We were thrilled to kick off our 15th year of monthly meetings on Thursday, January 9! Though it was a stormy and very chilly night, the weather did not deter the enthusiasm and terrific spirit of the participating ukulele players from all walks of life.

As you may know, our January meeting is often one of our most popular gatherings, for many reasons: resolutions to play more ukulele (of course!), Santa Claus putting new ukuleles under the tree, university students still home on winter break, and some uke-playing friends who winter in central Texas being able to join us. Therefore, we always opt to learn a very popular and upbeat song. This January was no different, and we loved learning Elton John’s 1972 mega-hit “Crocodile Rock.”

We started the evening with local ukulele news and introductions. Then we played our always uplifting warm-up song, Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.” Next, Bob G. gave us some info about “Crocodile Rock” and played it for us, to demonstrate his arrangement.

We worked hard on the fantastic exercises Bob prepared for us, playing through chord progressions and exercises to get comfortable with the song. By the time we played the song through, we sounded great.

We took a break to enjoy two wonderful open mic performances by Lora and Sho.

Afterward, we played through “Crocodile Rock” a couple of more times and made a recording to share with our uke friends and fans around the world — coming soon to our YouTube Channel. We hope you’ll play along with us from home!

To play along, you can download the lyrics, chords, and tab for Bob’s arrangement of “Crocodile Rock” 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 fabulous AUS volunteers, for all their hard work.

Our next meeting is a virtual one on YouTube! We’re looking forward to “seeing” you all on Thursday, January 23. Please join us from wherever you are, as Bob gives us a helpful tutorial on how to play a terrific song.

We’ll see our local and visiting friends again for the next in-person meeting, on Thursday, February 13, at St. John’s United Methodist Church.

Be well and see you soon!  🙂

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’re very excited about our 2025 Austin Ukulele Society t-shirt, “Circle of Stars,” designed by Lyda Guz! Each of the 15 stars stands for an action-packed year we’ve been making music together. As always, the shirts are silk-screened right here in Austin at a fantastic locally-owned print shop.

Our new “Circle of Stars” design, “AUS Grackle,” “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.