★ Our Next In-person Meeting: Thursday, July 9! ★

Greetings, friends! Our next monthly meeting is fast approaching! On Thursday, July 9, 7:00–9:00pm, we’ll meet again at St. John’s United Methodist Church, located at 2140 Allandale Rd, Austin, TX 78756.

We’re very excited to welcome all of our regular monthly attendees as well as visitors for the at Uke Stars Central Texas Ukulele Festival! Your presence will make our July 9th meeting extra special!

At St. John’s, parking is available on both the Wynona Ave. and White Rock Dr. sides of the church. You can also park in the Lamar Middle School lots across White Rock Dr. from the church. Street parking is available all along Wynona Ave. The entrance is on the Wynona Ave. side of the church.

This month, we’ll revisit one of our most popular covers, which we learned at the January 2019 meeting (7.5 years ago)! Neil Diamond’s contagiously catchy “Sweet Caroline” has gotten continuous accolades and play since it was released in 1969.This tune was a chart-topper around the world, and is still as timeless as ever. If you don’t know it yet, you’ll be singing and strumming along in no time!

Neil Diamond’s 1969 original recording is in the key of B major, and Bob’s arrangement moves it up a half-step to C major. Apart from that key change, his arrangement closely follows the original. For practice, you can play along with our fabulous performance from January 2019!

Our 2019 Performance Video!

Here are some details about Bob’s song sheet:

Pages 1-3 have the chords and lyrics.
Page 4 has a description of the strum pattern, with a simplified alternative.
Page 5 has tab for two picking parts that can be played during the Intro and the instrumental Interlude while other players strum the chords.
Pages 6 and 7 show vocal harmony options for the Choruses.

As always, we encourage you to familiarize yourself with the song by using Bob’s song sheet and our performance video from January 2019 – before the 9th, if possible. 🙂

At the meeting, Bob will perform “Sweet Caroline” to demonstrate his arrangement, and then take us through some helpful exercises to get us comfortable with the chords and chord progressions, strum patterns, picking parts, and vocal harmonies in each section of the song, before we put it all together to play it through.

After Bob’s tutorial, we’ll play through our new-to-us song a couple of times then record a performance video. We’ll share this video on our YouTube channel about a week after the meeting – so please subscribe if you haven’t yet, and you’ll be notified when it’s available!

Since we’ll be having an open mic and jam on Friday afternoon, 4:00 – 6:00pm, at St. John’s as part of the Uke Stars festival, we will not have an open mic during the July monthly meeting on Thursday. But groups and individuals are warmly invited to share a song at Friday’s ice breaker! While it will function like an open mic, it would be great to choose songs that others can sing along with or (if simple enough) strum along!

Ukulele Society T-shirts and Merch!

We’re very excited about our 2026 Austin Ukulele Society t-shirt, “Ukin’ Armadillo,” designed by Lyda Guz. This cool design features a rockin’ and rollin’ armadillo happily strumming his favorite ukulele decorated with 16 stars to celebrates the Austin Ukulele Society’s 16th year of making music together. As always, the shirts are silk-screened right here in Austin at a fantastic locally-owned print shop.

You can purchase our $25 shirts with digital payment via our Square Shop and/or via cash/check before and after the meeting. We know you’ll love adding our terrific, new, iconic Austin Ukulele Society shirt to your wardrobe!

We also have patches for $5 and vinyl stickers for $1 each.

Please bring cash or a check made out to Austin Ukulele Society; you can also pay via our Square shop.

Location
Our meetings take place at St. John’s United Methodist Church, located at 2140 Allandale Rd, Austin, TX 78756. Map it!

Parking is available on the Wynona Ave. and White Rock Dr. sides of the church. You can also park in the Lamar Middle School lots across White Rock Dr. from the church. Street parking is available all along Wynona Ave.

For anyone who might be attending for the first time, the entrance to St. John’s is on the Wynona Ave. side of the church. From there simply follow the sounds of ukuleles tuning up. 🙂

Newcomers and beginners are ALWAYS welcome! Even if you’re a complete novice, we encourage you to come out. Many beginners come to the meetings, and it’s so great to see their skills grow over time! There are almost always easier ways to play the songs, even if you can play only a few of the chords. Or just sing along!

