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@gi_gi_, thaaaank you! The chair is indeed brand new. I just moved this month and that chair was a gift from my parents. I put it together myself; I was pretty proud of that. 😂 I love orange or yellow anything, too. 😊
Really looking forward to hearing your entry, even if it’s just a snippet! 😊
@muzikmama, that is true about piano! In some ways it’s definitely easier than uke. I feel like you can do more nuanced “tricks” with the uke. I’ll have to ponder that more though because I also played piano for a long time. 😅 Haha that explains it. I don’t have tiktok. Love her drawing though, very lovely! 😊
‘Ello, uke friends! 🙂
Here is my entry for this month, Classical Etude written by Andrew Hardel. A very beautiful song; I wanted so much to do it justice, but there are defs a bunch of foibles. Considering, however, that I just finished learning it about two days ago, I am still pretty pleased with how far I came in that amount of time because the approach to playing this is very different from how I’ve played songs before. Like the runs that go up and down that require putting down one finger at a time, as opposed to holding a shape and playing out of that shape (the second approach I’m more used to). Not sure if that makes sense. I did figure out in certain parts that there were ways to play the same notes out of a fixed shape instead, but I wanted to learn it like the lesson taught so I could learn a different approach. Some of the stretches and contortions in this were very, very tricky for me as well. I will continue working on this one; I’m very happy that I was able to finish learning it and come out with an okay take! 🙂
Thank you for these challenges! I love that they motivate me to try new things and I learn so much from them, and have so much fun. Very lovely entries from everyone. Get blessed! 🙂 <3
@leb397, I feel like that’s often how these challenges can go: You learn a song in a month, learn all the notes, but might not be able to play it really, really well for a while. That’s how I feel about the one I’m working on now; it will take a while before I can play it the way I want, but also agree with you; I’ll keep playing it because it’s so lovely. To me, it’s a perfect song. Oh my, I can only imagine moving during COVID, yeesh. 😅😳 Physically moving all my things wasn’t too hard compared to other moves, but kind of emotionally, existentially this was a harder move, without going into too much detail. But it’s good. Ha thank you, I think I should still be able to, if I quit yammering on and get to it!! 😉😅 Ha I hope you get to enjoy the sun at least, even though it’s cooler! 😊
So many amazing entries so far!! All so great. @marianne, your duet (you-et?) was so, so beautiful. Perfectly played and so lovely to listen to! @muzikmama, your entry cracked me up so much, oh my, so perfect. 😂😅 I love that you’re integrating art and silliness into your entries. You used some kind of voice modifier? Very funny and well done! 😅 @leb397, so beautifully played, my friend, that’s probably my favorite Beatles song! Very lovely-ily played. I hope you enjoy your vacation. It’s snowing here today…… 🥺😂😭🤷
I’m still working on Andrew’s Classical Etude, but haven’t had as much time to practice this month due to moving insanity. I haven’t given up yet though! It may not be perfect, but that’s okay. 😅
@surferjay!! So nice to see you pop in with some classic loops! That was/is a good one. I feel like I’ve been saying I need to try another loop for a year, but here we are. 😅 Is this The Year of the Loop at last?! 😉😂💕
So sorry you’re experiencing that. Hopefully peace and normalcy will come to you and that area of the world very soon. And like @gi_gi_ said, hopefully for you that’ll include uke time because your contributions are missed. 😊
@muzikmama, haha, no worries about that! I feel like that kind of joking around is harmless. Also, sorry for the delay, I think I mentioned I just moved about a week ago so steadily (very slowly) trying to get my life back in order. 😂
I need to ask him about that, but I’m pretty sure that it can be any chord moved up the neck to transpose to different chords / keys, as long as you’re fretting all four strings OR the open g string fits with the chord you’re playing, wherever that might be on the uke. I also need to review the CAGED method again because I think that’s so useful once you get it. It makes it so easy to modify any song once you get that. Honestly that really made me feel so much more in control of what I’m playing, especially if I’m trying to create or modify a song.
Oh awesome that you’re working on another arrangement! Please share it here, if you feel comfortable doing do; I’d love to hear it. And your drawing, I’d love to see an update on that too! 😊
Haha no worries about that at all! But it would be lovely to see more uke art from other people too. No question I will share more, too, life has just been nuts lately! Hope you’ve been doing well, my co-author friend! 😂
Such a fun topic! Looking forward to hearing some uke “origin stories”! 😊
For me, I started playing uke because I had to sell my childhood piano because it was broken. I saw someone playing a uke in a YouTube video, so I thought I’d finally buy one to fill the void left from losing my piano. Then I fell in love with playing uke and I continue to play because it brings me so much joy in my life and also helps with my anxiety.
