On a balmy Thursday evening, the Austin Ukulele Society’s August meeting got off to a great start with local ukulele news and introductions. We also warmed up our voices, fingers and hearts with our traditional opening tune, Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.”

We love learning to strum, pick, and harmonize songs from a variety of artists and musical genres, and this month was no different. We covered a modern classic by an immensely popular ‘boy band’: The Backstreet Boys’ 1999 megahit “I Want It That Way.”

Bob introduced us to his arrangement of “I Want It That Way” by playing it through beautifully. We then got to work, learning the strum patterns, picking, and harmonizing, with Bob’s helpful tutorial and instruction.

It was a lot of fun getting to know this terrific song, and we sounded great when we put it all together!

We took a break to enjoy the wonderful talent of our open mic participants, Ronald and Rich.

Afterward, we played through “I Want It That Way” and as we got better and better at it, we recorded ourselves in a video, coming soon to our YouTube channel. We hope you enjoy it and play along with us from home!  🙂

To play along, you can download the lyrics, chords, and tab for Bob’s arrangement of “I Want It That 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, we’re immensely grateful to Aaron for his accompaniment on U-bass and to Jen, Lyda and all the AUS volunteers, for their hard work.

We’ll see you again in person on September 14, at St. John’s United Methodist Church. Plus, we’re looking forward to our next virtual meeting, on our YouTube Channel, on Thursday, August 22. 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.