For the monthly meetings, our friend Lori brings loaner ukuleles, donated by the TUG (Tuesday Ukulele Group)! They are Makala concert and soprano ukes, and you can borrow one to play during the meeting. You’ll find them at the front of the room; so if you don’t have a uke yet, or you forget your uke at home, or your uke is in disrepair, please join us and borrow a TUG loaner uke. 🙂

Feel free to get familiar with the chord charts for any of the songs in our repertoire, all available on the “Music Library” page. We always play “Three Little Birds” and “On the Road Again” as our opening and closing songs, so if you’re new to the group and want to get familiar with them, you can play along using the presentations and our videos.

Stay tuned and keep strumming! We’re looking forward to seeing everyone on Thursday, July 9, at 7:00pm!

June 11, 2026: Don’t Bring Me Down!

On a hot June evening, we were delighted to keep everyone cool at our monthly meeting. We had a terrific, enthusiastic turnout of 165 uke players of all ages and skill levels — thank you all for being there! ❤

The evening kicked off with local ukulele news, including a reminder to check out and purchase tickets for the Uke Stars Central Texas Ukulele Festival coming up July 9 through 12. Ticket sales will close on July 1.

Then we got the music-making started by playing our traditional warm-up song, Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.” Such a great way to limber up our fingers, warm up our voices, and remind ourselves that every little thing is gonna be alright!

We’ve long wanted to do an Electric Light Orchestra cover, and since there’s no time like the present, we learned to strum, pick, and sing 1979’s timeless, rockin’ hit, “Don’t Bring Me Down.” This tune was a chart-topper around the world, and it still gets plenty of airplay. Bob (with support on bass from Aaron) performed his great arrangement of the song to get us familiar with it. He took us through exercises to practice the chords, chord progressions, strumming styles, picking options, and harmonies. We put the song all together and improved with each take.

Our open mic participants – Jay, Rich, and Jack – were wonderful! Thanks so much for sharing your skills with us!

When we got back to practicing our song, we got better and better and shot our latest video, so please play along with us from home. Look for our video performance of “Don’t Bring Me Down,” coming soon to our YouTube Channel!

To play along, you can download the lyrics, chords, and tab for Bob’s arrangement of “Don’t Bring Me Down” or download a copy of the presentation and instruction guide (what we project on the screens for all to follow along, including exercises and drills).

We’re immensely grateful to Aaron Lewis for his bass accompaniment. Many, many thanks to all the fabulous AUS volunteers for their hard work.

We’re looking forward to seeing you again at our next meeting on July 9th at St. John’s United Methodist Church. This meeting is the opening event of the Uke Stars Central Texas Ukulele Festival! Keep on strumming until then! 🙂

For more downloadable music, visit our Ukulele Music Library. For more Austin Ukulele Society videos, check out our YouTube Channel.

We appreciate your support and interest. If you’d like to make a donation to the Austin Ukulele Society (a 501(c)(3) organization), visit our Square Donation site. If you would like to be added to our mailing list, please fill out our this short sign-up form. For any other inquiries, please contact us or shoot us an email if you have previous correspondence with us.

Ukulele Society T-shirts and Merch!

Our new “Ukin’ Armadillo” design, “Circle of Stars,” “AUS Grackle,” “Classic Ukulele,” “Ukulele Around the World,” “10th Anniversary,” Mermaid, Cowboy,” “Austin Lasso” and other shirts are $25. We also have vinyl decals with the AUS logo for $1 each. We can accept cash or a check made out to Austin Ukulele Society; you can also make payment via Venmo or PayPal. Please drop us a line if you’d like to purchase a shirt (or two or three). 🙂 At this time, we can only ship orders within the U.S.

May 14, 2026: Somewhere Only We Know!

On a balmy Austin mid-May evening, Austin Ukulele Society participants, young and old, seasoned and new, visiting from as far as Oregon, and more, all came together to enjoy a terrific evening of learning, singing, and strumming!

We started the evening with some ukulele news, and we introduced our friend Neal Kassanoff, founder of Groundwork Music Project. Together with support from the Austin Ukulele Society and EdUkeCation, Groundwork is hosting the first Central Texas Ukulele Festival from July 9 – 12! Please plan to join the fun; find out more and sign up for the email list, purchase workshop tickets, and more on the Festival’s website.

