We welcomed locals, regulars, first-timers, and visitors from as far as England and Iowa, bringing in a terrific turnout of nearly 150 uke players for our July meeting! The mood was extra festive as many folks turned out in tropical attire for our summery Beach Boys new-to-us tune!

We kicked off the meeting with local ukulele news and introductions. Then we warmed up our voices, fingers and hearts with Bob Marley’s always optimistic “Three Little Birds.”

Since we are in the in the heart of summer here in the heart of Texas, it was the perfect time to learn a song with summer/island vacation vibes. So we were excited to strum and harmonize on the The Beach Boys’ 1988 smash hit, “Kokomo” and thoroughly enjoyed “getting away from it all” with you!

Bob played through his excellent arrangement of “Kokomo,” and we got a feel for what we’d be playing. Bob then took us through helpful exercises to learn the chords, chord transitions, strum and picking options, and vocal harmonies. It was great learning this infectiously poppy tune, and we sounded great when we played it through.

Taking a break to enjoy a pair of wonderful open mic performances by Ellie and Leta and Bob Guz himself was a lovely interlude in our song practice.

We got back to playing “Kokomo” and got better and better at it, so we made a recording!  Look for a video of our performance coming soon to our YouTube channel. Please enjoy playing along with us from your home.  🙂

To play along, you can download the lyrics, chords, and tab for Bob’s arrangement of “Kokomo” 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’re looking forward to our next in-person meeting on Thursday, August 8 (at St. John’s United Methodist Church), as well as our virtual meeting on Thursday, August 22 (on our YouTube Channel). Be well and keep strumming!  🙂

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 2024: the “AUS Grackle 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 Grackle Ukulele” design, “”Classic Ukulele” 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.