Yearly Archives: 2023

December 14, 2023: Holiday Potluck & Strum-a-Long!

The Austin Ukulele Society enjoyed a lovely evening of holiday spirit, by socializing, making music, and sharing the joy of holiday potluck deliciousness! 🎁 πŸŽ„

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We kicked off the evening by mingling and munching. Bob then introduced the evening’s format, and we warmed up our hands and voices with Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.” Then Bob lead us through holiday music favorites from the Austin Ukulele Society’s thirteen-year repertoire of holiday songs and medleys.

β˜… Download the Austin Ukulele Society’s 2023 Holiday Songbook!
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We took a break to enjoy an extended holiday edition of our open mic portion of the evening. We owe a huge thanks to Kevin, Kaia, the Southside Ukes, Rodger, Paul, Kathy Murray and Bill Jones, TUG, Mary Jane, Jay, and Walter for sharing their talent with beautiful, holiday/winter-themed songs.

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After the open mic performances, the whole group got back together to play a few more AUS repertoire songs!

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As always, we owe Jen, Lyda, Lori, Jana and Jodi a big thanks for supporting all of the backend business of the AUS. Thanks also to Barry for his tireless set up and break down efforts at each meeting. We’re all grateful to Bob for his patient and thoughtful teaching and leading. Last, but not least, we owe a big thanks to Aaron for keeping us on the beat with his U-bass!

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We’re incredibly grateful to you all — thank you so much for 13 years of music, fun, and friendship! We can’t wait to make more music with you in 2024! Please come kick off our 14th year with us, on Thursday, January 11! πŸ™‚


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

We appreciate your support and interest. If you’d like to make a donation to the Austin Ukulele Society (a 501(c)(3) organization), visit our Square Donation site. If you would like to be added to our mailing list, please fill out our this short sign-up form. For any other inquiries, please contact us or shoot us an email if you have previous correspondence with us.


December 7, 2023: Online Holiday Strum-a-Long!

On a festive December evening, nearly 200 ukulele players gathered from all over the globe to strum and sing holiday tunes together. We enjoyed visiting with friends from at least four continents (North America, Europe, Asia and Australia) and numerous time zones. Thank you all for arranging your schedules to join us live on YouTube!

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Bob kicked off the evening with some local ukulele news, making sure everyone from near and far knows they are welcome to join us at monthly in-person meetings in the new year, if at all possible.

We warmed up our fingers and voices with Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds” before launching into some of our holiday repertoire. Each November, we learn a new holiday song (or medley,) so we have a lot of terrific tunes to choose from. Bob took us through mini-tutorials that included helpful hints on some trickier chords or progressions, before each song. The holiday spirit was strong throughout the evening. Before we ended, we played Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again.”Β  πŸ’“

β˜… Download the Austin Ukulele Society’s 2023 Holiday Songbook!

You can download the Austin Ukulele Society’s 2023 Holiday Songbook. You can also watch a replay of the December 7 live stream. Watch the entire show or jump to the part you most want to see — a table of contents with timestamps can be found in the video’s description.

As we wrapped up the meeting, we watched some of the terrific collaborative videos that Marty Porter and Paul Butler produced as well as some great videos that Bob Guz made of our live meeting performances. Check out our most recent group video, β€œUp On the Roof“:

As always, we owe many thanks to Bob, Jen Richardson, Lyda Guz, and the rest of our amazing volunteers who help run the Austin Ukulele Society!

Thank you for joining us, sending in your selfies, and staying connected!Β We look forward to seeing you in person, if you can join us in Austin.

We’ll be back on YouTube on February 22, 2024, for our next livestream. Until then, we wish you peace and joy throughout the holiday season and into the new year!Β  πŸ™‚



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

We appreciate your support and interest. If you’d like to make a donation to the Austin Ukulele Society (a 501(c)(3) organization), visit our Square Donation site. If you would like to be added to our mailing list, please fill out our this short sign-up form. For any other inquiries, please contact us or shoot us an email if you have previous correspondence with us.


November 9, 2023: Little Saint Nick! 🎁 πŸŽ„

Beach BoysOn a rainy November evening, Austin Ukulele Society meeting attendees brought out their Christmas sweaters and accessories – and their ukes! – to kick off the holiday season’s merriment in style. After getting settled in with introductions and local ukulele news, Bob led us through our warm-up song: Bob Marley’s ever-optimistic “Three Little Birds.”