Then we got the music-making started by playing our always uplifting warm-up song, Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.”

Bob (with support on bass from Aaron) gave us a lovely performance of the song we’d be learning. We moved some decades into the future from the Beatles era that we explored in April, with East Sussex’s alternative rockers Keane, to cover their 2004 smash hit “Somewhere Only We Know.” This tune is a lovely, catchy, and piano-driven rock ballad which was also a #1 hit for Lily Allen when she covered it in 2013.

Everyone did great, learning the strum style, tab, harmony options, and more, as we practiced Bob’s great arrangement and helpful exercises.

By the time we recorded the song, we sounded terrific. We hope you’ll play along with us from wherever you are! Look for our video performance of “Somewhere Only We Know,” coming soon to our YouTube Channel!

To play along, you can download the lyrics, chords, and tab for Bob’s arrangement of “Somewhere Only We Know” or download a copy of the presentation and instruction guide (what we project on the screens for all to follow along, including exercises and drills).

We’re immensely grateful to Aaron Lewis for his bass accompaniment. Many, many thanks to all the fabulous AUS volunteers for their hard work.

We’re looking forward to seeing you again at our next meeting on June 11th at St. John’s United Methodist Church. Keep on strumming until then! 🙂

For more downloadable music, visit our Ukulele Music Library. For more Austin Ukulele Society videos, check out our YouTube Channel.

Ukulele Society T-shirts and Merch!

April 23, 2026: She Loves You!

The April 2026 virtual meeting was tons of fun. Thank you for joining in from all over the world, for the first time or the 50th time, solo or with your local group, and bringing your great questions and friendly conversation, too! 🙂

Beatlemania will never end, and the Austin Ukulele Society has had a Beatles month! We first covered “She Loves You” just over 10 years ago, in February 2016, as a Valentine’s-inspired tune. Like most Beatles hits, it is timeless and just as fun and fresh as ever. We had a blast learning it together!

Bob kicked off the meeting by sharing some local information, including the July 9th – 12th Uke Stars event. You can sign up to get details from our friends at Groundwork Music Project. He also introduced our good friend Jay Clement, who joined him at his home, to play U-bass and sing harmonies.

Then we warmed up with Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds” before getting started on our featured song. Bob shared some info about “She Loves You” and played it through (with Jay’s accompaniment) to give us a feel for the arrangement we’d be learning. Bob took us step by step through his great arrangement.

We had a great time learning the chords, alternative chords, progressions, and more. Many of you were very impressed with how multi-layered this seemingly simple song is, and we are glad you enjoyed the lesson. After we practiced each component, we played it through twice – and we sounded terrific!

To close out the evening, Bob and Jay performed another Beatles tune, “Two of Us.” We played our traditional closing song, Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again,” and Bob shared a few of the AUS in-person meeting videos.

You can download the song sheet for “She Loves You” to play along, or download a copy of the presentation and instruction guide, including exercises and drills.

You can also watch a replay of the April 23 livestream. Watch the entire show or jump to the part you most want to see!

● Welcome and announcements
● “Three Little Birds” warm-up song
● “She Loves You” tutorial and play-along
● “Two of Us” performed by Bob and Jay
● “On the Road Again” closing song

Thanks again to Jen for all of her back-end work with the AUS, including moderating the live events, to Lyda for all she does to keep our presentation slides in perfect time, and to Jay for helping out on bass and vocals.

Thank you all for joining us, sending in your selfies, and staying connected!

We look forward to being back with our friends from near and far online on July 23, 2026! And we hope to seeing all our nearby friends at our next in-person meeting on Thursday, May 14, at St. John’s United Methodist Church. Be well and keep strumming! 🙂

For more downloadable music, visit our Ukulele Music Library. For more Austin Ukulele Society videos, check out our YouTube Channel.

April 9, 2026: Hey Jude!

We had a wonderful time at our April in-person meeting! Despite the rainy weather, the turnout was fabulous, with over 170 enthusiasts in attendance. We welcomed first timers and regulars alike; it was especially fun welcoming an old friend who moved to the Philippines, new friends from the Cayman Islands, and a recent transplant who has been taking his uke around the world with his work, hoping to find a group like ours!

