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Hey @Andrew, forgot to say…
I AM A PREMIUM MEMBER
… Once again.
Maybe I can remember in June, so far I’m dropping the ball. 😂
@grannieannie, thank you so much!! It was a lot of musical information to pack into my brain, but such a beautiful piece! 🥰 Yes, she is a little cuddle fiend so anything that interferes with that (like me playing ukulele), makes her squawk in protest. 😅 I do love her a lot. She is so precious and sweet. You had such a lovely performance with SOTDOTB! That one seems really tricky. Loved seeing your little friend, too! 🥰
@leb397, thank you so much, Louisa!! 🥰 I will keep working on it because part of the issue was that I kept forgetting what came next. For some reason kept switching the 0333 and 0353. 😅 But thank you so much! Thank the Lord, she is still doing okay. The meds seem to be helping her breathing but I take it hour by hour. It’s extremely emotional for me because I love her a lot. But yes, she can’t play as much now, only gently play, but she still loves attention and cuddles. I’m crying. 😂😻😭 Anyway, thank you, friend, I really appreciate your support with that! 🥰😊
I forgot to say, you used a raccoon emoji, she is a little raccoon!! 😻😂🦝🐱
Edit: I’ve already edited this twice, I’m being extra spastic. 😂 But another funny thing that made Marianne’s piece challenging was that parts of it went SUPER high up the fretboard! I always play my googly-eyed soprano uke so anything above the 12th fret doesn’t exist to me. So that was very tricky to navigate. Also that meant I had to play my concert uke that has a higher action and I’m less comfortable with it. Extremely challenging on multiple levels but well worth the effort for the incredible beauty of the song! 😊
Here’s my take on Marianne’s brilliant piece, “Contemplations”:
I did manage to learn this one in a few days, though parts of it were certainly very challenging – especially those huge leaps, some of the chord changes, and also just the length of it (so hard to play that long without messing up, lol!). It’s still not 100% perfect, but I think I did okay with it in that amount of time. That said, I did learn the section with the tremolo for an earlier challenge this year because that was the technique I was focusing on for that month (tremolo). So Marianne’s piece was one song I used to practice that technique. 😊 I learned the rest of the song for this challenge. I somewhat “YouTube-ified” this video because I posted it publicly on my wee lil’ YouTube channel. 😂
(However, no idea why, the film quality of my webcam suddenly tanked. It could be because the lighting wasn’t good. Oh well, lol!)
This is such an incredible piece of music, thanks so much to Marianne for creating it and sharing it and to Steven for teaching it (though – admittedly – I watched the lesson when it came out and not again as I learned it this time, so that might’ve been a mistake, and might show in my awkward fingering in places). 😂😂 I hope I somewhat did it justice, especially with the feeling behind it, though like I said it still isn’t perfect by any means.
Thanks to @Andrew and crew for everything you do! And lovely work by everyone this month!! 😍
@misterbones, haha, so true! The Imperial March is quintessential Star Wars. It sounds really good on the bass. 😀
@leb397, so magical that you’re playing your banjolele so much more! Ha, the loudness of the banjo-uke is why I don’t play it as often because I have neighbors. 😂 You’re making me want to play it more now, anyway, though yours has a much richer and sweeter sound than mine! Thank you so much, like I told you in the other thread, she is doing okay today. I have to monitor her breathing every day and it’s stable for now. She is still doing all the important kitty things, eating, drinking, litter-box-ing, and most importantly, cuddling. I let her gently play but not vigorously like she was doing. Her sweet little heart needs to be treated delicately now. Thank you so much for asking and for the support with that! 😻@grannieannie, I really appreciate that so much! She is my little soulmate to be honest. 😻 I’ve never felt such a special connection to a kitty before and I grew up with cats that I loved a lot. But she’s my sweet, special little friend. This helped me realize even more how precious and dear every moment we have together is and how we should cherish the time we have in our lives. With her, things could change at any moment. So, I’m just enjoying the time I have with her now and trying to make her as comfortable and happy as I can.
@leb397, thank you so much, Louisa (hope I spelled that right)! 😻 Normally we don’t call each other by our real names because nick names are kind of fun, but it seems fitting here to use real names. Thank you, her sweetness makes this situation even more heartbreaking. She is doing okay today, the meds seem to be helping her breathing a good amount. She definitely is much less energetic, but still does want to play. I have to be careful to not let her get too wound up though because she is fragile now. She still loves her cuddles, though. So, enjoying the time I have with her, however long that might be. 😻😥@leb397, not sure if you will see this, but for those who said kind things about my new kitty cat, I wanted to mention that I found out yesterday that she is experiencing congestive heart failure. This was heartbreaking to discover.