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We hadn’t yet done a Beach Boys tune at an in-person meeting together, and with our generally mild holiday season in Austin, the Beach Boys + Christmas seemed like a perfect mix! Bob taught us to strum and sing their 1963 classic β€˜hot rod rock’ Christmas hit β€œLittle Saint Nick.” This catchy tune gets regular airplay throughout the holiday season, and we had a blast strumming, picking and singing it!

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Bob performed his arrangement to get us familiar with the style and tempo. We then dove into the arrangement, with Bob taking us through helpful exercises to learn the chords, chord progressions, strum style, picking options and harmonizing opportunities. Once we got comfortable with the song’s components, we played it through a couple of times and sounded good!

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We took a break and enjoyed two terrific open mic performances from Barry and Mia. We’re always so grateful for our participants who share their talents with us!

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We then returned to “Little Saint Nick” and after practicing it a bit more, we recorded ourselves playing it.Β Look for the video coming soon to our YouTube channel. We hope you have as much fun with it as we did!Β πŸ™‚

To play along with us, you can download the lyrics and chords for Bob’s arrangement of “Little Saint Nick” 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).

Many thanks to the great team that makes our meetings possible: Bob, Jen, Lyda, Lori, Jodi, and Jana – and helpers like Barry and Jay! As always, we owe a shout out to Aaron Lewis for keeping us on the beat with his u-bass!

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We look forward to “seeing” our global uke community at the virtual holiday strum-along on Thursday, December 7th and the annual in-person holiday potluck and strum-along on Thursday, December 14th! πŸ™‚

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

We appreciate your support and interest. If you’d like to make a donation to the Austin Ukulele Society (a 501(c)(3) organization), visit our Square Donation site. If you would like to be added to our mailing list, please fill out our this short sign-up form. For any other inquiries, please contact us or shoot us an email if you have previous correspondence with us.


Ukulele Society T-shirts!
We are proud to unveil our latest shirt, new for 2023: the “AUS Classic Ukulele,” design, hot off the presses! All of our shirts are thoughtfully 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. The new “AUS Classic Ukulele” design, “Ukulele Around the World,” “10th Anniversary,” Mermaid, Cowboy,” “Austin Lasso” and other shirts are $25. We also have vinyl decals with the AUS logo for $1 each. We can accept cash or a check made out to Austin Ukulele Society; you can also make payment via Venmo or PayPal. Please drop us a line if you’d like to purchase a shirt (or two or three). πŸ™‚ At this time, we can only ship orders within the U.S.

October 12, 2023: Fastball’s The Way! πŸŽƒ

FastballOn a perfect and only slightly spooky October evening, members of the Austin Ukulele Society from near and far got together for our in-person monthly meeting. We so appreciate everyone making time for our evening of music and the extra effort to share the spirit of the season with so many great Halloween accessories and costumes. Our evening started out with shout-outs from visitors from afar, introductions by all, and some local ukulele news. Then we warmed up our voices and hands with Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds” before diving into our new song.

Bob shared some information about the inspiration behind Austin-based band Fastball’s terrific 1998 hit “The Way,” and how we landed on it as an eerie pick for our Halloween month tune. (This hugely popular song was inspired by the haunting, true story of a local couple’s disappearance in 1997.)

Bob performed the song for us, to demonstrate his great arrangement. Next, he took us through helpful exercises to learn each component of the song, before we put it all together. When we played and sang “The Way” through a couple of times, we sounded terrific!

We took a break to enjoy our talented open mic participants. Karen shared a lovely medley of classic hymnals, Bill and Kathy rocked out on a terrific take of Buck Owens’ “Monster’s Holiday,” and Rich serenaded our favorite newly married couple – Aaron and Sana – with the timeless love song “Always and Forever.”

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After this lovely interlude, we got back to practicing “The Way” and recorded ourselves for you to enjoy and play along with from home. Look for the video coming soon to our YouTube channel. We hope you have as much fun with it as we did!Β πŸ™‚

To play along with us, you can download the lyrics and chords for Bob’s arrangement of “The Way” 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).

