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Another Skye Boat. Another Stellar month of submissions. Great Work Everybody!
Please preclude me from the drawing.Here is another version of “Spanish Romanze” played on the Kanile’a Custom T won in the December 2025 Drawing. I am Beyond Grateful for having been so lucky to have won. The instrument is beautiful, plays and sounds fabulous. February Submissions were all so wonderful to listen to.
You guys ROCK!Rock Class 101 has improved my musicianship in many way. All you players who submit videos inspire me to practice and work hard to continue to learn. Thanks and Kudos to each and every one of you.
@leb397 Great Job, Louisa. I know you have been busy with babies and Ukuleles. Keep on Truckin’.
Cinichol,
Finger and fingernail care are important issues for ukulele players, whether picking or strumming. My experience reveals that buildup and breakdown of callouse is cyclical and when the calliuse breaks down it can produce raw new skin cells that are fragile and sensitive. A good strategy would be to stop playing for a period of time (I have difficulty with this).
My fingernails have a condition that involves cracks and areas of damage. This is due to a 60 year biting habit and a weakened immune system that makes new nail growth soft and pliable. I may never have proper nails for ideal string contact.
That being said I have found several Nail Care discussions:
Brad Bordessa. https://liveukulele.com/lessons/picks/fingernail-care/
Matt Dahlberg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaQpi2joRHE
Aldrine Guerrero https://forum.ukuleleunderground.com/threads/early-nail-care.160690/There are lots more out there. Good Luck.
Dear RC101 Community:
I am so excited to learn that I WON the Kanile’a Ukulele. What an incredible feeling! The instrument will be played a lot. I have always wanted to own a Kanile’a and do not own a Uke with a sound port, So….very cool.
Unfortunately I was not present for the live announcement but became aware of the news just minutes ago with a text from my friend Louisa (leb397).
This is a wonderful prize and I hope to share some tunes using the lovely tenor with you soon.
Thanks to:
– Andrew et al @ RC101
– Mike and Donna from Uke Republic
– Joe and Kristen Souza @ Kanile’a Ukulele
– ALL OF THE 261 RC101 PARTICPANTS…amazing
Feliz Navidad, Jouyeux Noal, Merry Christmas
Great Job on the Ukulele for kids contributions.Let’s try to close the goal gap.
PEACE
Rick BurkeHappy Holidays to You All! It has been fun visiting all these seasonal tunes… Soon to be put away for another 11 months or so.
Grateful to be part of this community that facilitates growth and support. Uke On! PREMIUM MEMBER….. UKULELE KIDS CLUB CONTRIBUTOR… PEACEHere is my “….To Grandmother’s House We Go” rendition. I am a Premium Member.
Nice work everybody… Enjoy the time with your families.
Jake doesn’t sing. There is a reason.
Moondance is in my Top Five all time tunes. I have been intimate with it since a teenager. I am a PREMIUM MEMBER.
This challenge gave me an opportunity to deep dive into the song. The first two weeks of October focused on the solo. That was not easy and took a lot of practice. The past week focused on the details of the RC101 arrangement, getting wrong lyrics memorized over decades replaced with the actual lyrics and trying to record 3.5 minutes without error and reasonable musicianship. There remains a way to go.
This current version represents a LOT of repetition and practice and I recognize that rhythmn needs improvement. Progress not Perfection.Thanks to Ashley, Evan and Steven for creating an awesome version of this Iconic tune and to Andrew for picking apart the solo.
Thanks to all of you October participants. You hard work is bearing fruit.A sidenote about “Moondance”…Collin Tilton played Flute and Tenor sax on the recording. He was paid very little for this. Today Collin is the Sax Player for Eight To The Bar a New England-based Swing Combo.
Jake doesn’t sing. There is reason.
@jasdel Nice!
Good to be back with all you RC101 challenge musicians. I have been away busy working for the summer, hoping to find more time to work on ukulele skills:
Petty’s Free Fallin’ was a good challenge, a familiar tune but arranged to build strumming, muting, picking and tapping skills with a dash of syncopation.
Thanks.@katazumiri I love your rendition/arrangement.
@shmu88 Excellent job on the Blues Drill. I have been working on this lesson but will not complete for this month. Too busy getting ready for a couple of group performances this coming Friday and Sunday. Thanks for setting the bar high on EP15.
@potter Thank you for the heartfelt rendition of “Dream A Little Dream of Me”. So sorry that Verity is no longer with you.
Here is a Premium Member Blue Moon update. Still a ways to go. Someone quipped…”You’re going to go along way in this Ukulele pursuit, Do you know why?…..Because, you have a long way to go.”
Excellent work by all you musicians/artists out there. BRAVO.
Andrew you seem to know what participants need and want. For the past couple weeks I have been revisiting many of the RC101 pieces that I worked on in 2024. I was checking to see if I can still play them -from memory-correctly and fluently. Turns out… No ..not really. I have dusted a few of them off and they are refreshed in my memory.
The piece I will develop and improve will be “Blue Moon” that I played in the October ’24 challenge.I found that while I had the tune memorized last October I cannot now perform it start to finish in front of others. That is the main goal.
James Hill mentioned this thought…Amateurs play a piece enough times so that they can play it right, Professionals play the piece enough so that they can’t get wrong.For “Blue Moon” the goals will be:
– play the piece as true to the lesson instructions as possible, including correct fingerings and strumming.
– play the pulloffs as true pulloffs and letting the second tone be loud and clear without picking it.
– smooth out some of the weak and sloppy sections and transitions.
– be cognizant of the Chord progression being used and as well as chord variation (i.e. C6 instead of C )
– Be able to fit the lyrics into the arrangement. (Not as straightforward as I would have thought)
– Watch “Werewolf In London”
– Ultimately, be able to perform this version as a performance piece with Confidence.Onward and Upward, thanks for the inspiration from you, your staff and all the Participants.
Rick
