On a hot June evening, we were delighted to keep everyone cool at our monthly meeting. We had a terrific, enthusiastic turnout of 165 uke players of all ages and skill levels — thank you all for being there! ❤
The evening kicked off with local ukulele news, including a reminder to check out and purchase tickets for the Uke Stars Central Texas Ukulele Festival coming up July 9 through 12. Ticket sales will close on July 1.
Then we got the music-making started by playing our traditional warm-up song, Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.” Such a great way to limber up our fingers, warm up our voices, and remind ourselves that every little thing is gonna be alright!
We’ve long wanted to do an Electric Light Orchestra cover, and since there’s no time like the present, we learned to strum, pick, and sing 1979’s timeless, rockin’ hit, “Don’t Bring Me Down.” This tune was a chart-topper around the world, and it still gets plenty of airplay. Bob (with support on bass from Aaron) performed his great arrangement of the song to get us familiar with it. He took us through exercises to practice the chords, chord progressions, strumming styles, picking options, and harmonies. We put the song all together and improved with each take.
Our open mic participants – Jay, Rich, and Jack – were wonderful! Thanks so much for sharing your skills with us!
When we got back to practicing our song, we got better and better and shot our latest video, so please play along with us from home. Look for our video performance of “Don’t Bring Me Down,” coming soon to our YouTube Channel!
To play along, you can download the lyrics, chords, and tab for Bob’s arrangement of “Don’t Bring Me Down” or download a copy of the presentation and instruction guide (what we project on the screens for all to follow along, including exercises and drills).
We’re immensely grateful to Aaron Lewis for his bass accompaniment. Many, many thanks to all the fabulous AUS volunteers for their hard work. 
We’re looking forward to seeing you again at our next meeting on July 9th at St. John’s United Methodist Church. This meeting is the opening event of the Uke Stars Central Texas Ukulele Festival! Keep on strumming until then! 🙂
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 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.
Our new “Ukin’ Armadillo” design, “Circle of Stars,” “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.
Austin Ukulele Society (AUS) 