As always, a big thanks to Jen Richardson for all of the behind-the-scenes coordinating, to Lyda for her impeccable slide progression, to Aaron for keeping us on beat with his U-bass, and to our other amazing supporters who always help the in-person meetings go smoothly!

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We look forward to seeing you all at our November 9, 2023 in-person meeting, as we dive into the holiday season with a holiday song to be announced! Keep strumming and be well until then! πŸ™‚

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

We appreciate your support and interest. If you’d like to make a donation to the Austin Ukulele Society (a 501(c)(3) organization), visit our Square Donation site. If you would like to be added to our mailing list, please fill out our this short sign-up form. For any other inquiries, please contact us or shoot us an email if you have previous correspondence with us.


Ukulele Society T-shirts!
We are proud to unveil our latest shirt, new for 2022: the “AUS Classic Ukulele,” design, hot off the presses! All of our shirts are thoughtfully 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. The new “AUS Classic Ukulele” design, “Ukulele Around the World,” “10th Anniversary,” Mermaid, Cowboy,” “Austin Lasso” and other shirts are $25. We also have vinyl decals with the AUS logo for $1 each. We can accept cash or a check made out to Austin Ukulele Society; you can also make payment via Venmo or PayPal. Please drop us a line if you’d like to purchase a shirt (or two or three). πŸ™‚ At this time, we can only ship orders within the U.S.

September 14, 2023: Enjoy the Silence!

Depeche ModeOn a beautiful, delightfully rainy September evening in Austin, 100+ musicians got together to play ukuleles at the Austin Ukulele Society (AUS) monthly meeting. We started off by welcoming new members, introducing ourselves and sharing local ukulele news, including the upcoming Lorenzo “Ukulollo” Vignando workshop that the AUS is hosting on Saturday, October 7 (email Jen to register ASAP, as spots are limited). Afterward, we warmed up our voices and fingers with Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.”

This month we learned to strum and sing β€œEnjoy the Silence,” byΒ British electronic music band Depeche Mode. This terrific and catchy tune was a huge success in many countries and 33 (!) years later still gets a ton of airplay.

Bob shared a little background on Depeche Mode’s “Enjoy the Silence” and played through his terrific arrangement. Next, he took us through the helpful exercises he had prepared, to help us learn the chord progressions, strumming technique, picking and harmonizing options, and more. After working hard and having fun, too, we put the song together and played it through a couple of times – and sounded great!

We paused to enjoy the fantastic open mic portion of the eve, where Jay paid tribute to Jimmy Buffet with an excellent cover and Kaia and Mia blew us away with a terrific duet.

Then we got back to practicing and perfecting “Enjoy the Silence” and recorded ourselves for you to enjoy and play along with from home. Look for the video coming soon to our YouTube channel. We hope you have as much fun with it as we did!Β πŸ™‚

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

As always, a big thanks to Jen Richardson for all of the behind-the-scenes coordinating, to Lyda for her impeccable slide progression, to Aaron for keeping us on beat with his u-bass, and to our other amazing supporters who always help the in-person meetings go smoothly!

We look forward to seeing you at Ukulollo’s workshop on October 7 – and, of course, at our Thursday, October 12 in-person meeting; get ready for a Halloween theme! πŸŽƒΒ Until then, keep strummin’! πŸ™‚

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

We appreciate your support and interest. If you’d like to make a donation to the Austin Ukulele Society (a 501(c)(3) organization), visit our Square Donation site. If you would like to be added to our mailing list, please fill out our this short sign-up form. For any other inquiries, please contact us or shoot us an email if you have previous correspondence with us.


Ukulele Society T-shirts!
We are proud to unveil our latest shirt, new for 2022: the “AUS Classic Ukulele,” design, hot off the presses! All of our shirts are thoughtfully 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. The new “AUS Classic Ukulele” design, “Ukulele Around the World,” “10th Anniversary,” Mermaid, Cowboy,” “Austin Lasso” and other shirts are $25. We also have vinyl decals with the AUS logo for $1 each. We can accept cash or a check made out to Austin Ukulele Society; you can also make payment via Venmo or PayPal. Please drop us a line if you’d like to purchase a shirt (or two or three). πŸ™‚ At this time, we can only ship orders within the U.S.

August 24, 2023: Up on the Roof!