Matt, I wonder if you’ll share the part of your origin story when you traveled interdimensionally to an island filled with capuchin monkeys, but, in that alternate universe, you not only teach them ukulele, but also become a sort of “Santa-Claus-esque” figure to them–because sometimes you seem like you could be a young Santa Claus. 😅😂😅
@leb397, oh my, I used to read those books as a kid, too. Choose from a, b, or c, then turn to a specific page to see what happens. 😅 And obviously at times you’d find all three pages and see which result you liked most (although that might be cheating). 😂 Now I need to find some of those books…
That song is a really good option, I also thought about that one! 😁
@muzikmama, haha!! Man flu. 😂😅 I won’t lie to you, there is some truth to that. It can be pretty funny when someone finds 50°f (10°C) weather to be freezing when a recent low temperature we had in Wisconsin is -11°F (-23°C actual temperature, before wind-chill, which makes it even colder). 😂 But then all of that is relative and it’s understandable if what we consider mild weather is hard to handle for someone who isn’t used to it.
I think I know a bit about what the CAGED method is because I looked through the RC101 material on that. I need to review that again now though, now that I have more experience. I’ve had some private lessons with Matt and most of what I asked him about had to do with chord shapes and patterns and it was just like you said: to transpose up any song, you just move the shapes up (if all of the strings are covered. If the g string is open in the chord, you have to make sure it still fits with the chord you choose moving up). For me that’s so helpful to know things like that because I memorize songs based on the shapes, movements, and sounds, not as much by the chord and note names. Not sure if that makes sense. 😂 It’s so interesting to know the different ways everyone learns and creates music. You should definitely continue trying to create your own arrangements because it only gets more fun with time. I find the prospect of having total freedom to create a song exactly the way I want it, and whatever way I want, to be very exciting and motivating, and the people of Rock Class 101 have helped me so much to be able to do that. A good part by just learning their amazing arrangements and watching how they play. But yes, I hope you enjoyed creating that and keep going with it. 😊
Very interesting indeed with how you shade your drawings! I’m not sure there’s necessarily a wrong or right way to approach shading. All of those methods could work for sure. Filling in light or dark patches you don’t want and keeping the values even where they should be is probably more important than how you do that if that makes sense. That said, there are definitely benefits and drawbacks to each method. Do you think you’ll post another update on that drawing?
Thank you so much for saying that! I think it’s fair to say that interacting with people on RC101 is just as much a fun hobby for me as my other hobbies. 😂 But certain topics no one else I know is interested in, so it’s really nice to be able to share. Thank you so much for your encouragement and also the lovely conversation! 😂
Heck yes, it’s round two of the “free for all”! I find that description very amusing. 😂
I already have one idea for what I want to do. >=]
I think I might learn your “Classical Etude,” Andrew, the one I think was inspired by “Lagrima.” I’ve always liked that one a lot and it’s about time I learned the whole thing. That’s my first idear for this challenge. 😅
@gi_gi_, thank you so much! With my nature photos in the video with the orig music, it was kind of special for me to share those that way because those are some of my favorite photos over the last decade or so, and I don’t share those very often, so it means a lot that you liked them. I always wanted to try to combine the creative things I love to do so that was a fun way to do that. I meant to say that to your first post but got distracted. 😂
Thank you so much for sharing your story with singing! That is so amazing and special that singing has done so much for you in your life, and you got so good at it through sheer will and tenacity. 😂 That’s so inspiring. To me that’s one of the most beautiful things when a creative venture can help you overcome some difficulty in life. For me, creative things have helped me connect with people and to cope with anxiety and depression and things. So true that if your teacher or someone you’re sharing with is extremely critical that can be so discouraging which is why RC101 is such a beautiful community; everyone here is so wonderful and if there is critique, it’s kind, and not intended to put anyone down obviously (but that is definitely something that can and does happen 😅😒). I really look forward to you sharing any more of your singing going forward because it’s very beautiful. Thank you. 😊💕
@gi_gi_, thank you so much! Your encouragement and kind words mean a lot. That’s crazy your journey with singing. How did you learn to sing that well, just on your own using Internetube videos (YouTube)? 😂 I love what you said about being famous, couldn’t agree more. 😂 Thank you for your kind words again and it’s so nice you commented on everyone’s entries! After this month I’m going to go back and look through certain gems in this thread that I missed because I only got to see some of the entries.