Hard to believe, but nearly three years has passed since we covered a Beatles tune. We often get requests to do so, and we get it – the Beatles’ repertoire is delightfully timeless, ever popular, and has many songs that lend themselves well to group sing and strum-a-longs. They also often offer some great learning opportunities for cool strum patterns and vocal harmonies. At this meeting we learned to strum, pick, and harmonize the iconic “Hey Jude.”

After sharing some local ukulele news, we played our warm-up song – Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.” Then Bob (with Jay on U-bass) gave us a great demo performance of “Hey Jude.”

Bob took us through some very helpful exercises to learn each component of this timeless 1968 Beatles favorite, and we had a great time learning the strum styles, the harmonizing options, the picking part, and even some a cappella refrains of the coda. We put the song together a couple of times and sounded better with each practice.

We took a break to enjoy a special open mic treat, as Kevin Carroll and his Austin Ukestra performed an original piece.

After we got back to practicing on “Hey Jude,” we made a recording for your listening (and play along!) pleasure. We hope you’ll have as much fun as we did. It will be coming soon to our YouTube Channel!

To play along, you can download the lyrics, chords, and tab for Bob’s arrangement of “Hey Jude” or download a copy of the presentation and instruction guide (what we project on the screens for all to follow along, including exercises and drills).

We’re immensely grateful to Jay Clement for his bass accompaniment. Many, many thanks to all the fabulous AUS volunteers for their hard work.

Take care and be well. We hope you’ll all join us at the AUS virtual meeting on April 23rd on our YouTube Channel! And we look forward to seeing everyone at our next in-person meeting on May 14 at St. John’s United Methodist Church. Keep on strumming until then! 🙂

For more downloadable music, visit our Ukulele Music Library. For more Austin Ukulele Society videos, check out our YouTube Channel.

Ukulele Society T-shirts and Merch!

March 12, 2026: Take a Chance On Me!

Thank you so much for coming out to the Austin Ukulele Society’s March meeting! We loved seeing so many enthusiastic uke players, from near and far! We owe a big shout out to our friend Vany who joined us all the way from India, and who we got to know in our monthly virtual meetings during the pandemic.

We’ve long wanted to cover an ABBA song, and this was our big “chance”! We learned to strum and harmonize one of ABBA’s most popular songs of all time, 1978’s “Take a Chance On Me.”

Bob kicked off the meeting with introductions and a quick review of the agenda. After sharing some local ukulele news, Bob (with support from Jay on U-bass) gave us a lovely performance of “Take a Chance on Me.”

Then we got to work, learning the chords, chord progressions, strum styles and harmonizing options for this upbeat song. As we practiced each component and put more pieces together, we got better and better!

We played it through a couple of times, then took a break for the open mic portion of the evening. Rebecca and Jay gave us two terrific performances; we’re so grateful to all who get up and share their talents with us!

Next, we played through “Take a Chance On Me” again, and recorded it for you to enjoy and play along with from your home. We hope you’ll have as much fun as we did. It will be coming soon to our YouTube Channel!

To play along, you can download the lyrics, chords, and tab for Bob’s arrangement of “Take a Chance On Me” or download a copy of the presentation and instruction guide (what we project on the screens for all to follow along, including exercises and drills).

We’re immensely grateful to Jay Clement for his bass accompaniment. Many, many thanks to all the fabulous AUS volunteers for their hard work.

Take care and be well. We look forward to seeing everyone at our next in-person meeting on April 9 at St. John’s United Methodist Church. Save the date for our next virtual meeting, April 23rd on our YouTube Channel! Keep on strumming until then! 🙂

For more downloadable music, visit our Ukulele Music Library. For more Austin Ukulele Society videos, check out our YouTube Channel.

Ukulele Society T-shirts and Merch!

February 12, 2026: You Belong With Me!

Our February meeting was one for the books, with ~175 ukulele enthusiasts ready to learn to sing and strum our first-ever Taylor Swift song! Swift’s a songwriter known for penning many fantastic songs about romantic relationships and heartbreak, and we knew she’d be a great choice for our Valentine’s-week meeting.

