Greetings, friends! Our next monthly meeting is fast approaching, on Thursday, June 8, 7:00–9:00pm. It was great to have so many ukulele players, from near and far, at our May meeting! We hope you are looking forward to plenty of sunshine, as we kick off the first official month of summer. We’ll meet, as usual, at the Memorial United Methodist Church, located at 6100 Berkman Drive, Austin, TX, 78723.

Often called the Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll, the amazing Tina Turner passed away in late May. We’ll pay tribute to arguably one of the best performers of all time by learning to strum and sing her 1989 internationally-loved hit “The Best.” The broad appeal of its uplifting lyrics along with Turner’s terrific performance have kept this song popular through the decades; we know you’ll enjoy getting to know it well if you’re not yet familiar with it.

Turner’s 1989 recording is in the key of F, then modulates to G after the bridge. Bob’s arrangement is just like the original, except he dropped the saxophone solo that follows the bridge and kept the same key throughout. Since his arrangement is in the same key (with the exception of the last chorus), you can play along with Turner up to the sax solo. Bob also made a helpful play-along practice track that exactly matches his arrangement. 🙂

To practice, you can preview or download the song sheet for “The Best.”  Play along with this practice track! 🙂

Here are some details about the song sheet:

• Pages 1 and 2 have the lyrics and chords.
• Page 3 shows the strum pattern, with a simplified option.
• Page 3 also has additional details for the strum pattern in the verses.
• Page 4 has tab for a picking part during the choruses.
• Pages 5 and 6 have vocal harmony options for the choruses.

As always, we recommend practicing the song using the song sheet, Tina Turner’s recording, and the play-along practice track before the 8th, if possible. 🙂

At the meeting, Bob will perform “The Best” to demonstrate the arrangement, and then take us through some helpful exercises to get us comfortable with the chords and chord progressions, strum styles, vocal and harmonizing options, 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 four 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 the video is available.

Ukulele Society T-shirts!
We’ll have Austin Ukulele Society t-shirts available for purchase before and after our meeting, including our brand-new “Classic Ukulele,” design, hot off the presses! All of our shirts are thoughtfully designed by the talented Lyda Guz! You can have a look at all of our shirt styles on the “Shop” page

The shirts are silk screened here in Austin at a fantastic locally-owned print shop and are available for purchase at our meetings for $25. We also have vinyl decals with the AUS logo for $1 each. Please bring cash or a check made out to Austin Ukulele Society; you can also pay via our Square shop.

Location
Memorial United Methodist Church, 6100 Berkman Drive, Austin, TX 78723. We meet in the school located behind the church, in the gym.

Map it

Where to park and find the gym

For those attending for the first time, the church is easy to find – but it is big. You’ll enter from Berkman Dr. using a ‘one way’ entrance and you can park anywhere alongside or behind the church. Past the canopied main entrance, on the same side of the building, there is another entrance on the right. Walk in there and you’ll be in the gym. 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, June 8, at 7:00pm!

Contact Us if you have any questions, need more information, or would like to be added to our mailing list.

With regard to COVID-19, we need your help in mitigating the risk of spreading the virus in the following ways:

• Attend only if you’re feeling well.
• If you have recently had close contact with someone who has recently tested positive for COVID-19 and you yourself have tested negative, please wear a mask.
• While Travis County remains in the low risk of transmission category, wearing a mask at MUMC is optional.
• You are always encouraged to wear a mask if you feel more comfortable doing so.
• If you would like additional information about COVID-19, please visit the CDC’s website.

The Austin Ukulele Society team will do our part to mitigate risk by:

• Making disposable masks and hand sanitizer available
• Spreading seating out as needed
• Opening a couple of doors to improve air flow, if the temperatures allow

On a warm Thursday evening, 130+ ukulele players got together for a wonderful evening of learning, singing and strumming. We were thrilled to have many local regulars and plenty of first-timers, including visitors from Iowa, Minnesota and Venezuela. As usual, we kicked off our evening with introductions and local ukulele event news, before launching into our ever-optimistic warm-up song, “Three Little Birds.”

The Beatles have a fantastic array of songs, many of which are well suited to ukulele covers and big group play-alongs. So it’s no wonder that every couple of years we find ourselves revisiting The Beatles’ catalog and choosing one of their well-loved tunes for our featured song. For our May song, we learned “Across the Universe,” from their last studio album, Let It Be, in 1970.

