On 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 “Enjoy the Silence,” by 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! 🙂

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! 🎃 Until then, keep strummin’! 🙂

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