We learned to strum, pick, and sing “You Belong With Me.” This 2008 mega-hit is considered one of Swift’s signature songs, and we had a blast singing and strumming along to its infectious tune with great lyrics.

Bob kicked off the meeting with introductions and a quick review of the agenda. We also played through our warm-up song – Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.”

Bob (with Aaron on bass) performed his arrangement of “You Belong With Me,” much to our listening pleasure, and to help us get familiar with what we’d be learning. We dove into helpful exercises to learn the strum style, the chord progressions, the harmonizing options, and the picking parts. When we put the song together, we sounded fantastic!

We took a break and delighted in three excellent open mic performances. The lovely trio of Kelly, Kim and Becky covered “Blue Skies,” Paul did a great rendition of “Makin’ Love Ukulele Style,” and Roy and Theresa performed a great cover of the classic John Prine/Iris DeMent duet “In Spite of Ourselves.” We’re thankful, always, to our open mic participants – and we hope to see you at the Ukulele Open Mic on Saturday, February 21st!!

We got back to practicing “You Belong With Me” and recorded ourselves – we hope you enjoy our video and playing along with us from home! It will be coming soon to our YouTube Channel!

To play along, you can download the lyrics, chords, and tab for Bob’s arrangement of “You Belong With Me” or download a copy of the presentation and instruction guide (what we project on the screens for all to follow along, including exercises and drills).

As always, we’re immensely grateful to Aaron for his accompaniment on U-bass and all the fabulous AUS volunteers for all their hard work.

Take care and be well. We look forward to seeing you all at our March 12th meeting at St. John’s United Methodist Church. Keep on strumming until then! 🙂

For more downloadable music, visit our Ukulele Music Library. For more Austin Ukulele Society videos, check out our YouTube Channel.

Ukulele Society T-shirts and Merch!

January 22, 2026: Ripple!

Hello, friends, thank you for joining us at our January virtual meeting! Whether it was 5pm in California, 9pm in Nova Scotia, 2am in Germany, or noon Friday in Sydney, Australia, more than 180 of you showed up, ready to strum and sing with Bob and the gang in Austin. We love you! 🙂

With the recent passing of the legendary co-founder of the Grateful Dead, Bob Weir, we thought it would be great to pay homage to him by revisiting our take on “Ripple.” The Austin Ukulele Society covered this classic ~11 years ago.

Bob kicked off the meeting by introducing special guest and friend Jay Clement, who joined him to harmonize on vocals and play u-bass. He then introduced Jen, his AUS partner, and Lyda, his life partner, and shared some local uke news, including our upcoming Ukulele Open Mic on February 21st.

Then Bob led us in playing our lovely opening song, Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds,” before launching into the meeting’s tutorial. Bob led us through some helpful exercises to learn each part of “Ripple,” including its strumming styles and harmony options. He also spent time reviewing and demonstrating some useful strumming techniques. We enjoyed breaking down “Ripple” and played it through twice – we sounded great!

Then Bob spent a little time sharing some background on “Wagon Wheel,” and we had fun playing this popular tune together, too.

To close out the evening, we played Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again,” Bob shared a few of the AUS in-person meeting videos, and we chatted some more before ending the livestream.

You can download the song sheet for “Ripple” to play along, or download a copy of the presentation and instruction guide, including exercises and drills.

Download the song sheet for “Wagon Wheel” to play along, or grab a copy of the presentation and instruction guide, including exercises and drills.

You can also watch a replay of the January 22 livestream. Watch the entire show or jump to the part you most want to see!

● Welcome and announcements
● “Three Little Birds” warm-up song
● “Ripple” tutorial and play-along
● “Wagon Wheel” tutorial and play-along
● “On the Road Again” closing song

It was a wonderful time together, and we owe a many thanks to Lyda Guz for managing the presentation and Jen Richardson for moderating the chat. Special thanks to our guest Jay Clement for his bass and vocal accompaniment!

Thank you all for joining us, sending in your selfies, and staying connected!

We look forward to being back with our friends from near and far online on April 23, 2026! And we hope to seeing all our nearby friends at our next in-person meeting on Thursday, February 12, at St. John’s United Methodist Church. Be well and keep strumming! 🙂

For more downloadable music, visit our Ukulele Music Library. For more Austin Ukulele Society videos, check out our YouTube Channel.

