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Hi Rock Class 101 Community!
We are back with site member challenge #17! WOW, there has now been over 450+ members participating in our challenges! If you’ve sat on the sidelines, please join us for this month’s challenge! Challenges are a fun way to stay motivated and a great way to meet fellow ukulele players who are passionate about learning and becoming better players 🙂 And I offer feedback on ALL submissions!
Please watch the video above and read instructions below carefully for details/instructions on this month’s challenge.
Pick 1 from the following 3 Rock Class 101 American Patriotic Themed Genre Lessons:
1) “Yankee Doodle” * – An American classic, this arrangement builds upon the melody by harmonizing it. * Taught in its entirety for FREE in the Part 1 Lesson.
2) “America the Beautiful” – This fingerstyle arrangement pays homage to one of America’s most beloved melodies.
3) “Battle Hymn of the Republic” – A classic American patriotic tune that is ideal for practicing quick chord changes up and down the neck.
** If you need assistance with how to record yourself check out our FREE course on recording audio/video and/or private message me and I will be happy to help you out. **
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GOALS FOR MEMBER CHALLENGE:
1. Beginner to Intermediate Level: Be able to play one of the lessons as shown by Andrew smoothly and in time. Do not worry about trying to play fast; slow and steady wins the race 🙂
Recommended Piece: Yankee Doodle
2. Intermediate Level: Be able to play the lesson as shown by Andrew smoothly, in time, and at or close to the original piece’s tempo.
Recommended Piece: America the Beautiful
3. Advanced Level: Be able to play the lesson as shown by Andrew smoothly, in time, and at or close to the original piece’s tempo.
Recommended Piece: Battle Hymn of the Republic
4. Participation Goal: 25 Rock Class 101 Member Participant Videos/MP3 posted.
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GROUND RULES FOR PARTICIPATION:
1. Post your Youtube, Vimeo, or Soundcloud links of you playing 1 of the 3 American Patriotic pieces anytime between Sunday, July 1st till Tuesday, July 31st, 11:59pm EST.
The upload feature on the site only supports file sizes up to 5 MB. Members must host their own files. Creating an account is easy and free 🙂 Here are the links to create an account:
YouTube (For Video) – https://www.youtube.com/create_channel
SoundCloud (For Audio) – https://soundcloud.com/signin
2. Submit individually, as a reply, IN THIS POST.
3. Feel free to submit more than one video for the challenge, but additional videos will not count as extra entries into the raffle for the prize.
4. Have fun and don’t be intimidated by this challenge!!! Use this challenge to help you set goals and complete them by a deadline. You can also use this as an opportunity to chat with your fellow Rock Class 101 members and share tips or tricks on this challenge that you think are useful.
5. You must perform the entire piece to receive an entry into the prize raffle.
* Note: In my opinion, it is better to show progress versus perfection with these challenges. So if you are a beginner and can only play the first couple of measures. That is completely ok. If you play two more measures of the next challenge piece than you did the previous one, you are on track to getting better. This is what these challenges are about… you learning ukulele and getting better. Remember we are all here to support you no matter what your current playing level is.
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COMMON FAQs:
1) The prize and the challenge is open to the entire world!
2) Premium membership is NOT required to participate, but will make participation easier as it gains you complete access to the full video lessons, tabs, and the on-screen tab viewer.
3) Basic membership (free) is required to submit a reply on this forum post. You can sign up for Basic Membership HERE.
4) To post YouTube video links (in which they appear embedded on the forum), simply copy and past the video URL in its own line. For example:
YouTube URL
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Giveaway Rules:
There will be 1 winner, selected by random drawing on August 5th, 2018. To qualify to win, you must submit your audio and/or video links of your playing by the deadline listed above.
Grand Prize:
1) $69 Rock Class 101 Package! Includes:
A) Kala Ukadelic Stars and Stripes Soprano Ukulele
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Happy 4th to my fellow Americans and let’s crush this challenge!
I am afraid I can not do Yankee Doodle because, the ending needs a concert ukulele. So I will do America the Beautiful, and a Beautiful song it is! 🙂
Marni, I have a concert size and I couldn’t get my uke to make the sound Andrew did on that last chord for Yankee Doodle. I can think of several reasons why (LOL), but I decided to just pluck it (or strum it) at the regular octave on the neck. Can’t win ’em all!
I’m so new that I know I won’t be able to do either of the other song choices. 😉
Anyone on the forum with experience playing Yankee Doodle have the same problem? If so, what did you end up doing?
Same thing as you Kanae926. It looks like Andrew hit all strings, (Probably tap it) and I can’t seem to get the same sound. I just strum, or pluck. Probably because of the sound equipment that Andrew has.
I wasn’t able to do the harmonic in bar 8 either, but I’m able to get the sound maybe 10% of the time now. It’s a pretty sound when I can manage it, so I see why Andrew added that in there. It put a dopey smile on my face the first time I got my uke to make that sound. It was so satisfying! Haha!
Had to learn this one before the 4th! Here’s my performance of America the Beautiful. It’s not perfect, and I haven’t mastered all the dynamics Andrew taught us in this lesson. Hopefully passable though!
Looking forward to everyone’s performances this month!
To Kanae and Marni et al. Andrew does a pretty thorough explanation in the tutorial video for it. Having said that harmonic notes are hard! I can do them, though. Just keep working at it.
If you are really struggling with it, you might want to try one of these options.
1. Just tap the G C and A strings. The A is repeated anyway, so you don’t really need it.
2. Just play a natural harmonic on the E and A strings. That way you still get the nice chimey sound, even if you don’t get the C# played on the C string.I’m posting my Yankee Doodle video today–
I’ll keep practicing this month and post again later in the month when it’s smoother, but I
want to start working on America The Beautiful to see if I can do it….Happy 4th of July!
I decided to do both Yankee Doodle and America the Beautiful. They are both so fun to play! Thanks Andrew for these fun opportunities to learn songs I probably would’ve never learned without this. And thank you again so much for the premium membership, I’m learning so many great songs!! Messed up a couple of times just ’cause of nerves but here’s both songs in one video:
I have a weird question – the thumb knuckle tapping set off arthritis (which I never had before) in my thumb. Is there some alternative to knocking with the thumb knuckle, in songs list Battle Hymn? Thanks.
kmelton, beautiful performance kevin! You’ve got the right idea, with further practice you can continue to shape the Dynamics and I’d also focus on getting some of the big jump sections to flow a little smoother. But very good job, I’m impressed!
mheiden, great job! I think you have a great base established, so my focus would be on timing and getting the piece to continuously flow. I’m looking forward to hearing your take on ATB 🙂
suzie1, wow, so so good! Great feel to your performances, I really enjoyed watching them! And I’m happy to hear you are enjoying the site 🙂 there’s only one thing I want to point out, which if I remember correct, was the same tip I gave you last time. Which is to try not to bend at the first joint when Fretting, instead try to keep the joint curved.
Thanks! And jeez I keep on forgetting 😬 I will most definitely try to remember to not bend that joint! Also this website is like the best thing ever, thank you so much! I feel like you can see I already improved between my Waltz in C performance in these ones.
I can’t believe nobody has posted an entry in over a week!
Anyway, here is Yankee Doodle, although it will always be the theme to Rodger Ramjet to me.
Okay, so here’s my rough attempt at Yankee Doodle.
I can’t seem to figure out how to embed the video right to the post. 🙁
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