June 14, 2018: Up On the Roof!

On a breezy and warm June night, 150 or so ukulele players learned to sing and strum a lovely rendition of Carole King’s classic, “Up on the Roof,” first made famous by The Drifters in 1962.

Before we got busy strumming, we kicked off the meeting with introductions and local ukulele news, including an announcement about a workshop and concert Bob Guz will lead on Friday, July 13th (more info on that coming soon!). The group then enjoyed warming up their fingers and voices with Bob Marley’s always uplifting “Three Little Birds.” Then Bob took us through some very helpful chord progression exercises as well as his recommended strumming pattern for “Up on the Roof.” When we put the song all together, and with the great accompaniment of Aaron Lewis on U-bass, we were sounding fantastic! After a few more practice run-throughs we recorded it for our YouTube channel. We hope you enjoy it!

To play along with us, you can download the lyrics and chords for our arrangement of “Up On the Roof” 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).

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We were also treated to the terrific talents of our open mic participants: Cindi, Jay, Tuesday Ukulele Group (TUG) members, Chris, and Walter. With creative covers and impressive originals to boot, we felt fortunate to hear such great music.