The Austin Ukulele Society and 150+ ukulele friends from places near and far had a terrific time together on Thursday, August 24th, thanks to the internet and YouTube. Whether it was 2am in Germany or 5pm in Vancouver, BC or Friday at 10am in Australia, dedicated musicians made time to enjoy the ukulele and Bob’s teaching. We played our warm-up and wrap-up songs, and Bob taught a tutorial on our featured song, a wonderful hit from the early 1960’s made famous by The Drifters: β€œUp on the Roof.”  πŸ’“

We kicked off the evening with ukulele news and our warm up song, Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.” Then Bob shared useful details about the song chart for “Up on the Roof” and gave us a lovely performance of his arrangement. He led us through great exercises, getting us comfortable with the chords, chord progressions, and picking options – and shared some great tips, including a transition from G to Em that was really appreciated.

After we practiced the components of the song, we had a great time playing through “Up on the Roof” a couple of times. Before we bid the evening adieu, we played our closing song – Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again.” Then we spent some time together, watching collaborative videos of virtual meeting participants as well as some recordings from our in-person Austin meetings.

You can download the lyrics, chords, and tab for “Up on the Roof,” or download a copy of the presentation and instruction guide, including exercises and drills. You can also watch a replay of the August 24 live stream. Watch the entire show or jump to the part you most want to see!

As always, we love to give to a shout out to AUS co-founder Jen Richardson, who moderated the chat with finesse through the evening; Lyda Guz, who skillfully managed the presentation slides, and Marty Porter and Paul Butler, for expertly producing the virtual meetings’ collaborative videos. Check out our most recent group video, Bruno Mars’ delightful 2010 hit, β€œCount On Me“:

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

We look forward to seeing many of you at our next in-person meeting, on Thursday, September 14. We’ll also look forward to our next virtual meeting, which will be a holiday song strum-a-long, on Thursday, December 7. In the meantime, keep an eye on the Austin Ukulele Society’s YouTube channel!Β  πŸ™‚



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

We appreciate your support and interest. If you’d like to make a donation to the Austin Ukulele Society (a 501(c)(3) organization), visit our Square Donation site. If you would like to be added to our mailing list, please fill out our this short sign-up form. For any other inquiries, please contact us or shoot us an email if you have previous correspondence with us.


August 10, 2023: Dancing in the Moonlight!

King Harvest The August in-person meeting of the Austin Ukulele Society was truly a supernatural delight, and a fine and natural sight! To get the evening started, over 130 ukulele players from all walks of life introduced themselves. Everybody there was outta sight! Then Bob led us through our warm up song – Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.”

If you saw the super moon on August 1st, you weren’t surprised by our featured song choice: β€œDancing in the Moonlight.” This feel-good tune was a big hit for the French-American band King Harvest in 1972 and again for the English band Toploader in 2000. β€œDancing in the Moonlight” is one of those songs you likely know from its regular airplay, numerous covers, and features in commercials and film, and we had a blast singing and strumming it!

Bob shared some details about his arrangement of “Dancing in the Moonlight” and then gave us a lovely demonstration of it. We learned some great tips from Bob, as he taught us parts of the song including the strum pattern, chords and chord progressions, picking options, and harmonizing opportunities. As we practiced the components of the song, we got better and better and sounded great when we put it together.

We set the song aside for a bit to enjoy a truly magnificent open mic portion of our evening. Jason Castille, Kathy Murray and Bill Jones, Kaia, Evan Kolvoord, and Sho and Shin Humphries all performed terrific covers of songs they really made their own. We hope you’ll get up and play a song for us sometime, too, if you haven’t yet or in a long time!

After the open mic set, we practiced “Dancing in the Moonlight” again and recorded it for you to enjoy and play along with from home. We hope you have as much fun with it as we did! Look for it coming soon to our YouTube channel. πŸ™‚

To play along with us, you can download the lyrics and chords for our arrangement of “Dancing in the Moonlight” 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).

Many thanks, as always, to Jen and Lyda and the whole AUS team, for their tireless efforts to make the meeting successful. And as always, we owe a big thanks to Aaron Lewis for his support on U-bass!

We look forward to “seeing” you all at our August 24th YouTube livestream meeting! And we’ll see you back in person on Thursday, September 14. Until then, keep strummin’! πŸ™‚

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

We appreciate your support and interest. If you’d like to make a donation to the Austin Ukulele Society (a 501(c)(3) organization), visit our Square Donation site. If you would like to be added to our mailing list, please fill out our this short sign-up form. For any other inquiries, please contact us or shoot us an email if you have previous correspondence with us.