@leb397, thank you so much! I can’t say how much it pleases me that you say that it sounded like a harp because that is exactly what I hoped it would sound like, no joke. 😅 I always wanted to play the harp, so there are times with uke that I try to make it sound as harp-like as possible. Your entry was very lovely, those techniques are so hard and ya nailed it! To me, strumming and chucking and all those things are way more challenging than fingerpicking, but some of that at least is just experience related. You did really great with it though! And thank you again for your kind words. 😊💕
@nelsonlin2021, ha, we should definitely try to coin the term Mattxim for Matt’s various maxims/sayings and also Drewism (truism) for Andrew’s. 😂😅All the entries I’ve seen this month are amazing, can’t wait to see the ones I missed! This month I’ve been moving, lost power for three days, and my car broke down … twice. 😅 I’m looking forward to next month hopefully being calmer. 😂😅😳😥😭😅 Still this challenge was super fun, thank you, Andrew especially but everyone for doing such great work and being so encouraging! 😊
Really, really amazing work by everyone, but I just want to comment on a couple again. Everyone did so amazingly well this month though, it’s actually insane. 😅
@gi_gi_, absolutely gorgeous! There’s something about the way you sing that makes me want to cry every time. 😂 I think because you sing with such feeling and it’s so real, and I really love singing that is naturally beautiful and unfiltered like that, which is why I love listening to live performances by famous singers, too. That said, you could be a famous singer. 😅 Lovely! Thank you for sharing! I hope you keep sharing songs that include singing here. 😊
@misterbones, that was so amazing! You’re basically a professional clawhammer guy now (a PCG). 😂 I loved that so much. I thought your singing was really great. I would literally listen to those tracks of you playing / singing along with my regular line up of songs because they’re just that perf… perfect. Listening to that also makes me want to learn more traditional clawhammer tunes instead of the strange ones I make up. Thank you for sharing all those! 😊@muzikmama, despite that brutal week of blizzarding and minor calamity, I agree, I prefer being too cold over too hot. And I still love snow. Kinda crazy that you’ve never seen it, but also very logical. Actually, I haaaaaaaate, hate being overly hot, I get very cranky. 😂😅 Well, I’ve also gotten heat stroke pretty badly so that affects the anxiety I have getting overly hot. For some reason, I imagined Australia just always being hot, literally year round. I don’t know how weather works. 😂😅 But then it can’t get too cold there if you’ve never seen snow, so that isn’t too huge of a leap.
The song sounded so good and extra impressive that it’s your first ukulele arrangement! I get very overwhelmed if there’s a song with a lot of different chords like that when creating an arrangement of my own, which is why if I do reference chords for a song I usually pick the one that has fewer chords–Then fill in any gaps by ear and/or trial and error. For me, I like to do arrangements by ear as much as possible because that’s what I enjoy doing most. I enjoy the challenge of that and the freeform nature of that. But it’s really good you did your arrangement that way, using all those chords, because it almost automatically gave your arrangement even more depth and richness, I think. I have created a few arrangements but they’re not on the level of RC101’s.
Agreed, there are still some RC101 courses I want to do, too, like the strumming ones and the theory one. It’s pretty obvious which things I avoid with uke, it’s those two things. 😂 That’s also my goal for this year, too, to do those courses.
Your drawing is looking so good!! Such a difference between the first and last picture. I really think you have a natural skill for that. When you shade in a drawing, do you shade by moving the pencil in small circles or from side to side? That might be a strange question but I’m really curious. 😂
There will be more uke drawings in February after I move because I’m in the process of moving, kinda right now, but thankfully I’m fairly prepared now. I’m also hoping I might squeeze in one more, hopefully better, take on the song I did for the challenge.
Thanks for sharing all you have! I do think one creative venture can enhance another. I also think there are certain useful / interesting overlaps between creative skills, such as pressure control with drawing and with playing a musical instrument. Even gradations in visual art versus something like a crescendo in music. There are other examples I’m sure. I’m trying to justify this topic existing but I do genuinely think there is some merit to that. 😅
Sorry, I wrote another novel. I think I’m tired and that’s why. My editing skills get even weaker than usual. 😂
