The virtual July meeting was a terrific way to wrap up an extra special month for our ukulele community. July had already given us our biggest-ever in-person meeting and the first-ever Uke Stars Central Texas Ukulele Festival! It was great to engage with you at the virtual meeting, too, and we were thrilled to welcome first-timers and regulars, from all points and time zones, spanning our planet! 🙂

This month, we revisited a tune by one of New Jersey’s best gifts to rock and pop music – Bon Jovi. We rocked out, learning to strum, pick, and sing 2000’s “It’s My Life,” a top 10 hit in several countries and Bon Jovi’s most viewed video (~1.5 billion views!). This infectious rock anthem gets plenty of airplay to this day, and we were singing along in no time!

We shared some ukulele news, including info on Tyler Donkoh-Halm and Sho Humphries’ upcoming workshops and concert. And during this live event, you helped us hit the 4-million view mark on our YouTube channel!

To start things off musically, we warmed up with Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.”

Then Bob and special guest Evan Kolvoord gave us a great performance of Bon Jovi’s “It’s My Life” to get us ready to learn. Bob broke down his excellent uke arrangement and took us through helpful exercises to learn the strum styles and patterns, the chord progressions, the tab option, and the vocal harmonies. He also dove into some useful tips on how to become stronger and more self-aware strummers.

We had fun practicing everything and sounded terrific when we put “It’s My Life” together and played it through a couple of times.

We ended the eve with our always-swan song, Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again” and some more chatting with you while Bob shared a few AUS in-person meeting videos.

You can download the song sheet for “It’s My Life” 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 July 23 livestream. Watch the entire show or jump to the part you most want to see!

We owe a big thank you to Evan Kolvoord for joining Bob, and as always, we’re grateful to Lyda for running the presentation and Jen for moderating the chat.

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

We hope to see you at the next Austin in-person meeting on Thursday, August 13, at St. John’s United Methodist Church. And we definitely look forward to our next virtual meeting on Thursday, October 22. Be well and keep strumming!  🙂

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For more downloadable music, visit our Ukulele Music Library. For more Austin Ukulele Society videos, check out our YouTube Channel.

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