Monthly Archives: November 2011

Coming Dec. 8–Austin Ukulele Society Strum-a-long and Holiday Potluck!

Susan and Ted, two AUS members, have graciously agreed to host our December meeting, on Thursday December 8th, at their home (if the weather’s mild, we can spend time outside – if cool, we’ll be indoors).

Please plan to bring something to share – a savory or sweet snack and BYOB on wine / beer / soda / tea, or whatever it is you’d like to drink. Please bring a portable chair if you have one, too. And if you’d like, bring a holiday song to share–whether you perform it yourself, or bring along some song sheets for the group.

We’re starting a little earlier (at 6pm) than usual to socialize, enjoy the refreshments/foods, and of course make time to jam on our holiday tunes and some other favorites.

Please RSVP; email us at austinukes@gmail.com by Dec. 5th to give us an idea of how many will attend. When you RSVP, we’ll send you the address where it all will happen. Looking forward to it, friends!

Curious about the ukulele business?

Leave a reply

Hey–here’s an article from the HawaiiBusiness.com site, “Ukulele Boom Generates Global Sales for Hawaii Companies.” It shows that ukes are such a popular product that many of these U.S. companies, such as Koolau, are outsourcing some of their uke construction to Asia. But it also points out how popular ukes have become, to sales levels that no one could imagine ten years ago:

Ukulele sales are growing so rapidly that NAMM – the 9,000-member National Association of Music Merchants – started tracking domestic sales two years ago as part of its global sales report. U.S. sales jumped 16 percent in 2010 over the previous year and the organization expects a similar increase this year.

“Ukuleles are a hot ticket right now,” says NAMM marketing and communications director Scott Robertson. “The popularity of the instrument continues to surge. There are quite a few popular artists including ukuleles in their music and people are responding to that. Plus it’s a less intimidating instrument, very portable, and easy to get started and play your troubles away.”

Take a look. There’s also a brief (and far from complete, but worth reading anyway) history of the uke as a consumer product.

Well, it wasn’t 11/11/11, but it was 11/15/11

Leave a reply

Our Tuesday, 11/15/11 meeting in the elegant library of the University Methodist Church near the UT campus was great fun. Thanks to everyone who came out. Hats off to Mardi Wareham for making it possible to meet up in such a comfy spot.

A very warm welcome to the first-timers who joined us — we hope to see you again soon! And special kudos to everyone who played a solo number for the group! (See pictures of some of the soloists–Mardi was one of them–see her on the right.)

Mark your calendars because our December meeting will be special. To celebrate the holiday season ukulele style, we’re having a Holiday House Party on Thursday, December 8th. We’ll have snacks and drinks, get a chance to socialize, and then jam on some holiday tunes. We will be following up soon with more details.

(A reminder that you can find downloadable PDF versions of all our song sheets on our blog (gosh, that’s where you are now). Click on the “Ukulele Music Library” link.)

As always, it’s such a pleasure to play with you all. –Bob

Holiday songs for November, at last

Leave a reply

Here they are–our songs for the November meeting on Tuesday, 11/15. One is, as promised, Blue Christmas, made famous by Elvis, and the other is Rocking Around the Christmas Tree, made famous by Brenda Lee. Both songs have been added to our Ukulele Music Library, too. Have fun with these, and see you at the meeting.

Another reminder… and what about Holiday songs?

Leave a reply

Happy November!

This month’s meeting is in eleven days from today, and here’s an extra reminder about the LOCATION CHANGE!

We’ll meet at the University United Methodist Church (UUMC), on the UT Campus, at 24th and Guadalupe (2409 Guadalupe). There is a small parking lot in front of the church’s main entrance (there is a turn into the parking lot, west side of Guadalupe, between 24th and 25th Streets). We’re meeting on TUESDAY, November 15th, at 7pm, at UUMC’s library. (Please note this is the third Tuesday of the month – not the second Tuesday).

The UUMC parking lot is available to use, free of charge, but space is limited – if the parking lot is full, please plan to park at a meter nearby – there are plenty just 1.5 blocks north, on Dean Keeton (and meters around campus are still free after 6pm).

So please mark your calendars and note the location.

We are considering learning a couple of holiday tunes, such as “Blue Christmas” and maybe “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” – keep your eyes open as we’ll try to send the song sheets out before the meeting – coming soon, we hope. If you want to look at a selection of Christmas songs, chorded out for uke, visit this British site and this American one. These won’t be the song arrangements we’ll use in our meetings, but they’re a good place to get your uke-playing in shape for the Holidays.