Over 160 ukulele players joined to make music together at the April Austin Ukulele Society online meeting. With participants from Australia, India, Brazil, England, Canada, Germany, the UAE, and many points throughout the U.S. — including Hawaii — we had a diverse gathering of friends who share an affection for our favorite little four-stringed instrument! A big thank you to Jen for moderating the live chat and to Lyda for her amazing projectionist work.

One of the most influential and legendary singer/songwriter/composers of our time, Sir Elton John, celebrated his 74th birthday last month. So it was the perfect time to pay tribute to him. It’s truly not easy to choose a song to learn from a catalog as vast and varied as Elton John’s, but we enjoyed learning one of his huge hits from 1973, “Daniel“.

We kicked off our meeting with some ukulele news and updates from Bob, including a “Save the Date” for an upcoming workshop and concert we’re hosting with Lil Rev on Wednesday, May 19. We warmed up our fingers, voices and hearts with Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.” Next, Bob performed a lovely demo of his arrangement of Elton John’s “Daniel.” He then took us through helpful exercises on the chords and chord progressions, the strum style and the fingerpicking options. Everyone enjoyed learning this pretty song and seeing what a nice fit it was for the ukulele, especially with Bob’s terrific arranging and teaching. When we played the song through, we all felt good about how much we’d learned and how good we sounded. We closed our meeting with Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again” and debuted the excellent video collaboration of The Cranberries’ “Dreams,” produced by our friend Marty Porter.

You can download the lyrics, chords, and tab for “Daniel,” or download a copy of the presentation and instruction guide, including exercises and drills. You can also watch a replay of the April 8 live stream. Watch the entire show or jump to the part you most want to see!
      ● Welcome
      ● “Three Little Birds” warm-up song
      ● Bob’s “Daniel” tutorial
      ● “On the Road Again” closing song
      ● Bob’s demo video of “Daniel”

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

Many, many thanks to Marty Porter for putting together excellent collaborative videos after each monthly virtual meeting! Check out the fabulous group performance of our featured song from March, “Dreams” by The Cranberries:

We look forward to seeing everyone again on Thursday, May 13! 🙂

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

Contact Us if you have any questions or would like to be added to our mailing list!

Ukulele Society T-shirts!
As you may know, we create a new t-shirt every fall. In celebration of the Austin Ukulele Society’s 10th anniversary in 2021, we are thrilled to unveil our latest edition t-shirt, designed by the talented Lyda Guz!

The shirts are silk screened here in Austin at a fantastic locally-owned print shop and are available for purchase via mail order. The new 10th Anniversary design, Mermaid, Cowboy, and “Austin Lasso” shirts are $20 – all other styles are $15. 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.

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