Ukulele Society T-shirts!
We are proud to unveil our latest shirt, new for 2022: the “AUS Classic Ukulele,” design, hot off the presses! All of our shirts are thoughtfully 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. The new “AUS Classic Ukulele” design, “Ukulele Around the World,” “10th Anniversary,” Mermaid, Cowboy,” “Austin Lasso” and other shirts are $25. We also have vinyl decals with the AUS logo for $1 each. We can accept cash or a check made out to Austin Ukulele Society; you can also make payment via Venmo or PayPal. Please drop us a line if you’d like to purchase a shirt (or two or three). πŸ™‚ At this time, we can only ship orders within the U.S.

July 13, 2023: Try Everything!

ShakiraWow! We sure loved having a turnout of about 150 players for our 150th in-person Austin Ukulele Society meeting! Thank you so much for making this milestone extra special, as you brought so much more than ukuleles and voices to the evening. We got started with introductions of Bob and Jen, the co-founders of the Austin Ukulele Society, and then enjoyed hearing the names of everyone in the room. As always, we warmed up our voices, hands, and hearts with Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.”

To celebrate our 150th in-person meeting, we learned to sing and strum a song that fits perfectly with how Bob and Jen got the Austin Ukulele Society started: β€œTry Everything,” by Shakira. With a career that began when she was just 13 years old, Colombia’s Shakira is one of the Queens of Latin Music! 2016’s β€œTry Everything” was featured in the popular Disney movie β€œZootopia” and was a gigantic hit that continues to get tons of airplay, everywhere! We enjoyed learning to play and sing this infectiously optimistic song.

Bob performed his terrific arrangement of “Try Everything,” to get us ready to learn to play it. He took us through some very helpful exercises on the chord progressions, strum patterns, and harmonizing options, and helped us all get better and better at the syncopation of singing with the strumming.

We also enjoyed the open mic portion of the eve, during which Spence, Sho H, Rich, and Bob and Aaron gave us fantastic performances!

Afterward, we practiced “Try Everything” some more, then worked on recording our rendition to share with you. Look for it soon on our YouTube channel. We hope you’ll check it out and strum and sing along from home. πŸ™‚

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

Many thanks, as always, to Jen and Lyda and the whole AUS team, for their tireless efforts to make the meetings successful. And thank you to Aaron Lewis for keeping the beat on the U-bass!

We look forward to having you at the next in-person meeting on Thursday, August 10. Until then, keep strummin’! πŸ™‚

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

We appreciate your support and interest. If you’d like to make a donation to the Austin Ukulele Society (a 501(c)(3) organization), visit our Square Donation site. If you would like to be added to our mailing list, please fill out our this short sign-up form. For any other inquiries, please contact us or shoot us an email if you have previous correspondence with us.


Ukulele Society T-shirts!
We are proud to unveil our latest shirt, new for 2022: the “AUS Classic Ukulele,” design, hot off the presses! All of our shirts are thoughtfully 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. The new “AUS Classic Ukulele” design, “Ukulele Around the World,” “10th Anniversary,” Mermaid, Cowboy,” “Austin Lasso” and other shirts are $25. We also have vinyl decals with the AUS logo for $1 each. We can accept cash or a check made out to Austin Ukulele Society; you can also make payment via Venmo or PayPal. Please drop us a line if you’d like to purchase a shirt (or two or three). πŸ™‚ At this time, we can only ship orders within the U.S.

June 22, 2023: Count On Me!

From the UK to Brazil, Australia to Venezuela, Singapore to Germany, and covering several provinces in Canada and many states in the U.S., the Austin Ukulele Society’s virtual June 2023 meeting had a wonderful turnout of cheerful ukulele players. We played our warm-up and wrap-up songs, and Bob taught a tutorial on our featured song: Bruno Mars’ delightful 2010 hit, β€œCount On Me.” We had a blast getting familiar with this popular, catchy and uplifting song!Β  πŸ’“

We enjoyed introductions and catching up with one another, before warming up with Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.” Then Bob shared some info about Bruno Mars’ “Count On Me,” and gave us a terrific demonstrative performance of it. He launched into the tutorial soon after, and we enjoyed learning some great tips and tricks for playing the chords, chord progressions, tab as well as vocal harmonizing options on this fun tune. After Bob’s tutorial, we put it all together and played “Count On Me” together, twice. After our closing song, Willie Nelson’s “On The Road Again,” Bob shared some of our collaborative videos from virtual and in-person meetings alike.