Bob shared an overview of his arrangement of “Across the Universe,” before performing a lovely demonstration of it. With Bob’s terrific guidance, we enjoyed practicing the chord progressions, strum styles, finger-picking and harmonizing options. Then we put the song together and played it through a couple of times, getting better with each try!

We took a break to enjoy terrific open mic performances by Kelly, Jack, Spencer and Jay. We’re always so impressed by the array of talent shared during this portion of our evening!

Afterward, we practiced “Across the Universe” a couple of more times and recorded it for you to enjoy and play along with. Look for it soon on our YouTube channel. We hope you’ll enjoy our video performance as much as we enjoyed making it.  🙂

To play along with us, you can download the lyrics and chords for our arrangement of “Across the Universe” or download a copy of the presentation and instruction guide (what we project on the screen for all to follow along, including exercises and drills).

We are thankful to Aaron Lewis for joining us on bass and to our amazing volunteers who do so much to make the evening successful. Your support is greatly appreciated!

Looking forward to seeing you at our next in-person meeting, Thursday, June 8! Until then, keep strummin’! 🙂

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!
We are proud to unveil our latest shirt, new for 2022: the “AUS Classic Ukulele,” design, hot off the presses! All of our shirts are thoughtfully designed by the talented Lyda Guz!

The shirts are silk screened here in Austin at a fantastic locally-owned print shop and are available for purchase. The new “AUS Classic Ukulele” design, “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.

Our April 13 in-person meeting was a wonderful one, with over 110 uke enthusiasts in attendance. We kicked off the lovely evening with introductions and local ukulele news, including reminders about upcoming special events, including Jim D’Ville’s  workshops on April 28. Then Bob led us through our always cheerful warm-up song, Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.”

Every so often we love to show off what a versatile instrument the uke is, and rockin’ out to a mega-rock hit is one way we particularly enjoy. So this month we learned our first-ever Bon Jovi tune, and it’s a great one at that: “Livin’ on a Prayer.” Widely adored by fans around the world, it’s considered the band’s signature song.

Bob shared some information about “Livin’ on a Prayer” and performed it for us, to introduce his great arrangement. Then he took us through some terrific exercises to help us get comfortable with the strum styles, the chords and chord progressions, the optional finger-picking, and harmonizing options, too. By the time we put the song together, we were sounding quite good!

We put our playing aside to enjoy the talents of our fabulous open mic participants. Ronald and his daughter performed a lovely duet in Spanish, Kaia impressed us with a beautiful tune, and Jack and Pastor Cynthia inspired us with a terrific duet on “I’ll Fly Away.”

We then spent some time honing our skills on “Livin’ on a Prayer” and recorded a terrific cover for you to enjoy. Look for it soon on our YouTube channel. We hope you’ll rock out with Bob and the rest of us, from the comfort of your home. 🙂

To play along with us, you can download the lyrics and chords for our arrangement of “Livin’ On a Prayer” or download a copy of the presentation and instruction guide (what we project on the screen for all to follow along, including exercises and drills).

We are thankful to Aaron Lewis for joining us on bass and to our amazing volunteers who do so much to make the evening successful. Your support is greatly appreciated!

We look forward to seeing you back with us at next month’s in-person meeting: Thursday, May 11, at 7pm, at the Memorial United Methodist Church. Until then, keep strummin’! 🙂

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

Contact Us if you have any questions or would like to be added to our mailing list!

Ukulele Society T-shirts!
We are proud to unveil our latest shirt, new for 2022: the “AUS Classic Ukulele,” design, hot off the presses! All of our shirts are thoughtfully designed by the talented Lyda Guz!

The shirts are silk screened here in Austin at a fantastic locally-owned print shop and are available for purchase. The new “AUS Classic Ukulele” design, “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.

We were thrilled to host our first virtual meeting of 2023, with a fabulous turnout of over 160 players from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada to Victoria, Australia and many points in between. We enjoyed having many old friends join in and plenty of first-timers, too. For our featured song, we brought back to a very popular AUS repertoire song from four years ago: “Can’t Help Falling In Love,” made famous by Elvis Presley. We loved getting familiar with this ever-popular romantic ballad and learning it together!  💓

Bob kicked us off with ukulele news and our warm-up song, Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.” Then he performed his terrific arrangement of “Can’t Help Falling In Love.” Bob led us through helpful exercises to teach us the chords, chord progressions, strum pattern, and picking options. He also introduced some vocal harmonizing options. We really enjoyed learning the song, part by part, and putting it all together to play through a few times. Before we said good night, we played our swan song, Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again. Afterward, we continued to chat and watch some of the Austin Ukulele Society’s wonderful videos, including collaborative ones produced by Marty Porter and Paul Butler.

