Our April 13 in-person meeting was a wonderful one, with over 110 uke enthusiasts in attendance. We kicked off the lovely evening with introductions and local ukulele news, including reminders about upcoming special events, including Jim D’Ville’s  workshops on April 28. Then Bob led us through our always cheerful warm-up song, Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.”

Every so often we love to show off what a versatile instrument the uke is, and rockin’ out to a mega-rock hit is one way we particularly enjoy. So this month we learned our first-ever Bon Jovi tune, and it’s a great one at that: “Livin’ on a Prayer.” Widely adored by fans around the world, it’s considered the band’s signature song.

Bob shared some information about “Livin’ on a Prayer” and performed it for us, to introduce his great arrangement. Then he took us through some terrific exercises to help us get comfortable with the strum styles, the chords and chord progressions, the optional finger-picking, and harmonizing options, too. By the time we put the song together, we were sounding quite good!

We put our playing aside to enjoy the talents of our fabulous open mic participants. Ronald and his daughter performed a lovely duet in Spanish, Kaia impressed us with a beautiful tune, and Jack and Pastor Cynthia inspired us with a terrific duet on “I’ll Fly Away.”

We then spent some time honing our skills on “Livin’ on a Prayer” and recorded a terrific cover for you to enjoy. Look for it soon on our YouTube channel. We hope you’ll rock out with Bob and the rest of us, from the comfort of your home. 🙂

To play along with us, you can download the lyrics and chords for our arrangement of “Livin’ On a Prayer” 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. Your support is greatly appreciated!

We look forward to seeing you back with us at next month’s in-person meeting: Thursday, May 11, at 7pm, at the Memorial United Methodist Church. Until then, keep strummin’! 🙂

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!
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.