You can download the lyrics, chords, and tab for “Count On Me,” or download a copy of the presentation and instruction guide, including exercises and drills. You can also watch a replay of the June 22 live stream. Watch the entire show or jump to the part you most want to see!

As always, we offer gratitude to Jen for moderating the meeting chat and Lyda for facilitating the slides and more.

We also truly appreciate Marty Porter and Paul Butler for producing the collaborative videos. Check out our most recent group effort, “Can’t Help Falling In Love”:

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

We look forward to “seeing” you at our next virtual meeting, on Thursday, August 24. Keep an eye on the Austin Ukulele Society’s YouTube channel. And you’re always welcome to join us for our next in-person meeting on July 13, too! πŸ™‚



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

We appreciate your support and interest. If you’d like to make a donation to the Austin Ukulele Society (a 501(c)(3) organization), visit our Square Donation site. If you would like to be added to our mailing list, please fill out our this short sign-up form. For any other inquiries, please contact us or shoot us an email if you have previous correspondence with us.


June 8, 2023: The Best!

Tina TurnerThe June in-person Austin Ukulele Society meeting was a terrific one, as we welcomed new and old friends, from near and far. We kicked off the evening with some ukulele news, including reminders to join us at our Ukulele Open Mic at Kick Butt Coffee (so many of you did – thank you!). After the local uke news and introductions, we warmed up our fingers and voices by playing Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.”

Often called the Queen of Rock β€˜n’ Roll, the amazing Tina Turner passed away in late May. We paid tribute to arguably one of the best performers of all time by learning to strum and sing her 1989 internationally-loved hit β€œThe Best.” The broad appeal of its uplifting lyrics along with Turner’s terrific performance have kept this song popular through the decades, and we really enjoyed getting to know it well.

Bob shared some useful information about Tina Turner’s rendition of “The Best,” and then did a terrific performance of his arrangement of it for us. Bob then taught us, in his always excellent style, the various components of the song. We enjoyed practicing the chord progressions, strum style, picking option and vocal harmonies, before playing through the whole song a few times.

During our open mic section of the eve, we enjoyed Matt M’s terrific playing and excellent voice on a great original composition. Thank you for sharing your talent!

After, we ran through “The Best” a couple of more times, and then we gave it our BEST, in Bob’s great video recording for you to enjoy and play along with from home. We hope you enjoy strumming and singing along with us as much as we enjoyed ourselves here in Austin. Look for it soon on our YouTube channel.Β  Β πŸ™‚

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

Many thanks, as always, to Jen and Lyda and the whole AUS team, for their tireless efforts to make the meetings successful. And thank you to Aaron Lewis for keeping the beat on the U-bass!

We look forward to seeing everyone at the virtual meeting on YouTube, June 22nd.Β  And we’re hoping you’ll come celebrate with us at our 150th(!!!) monthly meeting, in person, on July 13. Until then, keep strummin’! πŸ™‚

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

We appreciate your support and interest. If you’d like to make a donation to the Austin Ukulele Society (a 501(c)(3) organization), visit our Square Donation site. If you would like to be added to our mailing list, please fill out our this short sign-up form. For any other inquiries, please contact us or shoot us an email if you have previous correspondence with us.


Ukulele Society T-shirts!
We are proud to unveil our latest shirt, new for 2022: the “AUS Classic Ukulele,” design, hot off the presses! All of our shirts are thoughtfully 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. The new “AUS Classic Ukulele” design, “Ukulele Around the World,” “10th Anniversary,” Mermaid, Cowboy,” “Austin Lasso” and other shirts are $25. We also have vinyl decals with the AUS logo for $1 each. We can accept cash or a check made out to Austin Ukulele Society; you can also make payment via Venmo or PayPal. Please drop us a line if you’d like to purchase a shirt (or two or three). πŸ™‚ At this time, we can only ship orders within the U.S.