An enthusiastic group of 150 or so ukulele players attended the August meeting of the Austin Ukulele Society. Seasoned players, novices, first timers and visitors from outside of the Austin area were all happily welcomed, as always. We’ve wanted to do a contemporary hit by a female artist for some time, and at this meeting we learned to strum and sing Sia‘s 2014 electro-pop hit “Chandelier.”

We got started with introductions and ukulele news, including reminders for our upcoming Ukulele Open Mic Happy Hour on September 1st and Uketania 9 (Ukulele Willie) on September 19. We then warmed up our fingers, ukuleles and voices with Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.” Next, Bob told us a little about his arrangement of “Chandelier” and performed it for us, to give us an example of what we’d be singing and playing. Bob then guided the group through practicing the strum patterns, chord progressions and picking options for this song. We played it through a several times, getting more confident and sounding better and better with each run through. We hope you enjoy our performance on YouTube!

To play along with us, you can download the lyrics and chords for our arrangement of “Chandelier” 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 enjoyed our open mic participants’ performances. Thanks to the Kevin Carroll’s Celtic music group, Vince, Tate and Mason, and The John Davenport for sharing their talent with a great variety of tunes.

(Top left: Vince, Top right: Kevin Carroll’s Celtic music group, Bottom left: John, Middle row: Tate and Mason.)

We look forward to seeing you at the Ukulele Open Mic Happy Hour on September 1st at Kick Butt Coffee – and, of course, at our next monthly meeting on Thursday, September 13th! 🙂

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

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