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Hello friends, Here is my rather slow and plodding version of 12th Street Rag. I love this piece and it’s so fun to play. I hope to one day be able to play it at speed!
JodyThis month I worked on left hand/arm position and reducing tension. It worked well when I was practicing and could really focus, not so well when trying to play through–too many things to think about! I will keep working on it to make it habitual.
I chose La Gitanita for the manageable left hand work, and because it’s really fun to play.
So interesting and inspiring to see what everyone chose to work on!
Dear Justin,
Thank you for sharing your performance for Regina with us, it was beautiful and heartbreaking. I have no doubt that Regina heard it and knows you are by her side. Though we are far and wide here at RC101, we are holding you close. Sending hugs and hope that you can find solace somehow in the midst of this pain.
Thinking of you,
JodyHappy New Year, everyone!
Execution:Not sure if this is a legit musical goal, but…. I’ve been dealing with a much reduced ability to play due to lateral epicondylitis (tennis elbow) that I developed after practicing a lot more last summer/fall. So my goal is to watch Matt and Andrew’s (and any others I find) videos on left hand/arm position and work on a more relaxed left hand, stronger wrist, and a lot less hand/finger tension (no more death grips!).
Application: I will work on this using the lovely piece La Gitanita. I chose this because I love it and also because the most challenging technical parts are in the right hand, and the left hand work is fairly simple (no bar chords or stretches!). Will try to develop a habit of “just enough and no more” pressure when fretting.
Evaluation: I will make recordings throughout to check for tension or other weirdnesses in my left arm and hand and monitor pain levels as feedback. Hopefully I will be able to post a more or less finished performance at the end of the month.
Can’t wait to be able to get back to participating in all the monthly challenges!
Hi gang,
I haven’t posted for a couple of months due to painful lateral epicondylitis in my left arm which did not let me practice much. Just this month I am getting back to short (very short!) practices and am submitting this half-speed, not quite there yet version of Etude 28. Loving all the entries of the different etudes this month. So many beautiful ones to learn!
Best,
JodyPremium member
Here is my take on Spongebob. It was fun to learn, and pinkie pull-offs are challenging!
Thanks everyone for the inspiration.
@shmu88 That was amazing, I loved it! Inspired me not to take things so seriously, and embrace the struggle! Everyone is just killing this challenge, you all make it seem so easy and it’s soooo not easy! I have my chord progression, but keep changing my mind about the melody and rhythm. Grrr!
Have fun everyone!Hi all-
Here is my Ghostbusters theme attempt, about 80% speed. Among the aspects I want to keep working on are the balance between the strums and the chunks, volume/intensity-wise. That was an ongoing challenge. And getting to tempo.
This is my 24th consecutive monthly challenge entry. Thank you Andrew, and all the teachers and students at RockClass101 for making this such a welcoming, engaging, and generally awesome place to learn ukulele. The quality and depth of the resources here is amazing.
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Hi everyone,
I chose Steven’s beautiful arrangement of Where is my Mind for this month, and it was definitely a stretch! I could have used a couple more weeks to clean up muted notes and smooth it out, alas. This take includes a resoundingly wrong note on the first note of the outro and the final note kind of falls apart, but it’s about the best I could get. Will definitely keep working on this one, it’s a keeper.
Have a great weekend everyone!
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Hi all,
I tried a few of the pieces this month before settling on Bella Vita. Still working on that arpeggio strumming, and a couple of the chord changes were quite challenging (looking at you, Cdim7!) but it was really fun and satisfying to learn. I also tried it on baritone but like the almost toy-piano quality of the bits high up the neck on the tenor.
Lovely work, everyone.
@Andrew Thank you for your encouragement and for the practice tip. I definitely get sucked into wanting to try the whole piece at once. I will try and be more methodical (and disciplined!)in my practice.
@jbmills07 Thank you for your kind words. I went back and forth between a high G concert and my new baritone uke working on “Red is the Rose” and the baritone was definitely more challenging! You played it beautifully, even with your biggest fan draped around your neck!
@leb397 My deepest condolences on losing your mother. Your “Red is the Rose” was a beautiful tribute to her.Hi everyone,
Here is my recording of Andrew’s lovely arrangement of Red is the Rose. I really struggled to memorize and play through without many hiccups and will keep working on it. Playing on a baritone with low D and didn’t make any adjustments, so the low note kinda stands out a bit too much at times…
Happy Spring!
Hello all-
This month I wanted to go back and continue to work on one of the pieces I had to abandon for a previous challenge and chose Andrew’s Funk Jam. Only got to about 70% speed but don’t mind it with the slower groove. Had some issues getting adjusted to my new baritone uke (yay!) but it was super fun to play. Andrew, thanks for the “player’s choice” challenge this month. Everyone killed it!
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Hello all-
Here is where I am for now with St. James Infirmary. I plan to keep working at it to get past the moments of brain freeze that inevitably occur on every take. Pardon the errant extra strum at the beginning–I was starting over immediately every time I messed up and there wasn’t enough of a gap for me to trim it out without losing part of the actual first strum. In my limited knowledge of editing….
The other part of my challenge was starting to tackle some theory with the goal of reading from the staff instead of the tab, and that has been going well. So far I have memorized and can construct all the major scales and their major and perfect intervals, and can recognize the relative minors of the major scales. Super fun and challenging and satisfying. Long term project for sure.
It’s been a really cool month watching everyone’s progress and the variety of choices. You all are amazing and I’m glad to be here learning with you.
