Greetings, friends! Our next monthly meeting is fast approaching! On Thursday, March 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.
We’ve long wanted to cover an ABBA song, and this is our big “chance”! We’ll learn to strum and harmonize one of ABBA’s most popular songs of all time, 1978’s “Take a Chance On Me.” This incredibly catchy song is timeless and was a big hit for Erasure when they covered it in 1992, too. We know you’ll be singing and strumming along in no time to this gem!
ABBA’s 1978 original recording is in the key of B major. Bob’s arrangement moves it up one fret, to C major, which simplifies the chords enormously and makes them more uke-friendly. Bob edited the original track to make a play-along audio track in C, so you can play right along with Agnetha, Björn, Benny, and Anni-Frid.
Also, to help you get comfortable with the chorus vocals, Bob created an audio tutorial/demo track for you. Check it out!
Here are some details about Bob’s song sheet:
- Pages 1 – 3 have the chords and lyrics.
- Page 4 has a description of the two main strum patterns, with a simplified alternative.
- Page 4 also has a description of the strum pattern used in the pre-chorus during the lyrics “It’s magic“.
- Pages 5-7 have vocal melody and harmony options for the Chorus.
As always, we encourage practicing using Bob’s song sheet, ABBA’s 1978 original recording, the practice play-along audio track, and the chorus vocals demo track – before the 12th, if possible. 🙂
At the meeting, Bob will perform “Take a Chance On 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, March 12, at 7:00pm!
Contact Us if you have any questions, need more information, or would like to be added to our mailing list.
Austin Ukulele Society (AUS) 