I found out when I was going to sleep with her and noticed that she was breathing abnormally heavily while sleeping. Then she got up, stared at me, and walked into her cat carrier on her own (she hates being in there). She was letting me know we had to go. I was there until 5am this morning but they gave her meds and they are helping her for now. Some cats can go for a while with this condition, so please pray she does well for a while with no pain. She’s the sweetest kitty I’ve ever had and my heart has broken for her struggle. She is okay right now though and her breathing seems better. So yes, just thought I’d share that and some pictures from today. 🥰❤️
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IMG_20250519_1849249162 Just wanted to leave a few replies to the entries so far! Hopefully I remember all the ones I listened to (roughly in order). 😂
@marianne, truly gorgeous performance as always! You are an inspiring musician. Really impeccable playing. I’m so honored to try playing your song this month, hopefully I can manage it and do it justice. 🥰
@nelsonlin2021, very beautiful play through of that tune! I especially loved the parts with the tremolo but the feeling throughout was lovely. I’m trying that one and listening to your performance I realized I forgot how the rhythm goes to the second melody (the non -tremolo part). Anyway, very lovely! 😊
@deadbuggy, such a lovely performance, you really bring extra life to all the music you play! Beautiful! 😊
@misterbones, that was perfect!! That really sounds amazing. Did you add a bit of the Imperial March to the end, or was that in the lesson? 😂 Always look forward to hearing your performances and that one didn’t disappoint! 😊
@leb397, I saved your reply for last because of the high rambling potential on my part! 😂 I loved that performance so much, that was really perfect and sounded so good on your antique banjolele! Some songs don’t always translate well to the banjo uke but that worked perfectly! Thought it sounded great start to finish! I oddly was thinking of starting a topic about practice on here just as you asked that question because I’m so curious what others do with that. 😅 I’ll say that my approach of waiting to the very last second possible has backfired a few times, but shockingly goes pretty well most of the time. I can usually tell by listening to the song / watching the lesson play through if I can get away with that. I know that some techniques and styles are way harder for me to learn, for instance, like strumming. I may never learn strumming, I guess that’s fine. I haven’t fully given up yet. 😂😂😅 You “strumpt” so beautifully in that tune! I’ve already rambled a lot, but let’s just say things have gotten much, much worse since I wrote about that. 😂 It’s all okay and with each issue, I’m so blessed to have so much emotional and practical support from those around me. I might write about it in the thread I started about my new kitty cat here. Anyway, lovely work, friend! 🥰❤️@shmu88, that was a very lovely play through of that tune!! Really perfect! 😊
@leb397, there have definitely been tunes here that I’ve felt that way about. One really memorable one was the tune Always With Me from Spirited Away that Steven created. So beautiful, but I had soooo much trouble memorizing that one because it was so long and intricate. The tune you’re learning seems the same sort of thing.My method for practicing RC101 tunes has changed since I started here. I used to start at the beginning of the month but now I sometimes start practicing a week or two before the end of the month, or sometimes the same day I record. 😅😅😅😂😂 But it depends on how tricky the tune is and also how much mental energy I have to spare for the challenge. Everyone has a “challenge quota” each month. The last year or so it’s been harder to pick challenging tunes because life has been so insane.
That said, I picked Marianne’s tune this month which is advanced difficulty and………………… haven’t even started practicing, but that’s where brazen and misplaced overconfidence comes in! 😉😂
Hi Mike from Uke Republic! That’s your formal title here. 😅
Thank you so much for all the uke contributions in the challenges and also for your enthusiastic descriptions of them in the challenge videos! Those are always fun to watch! 😊
I fully intend to visit your shop some day once I escape the deepening mire of poverty in which I find myself now. I haven’t seen any “fancy ukes” in person yet. But I want to go to one of those meetups, too!
Oh and thank you so much, I won an electric ukulele in my first challenge here (almost three years ago now)!! Thanks for all you do to support Rock Class 101! 😊
Really excited for this one, recording has been a struggle for me from day one and continues to be a struggle – though it has somewhat gotten better. 😅
One thing I learned though is that you can only do so much to fix an internal issue with a microphone or laptop. You can do “damage control” by editing a recording in post, but really the original recording has to be at least decent, or it’ll sound like a robo-uke.
As far as the nerves with recording, the only way to get better at it is to do it… a lot. The nerves are still are there, but you learn how to experience that terrified feeling and keep going. That applies to so many things in life. 😂
Thank you for another great topic!! 😊
@Katazumiri, that is absolutely amazing! I love that idea so much with the bird songs and your music together. The song is gorgeous, beautifully played and perfectly suits the birdy’s tunes!! Thank you for sharing! 😊❤️
Very excited that @Marianne ‘s song “Contemplations” is an option this month! That’s the one I’m going to pick, for sure! Although all the song options are lovely and quite eclectic, I must say! 😊
This was an extremely delayed reaction, but life do be gettin’ crazy at times.
(Actually it wasn’t that delayed of a reaction. I’ve just lost all perspective on time over the past few weeks. 😂😭)