January 8, 2026: Rhinestone Cowboy!

We kicked off our 16th year of monthly meetings on a beautiful January evening in Austin. We had at least 175 ukulele enthusiasts of all levels in attendance! As always, we want to thank you for showing up, smiling and participating. We could not do this without you!

In January we always opt to learn a popular and upbeat song. This January was no different, and we learned Glen Campbell’s 1975 timeless, international hit, “Rhinestone Cowboy.” This tune is generally considered his signature song and tells a tale of making it, despite obstacles. We were all singing and strumming along in no time!

Bob kicked off the meeting with introductions and gratitude. He thanked Jen for being his partner in all things AUS, Lyda for all she does, not least of all designing our fantastic shirts, Lori and Jana for supporting us in business decisions and t-shirt sales and gave thanks to our tireless friends Barry and Gary, too. After sharing some local uke news, we warmed up with Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.”

After hearing Bob and Aaron perform a great demo of our new-to-us song, we got to work on “Rhinestone Cowboy.” We had fun learning the chords, chord progressions, strum patterns and picking options from Bob. After we practiced each component of the song, we put it all together and played it through, sounding better each time.

We took a break to hear Rich play a great song he’s been working on. Then we got back to practicing “Rhinestone Cowboy” and recorded a video of our performance!

We hope you’ll play along with us on “Rhinestone Cowboy” from your home. It will be coming soon to our YouTube Channel!

To play along, you can download the lyrics, chords, and tab for Bob’s arrangement of “Rhinestone Cowboy” or download a copy of the presentation and instruction guide (what we project on the screen for all to follow along, including exercises and drills).

As always, we’re immensely grateful to Aaron for his accompaniment on U-bass and all the fabulous AUS volunteers for all their hard work.

Take care and be well. We look forward to “seeing” everyone at our upcoming virtual meeting on Thursday, January 22, at 7:00 CDT on our YouTube Channel. We also hope to see you at the February 12 in-person meeting at St. John’s United Methodist Church. Keep on strumming until then! 🙂

For more downloadable music, visit our Ukulele Music Library. For more Austin Ukulele Society videos, check out our YouTube Channel.

Ukulele Society T-shirts and Merch!

December 11, 2025: Holiday Potluck & Strum-a-Long!

On a balmy December evening in Austin, around 150 ukulele players brought lots of cheer and merriment with them to our 15th Annual Holiday Potluck and Strum-along! 🎁 🎄

We take a different approach to this last-meeting-of-the-year compared with our other workshop-style meetings. Instead of learning a new-to-us song arranged by Bob, we socialize! We truly enjoyed visiting and noshing to start off the eve! Bob shared some info about the evening’s agenda and we warmed up our hands and voices with Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.” Then we played through some of our favorite holiday songs and medleys!

★ Download the Austin Ukulele Society’s 2025 Holiday Songbook!

We had an extended open mic portion of the evening, with a terrific array of big groups and solo musicians, all playing an excellent variety of holiday tunes for our listening pleasure. We owe a huge thanks to Walter, the Tuesday Ukulele Group (TUG), the Georgetown Ukulele Club, the Sweetwater Ukuleles, Jack Pott, Rodger, Helen, and the Austin Ukulele Society Ensemble for sharing their terrific performances!

After the open mic performances, the whole group got back together to play a few more group holiday songs!

Thank you for bringing food and treats to share, wearing holiday attire, and always bringing happiness with you. We truly appreciate you all for making 2025 a wonderful year for the Austin Ukulele Society – we couldn’t do it without you!

As always, we owe Jen, Lyda, Lori, and Jana a big thanks for supporting all of the backend business of the AUS. Thanks also to Barry and Gary for their tireless set up efforts at each meeting. We’re all grateful to Bob for his patient and thoughtful teaching and leading. Last, but not least, we owe a big thanks to Aaron for keeping us on the beat with his U-bass!

We can’t wait to ring in 2026 with you! We’re looking forward to seeing you on Thursday, January 8, at the first meeting of our 16th year! Until then, keep strumming and have a peaceful holiday season! 🙂

For more downloadable music, visit our Ukulele Music Library. For more Austin Ukulele Society videos, check out our YouTube Channel.