March | 2023 | Austin Ukulele Society (AUS)

We were thrilled to host our first virtual meeting of 2023, with a fabulous turnout of over 160 players from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada to Victoria, Australia and many points in between. We enjoyed having many old friends join in and plenty of first-timers, too. For our featured song, we brought back to a very popular AUS repertoire song from four years ago: “Can’t Help Falling In Love,” made famous by Elvis Presley. We loved getting familiar with this ever-popular romantic ballad and learning it together! 💓

Bob kicked us off with ukulele news and our warm-up song, Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.” Then he performed his terrific arrangement of “Can’t Help Falling In Love.” Bob led us through helpful exercises to teach us the chords, chord progressions, strum pattern, and picking options. He also introduced some vocal harmonizing options. We really enjoyed learning the song, part by part, and putting it all together to play through a few times. Before we said good night, we played our swan song, Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again. Afterward, we continued to chat and watch some of the Austin Ukulele Society’s wonderful videos, including collaborative ones produced by Marty Porter and Paul Butler.

You can download the lyrics, chords, and tab for “Can’t Help Falling In Love,” or download a copy of the presentation and instruction guide, including exercises and drills. You can also watch a replay of the March 23 live stream. Watch the entire show or jump to the part you most want to see!

● Welcome and announcements
● “Three Little Birds” warm-up song
● Bob’s “Can’t Help Falling In Love” tutorial
● “On the Road Again” closing song
● Our 2019 performance of “Can’t Help Falling In Love”.

As always, we thank Jen Richardson for moderating the chat and helping get questions addressed in real time and to Lyda Guz for her fantastic projectionist skills.

Check out our most recent group effort, “Octopus’s Garden”:

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

We look forward to having you all with us again at the virtual meeting on Thursday, June 22! Keep an eye on the Austin Ukulele Society’s YouTube channel. 🙂

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

Ukulele Society T-shirts!
Austin Ukulele Society t-shirts are available for purchase at our in-person meetings, via mail order (U.S. orders only), and Austin-area porch pick up, including our latest “Classic Ukulele” design.

The shirts are silk-screened here in Austin at a fantastic locally-owned print shop. T-shirts are $25 each (plus tax, where applicable). All of our shirts are thoughtfully designed by the talented Lyda Guz! You can have a look at all of our shirt styles on the “Shop” page. Drop us a line if you’d like to purchase a shirt (or two or three). 🙂

On a mild March evening, a wonderful group of 110+ ukulele players gathered to make music together. We enjoyed having many of our regular Austin-area folks in attendance, as well as plenty of first-timers, including a group of friends from the Galveston Ukulele Society, Guillermo and Kathryn from Chicago, Kelly from Prince Edward Island, Canada, and Alan from the UK.

With this year’s meeting date falling between International Women’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day, it was the perfect time to learn the beautiful acoustic rock song “Linger” by Irish band The Cranberries. The late great Dolores O’Riordan wrote the lyrics and gorgeously sings the vocals on this tune.

We kicked off the meeting, as usual, with introductions and our warm-up song: Bob Marlely’s “Three Little Birds.”

Bob G. then introduced his terrific arrangement of our song of the month: The Cranberries’ “Linger,” with a lovely performance. He shared some more about the song and its popularity, and then began teaching us the song. Bob took us through chord progressions, strum styles, picking and harmonizing options. We sounded great when we played it through!

We took a break to enjoy terrific open mic performances. The Galveston Ukulele Society, our own Jay, Alan from the UK, Kelly from PEI and Angela (first time at an open mic!) all did fabulous performances. We truly appreciate their willingness to share their music with us.

After the enjoyable open mic performances ended, we worked a bit more on “Linger” and recorded a video for you to play along with and enjoy. We hope you’ll check out the video, coming soon to our YouTube channel.

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

We are thankful to Aaron Lewis for joining us on bass and to our amazing volunteers who do so much to make the evening successful. Special thanks to the women who came up to join Bob in leading the vocals on “Linger.” Your support is greatly appreciated!

We’re looking forward to our virtual meeting on Thursday, March 23, and having you back in person with us on Thursday, April 13, at 7pm! See you there!! 🙂

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

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). 🙂 At this time, we can only ship orders within the U.S.