On a pleasant May evening (in Austin, TX), about 300 friends from around the globe met virtually, via YouTube, for the Austin Ukulele Society’s meeting. It was fun to welcome back our Austin-area friends, visitors from around the country and globe that joined us virtually in April, and first timers as well. Uke players from New Zealand, Singapore, Australia, England, Ireland, Brazil, Canada, and all parts of the U.S. joined in!

Huge thanks to Jen Richardson for her excellent moderating and responding to the comments in the Live Chat. Thanks also to Lyda Guz for running the PowerPoint presentations.

Our friend Marty Porter will be producing a collaborative video to accompany Bob’s cover of “I Wanna Dance With Somebody. If you’re interested in participating, please email AustinUkes @ gmail.com as soon as possible to receive instructions on how to create and submit a video of you playing/singing the song.

 
After sharing some local and virtual ukulele news/jams/concerts, we warmed up our voices and fingers with Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.” Then we jumped into this month’s song. We’ve long wanted to work on one of Whitney Houston’s terrific pop songs, so we were excited to learn to play and sing one of her biggest hits, 1987’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody.” Bob Guz performed the song to demonstrate his arrangement. Next, he led us through several exercises, giving us the opportunity to practice each section of the song. We learned some picking and harmony options, too, and then played through the entire song a couple of times. As is our tradition, we wrapped up with Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again.”

To play along with us, you can download the lyrics and chords for our arrangement of “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” or download a copy of the presentation and instruction guide, including exercises and drills. You can also watch a replay of the broadcast:

We really appreciate all of the wonderful feedback and photos you sent, letting us know how much you learned and how much fun you had!! 🙂

 
Please check back for more info in early June about our next meeting, which will be on Thursday, June 11, at 7:00pm U.S. Central Time. Take care and be well! 🙂

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

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