@bibilele – Awesome job on the tempo, Bianca! One suggestion. It looks like your left hand is doing a ton of work pivoting for the h/o p/o then back down to the 3rd fret note (C) on A. Try doing a partial barre instead across both strings on the 3rd fret. It will make that phrase a lot more efficient to play.

P.S. You aced the ending lick 👏

@stevencao – That was amazing! I loved your performance!!

One tip, don’t forget to tune before you hit record 🙂

@coffeemug – Bravo, Mary! One of my fav performances from you. Great feel throughout! Keep up the great work 🙂

@aletski – Your playing sounded beautiful! And that transition looked smooth to me. I’d say your practice paid off. This was an excellent first post. Keep up the great work!

@karenj – Bravo! I LOVE how it sounds on banjolele!

I hear ya on having more options for the backing track speed. But I do have a solution for you. Check out Transcribe.

This is an awesome program that is similar to the on-screen tab viewer on our site. Basically, it allows you to slow down and loop audio or video files. It even has a feature that tells you what notes and chords are played and surprisingly it’s very accurate!

I’ve been using this program to help me transcribe for over a decade now. Actually, here’s a video from 2012 and you can see me hit stop and play on my laptop. I used the program to transcribe the solo and the rest of the song 🙂

You can try the program out for 30 days for free, after that it’s super cheap like 39 bucks. Totally worth it!

But as it relates to this song, put the 100% speed backing track in it and you’ll be able to slow it down by 1% increments. You can then bounce an mp3 at any speed or play along to it in transcribe.

[Author]

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