We were delighted to host a friendly online group of 170+ ukulele players from near and far: Canada, Germany, Brazil, the Philippines, New Zealand, and many states across the U.S.! This event gave us the opportunity to take a deep dive into learning a song, with a detailed tutorial presented by Bob, live Q&A fielded by Lyda, and the presentation managed by our friend Fran. 🙂

During this livestream event, we learned to strum, pick and sing the John Denver folk classic “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” This timeless song has been popular all around the world for over fifty years, and we enjoy playing it together! 💓

To kick things off, Bob shared some local ukulele news, including the upcoming workshop and concert with Sho Humphries on June 25, and our next Kick Butt Open Mic Happy Hour on July 12. He then led us through our warm up song, Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.”

Bob then played through his arrangement of “Take Me Home, Country Roads” and took us through helpful exercises for learning how to play the chords and chord progressions, the strum pattern, the transitions, and more. He also gave a great presentation on the Circle of Fifths and and how it can be used to get a deeper understanding of this song (and many others). Thanks to you all for the feedback and valuable dialogue throughout!

We played the song through a couple of times and sounded great! We then played Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again” and spent a little more time in the meeting chat while we watched a few AUS videos together.

You can download the song sheet for “Take Me Home, Country Roads” to play along, or download a copy of the presentation and instruction guide, including exercises and drills.

You can also watch a replay of the May 22 livestream. Watch the entire show or jump to the part you most want to see!

A big shout out to Lyda Guz, who moderated the chat with finesse through the evening and to Fran Stelly, who skillfully managed the presentation slides and joined in on playing the tunes. Thanks Fran!!

Thank you for joining us, sending in your selfies, and staying connected!

We look forward to being back with our friends from near and far online on Thursday, July 24. And we look forward to seeing our nearby friends at Uke Stars and the next in-person meeting on Thursday, June 12, at St. John’s United Methodist Church. 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.