★ Our Next In-person Meeting: Thursday, February 12! ★

Greetings, friends! Our next monthly meeting is fast approaching! On Thursday, February 12, 7:00–9:00pm, we’ll meet again at St. John’s United Methodist Church, located at 2140 Allandale Rd, Austin, TX 78756.

At St. John’s, parking is available on both the Wynona Ave. and White Rock Dr. sides of the church. You can also park in the Lamar Middle School lots across White Rock Dr. from the church. Street parking is available all along Wynona Ave. The entrance is on the Wynona Ave. side of the church.

Since our February meeting occurs near (even occasionally on!) Valentine’s Day, we always choose a love song for the month. In past February meetings, we’ve covered many great love/romance tunes from a variety of genres and time periods including themes of heartbreak, romantic love, and love/compassion for all.

In keeping with our Valentine’s-themed tradition, and also this very famous songwriter’s oft-covered topic, we’ll learn Taylor Swift’s “You Belong With Me.” Don’t hang up your (“Rhinestone Cowboy”) hats just yet since this 2008 mega-hit has a pop country feel. This global chart topper is considered one of Swift’s signature songs, and we know you’ll be singing and strumming along to its infectious tune with great lyrics. Does it have a happy or sad ending? You’ll just have to watch the original recording’s video to find out!

Taylor Swift’s 2008 original recording is in F#, so Bob moved it up a half-step to the uke-friendly key of G major. Bob edited Swift’s recording to make a play-along audio track in G – please check it out and practice with her. Bob’s kept his arrangement just like the original, though he slowed it down a bit. 🙂

Practice Play-along Track

Here are some details about Bob’s song sheet:

Pages 1 – 3 have the chords and lyrics.
Page 3 also has a description of the strum pattern, with a simplified alternative. Rhythm notes continue on page 4.
Page 4 also has tab that can be played during the Interlude following Chorus 2 while other players strum the chords.
Pages 5-7 have vocal melody and harmony options for the Chorus.

As always, we encourage practicing using Bob’s song sheet, Taylor Swift’s 2008 original recording, and the practice play-along audio track – before the 12th, if possible. 🙂

At the meeting, Bob will perform “You Belong With Me” to demonstrate his arrangement, and then take us through some helpful exercises to get us comfortable with the chords and chord progressions, strum patterns, vocal harmonizing and picking options in each section of the song, before we put it all together to play it through.

Our meeting format, as usual, will begin with introductions and some local ukulele news/events. We’ll also include some open mic time for those of you who’d like to showcase one tune you’ve been working on. A sign-up sheet will be available at 6:30. As open mic time is limited to three participants, please sign up when you arrive and understand that preference will be given to those who have not participated recently or ever before.

After the open mic portion of the eve, we’ll play through our new-to-us song again and record a performance video. We’ll share this video on our YouTube channel about a week after the meeting – so please subscribe if you haven’t yet, and you’ll be notified when it’s available!

Ukulele Society T-shirts and Merch!

We’re very excited about our 2026 Austin Ukulele Society t-shirt, “Ukin’ Armadillo,” designed by Lyda Guz. This cool design features a rockin’ and rollin’ armadillo happily strumming his favorite ukulele decorated with 16 stars to celebrates the Austin Ukulele Society’s 16th year of making music together. As always, the shirts are silk-screened right here in Austin at a fantastic locally-owned print shop.

You can purchase our $25 shirts with digital payment via our Square Shop and/or via cash/check before and after the meeting. We know you’ll love adding our terrific, new, iconic Austin Ukulele Society shirt to your wardrobe!

We also have patches for $5 and vinyl stickers for $1 each.

Please bring cash or a check made out to Austin Ukulele Society; you can also pay via our Square shop.

Location
Our meetings take place at St. John’s United Methodist Church, located at 2140 Allandale Rd, Austin, TX 78756. Map it!

Parking is available on the Wynona Ave. and White Rock Dr. sides of the church. You can also park in the Lamar Middle School lots across White Rock Dr. from the church. Street parking is available all along Wynona Ave.

For anyone who might be attending for the first time, the entrance to St. John’s is on the Wynona Ave. side of the church. From there simply follow the sounds of ukuleles tuning up. 🙂

Newcomers and beginners are ALWAYS welcome! Even if you’re a complete novice, we encourage you to come out. Many beginners come to the meetings, and it’s so great to see their skills grow over time! There are almost always easier ways to play the songs, even if you can play only a few of the chords. Or just sing along!

For the monthly meetings, our friend Lori brings loaner ukuleles, donated by the TUG (Tuesday Ukulele Group)! They are Makala concert and soprano ukes, and you can borrow one to play during the meeting. You’ll find them at the front of the room; so if you don’t have a uke yet, or you forget your uke at home, or your uke is in disrepair, please join us and borrow a TUG loaner uke. 🙂

Feel free to get familiar with the chord charts for any of the songs in our repertoire, all available on the “Music Library” page. We always play “Three Little Birds” and “On the Road Again” as our opening and closing songs, so if you’re new to the group and want to get familiar with them, you can play along using the presentations and our videos.

Stay tuned and keep strumming! We’re looking forward to seeing everyone on Thursday, February 12, at 7:00pm!