You can download the lyrics, chords, and tab for “Can’t Help Falling In Love,” or download a copy of the presentation and instruction guide, including exercises and drills. You can also watch a replay of the March 23 live stream. Watch the entire show or jump to the part you most want to see!

As always, we thank Jen Richardson for moderating the chat and helping get questions addressed in real time and to Lyda Guz for her fantastic projectionist skills.

Check out our most recent group effort, “Octopus’s Garden”:

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

We look forward to having you all with us again at the virtual meeting on Thursday, June 22! Keep an eye on the Austin Ukulele Society’s YouTube channel. 🙂

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

Contact Us if you have any questions or would like to be added to our mailing list!

Ukulele Society T-shirts!
Austin Ukulele Society t-shirts are available for purchase at our in-person meetings, via mail order (U.S. orders only), and Austin-area porch pick up, including our latest “Classic Ukulele” design.

The shirts are silk-screened here in Austin at a fantastic locally-owned print shop.  T-shirts are $25 each (plus tax, where applicable). All of our shirts are thoughtfully designed by the talented Lyda Guz! You can have a look at all of our shirt styles on the “Shop” page. Drop us a line if you’d like to purchase a shirt (or two or three). 🙂

On a mild March evening, a wonderful group of 110+ ukulele players gathered to make music together. We enjoyed having many of our regular Austin-area folks in attendance, as well as plenty of first-timers, including a group of friends from the Galveston Ukulele Society, Guillermo and Kathryn from Chicago, Kelly from Prince Edward Island, Canada, and Alan from the UK.

With this year’s meeting date falling between International Women’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day, it was the perfect time to learn the beautiful acoustic rock song “Linger” by Irish band The Cranberries. The late great Dolores O’Riordan wrote the lyrics and gorgeously sings the vocals on this tune.

We kicked off the meeting, as usual, with introductions and our warm-up song: Bob Marlely’s “Three Little Birds.”

Bob G. then introduced his terrific arrangement of our song of the month: The Cranberries’ “Linger,” with a lovely performance. He shared some more about the song and its popularity, and then began teaching us the song. Bob took us through chord progressions, strum styles, picking and harmonizing options. We sounded great when we played it through!

We took a break to enjoy terrific open mic performances. The Galveston Ukulele Society, our own Jay, Alan from the UK, Kelly from PEI and Angela (first time at an open mic!) all did fabulous performances. We truly appreciate their willingness to share their music with us.

After the enjoyable open mic performances ended, we worked a bit more on “Linger” and recorded a video for you to play along with and enjoy. We hope you’ll check out the video, coming soon to our YouTube channel.

To play along with us, you can download the lyrics and chords for our arrangement of “Linger” or download a copy of the presentation and instruction guide (what we project on the screen for all to follow along, including exercises and drills).

We are thankful to Aaron Lewis for joining us on bass and to our amazing volunteers who do so much to make the evening successful. Special thanks to the women who came up to join Bob in leading the vocals on “Linger.” Your support is greatly appreciated!

We’re looking forward to our virtual meeting on Thursday, March 23, and having you back in person with us on Thursday, April 13, at 7pm! See you there!! 🙂

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

Contact Us if you have any questions or would like to be added to our mailing list!

Ukulele Society T-shirts!
We are proud to unveil our latest shirt, new for 2022: the “AUS Classic Ukulele,” design, hot off the presses! All of our shirts are thoughtfully designed by the talented Lyda Guz!

The shirts are silk screened here in Austin at a fantastic locally-owned print shop and are available for purchase. The new “AUS Classic Ukulele” design, “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.

The Austin Ukulele Society had a love-ly time getting into the mood for Valentine’s Day, as we took on the fantastic and timeless tune of romance, “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You,” at our February meeting. Over 120 members gathered with smiles on their faces and ukes in their hands, as we got in our introductions and warmed up with Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.”

Bob G. then shared some information about his arrangement of “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” and gave us a great demonstration performance of it. He then taught us how to play, pick and sing this infectious song, with helpful exercises on the strum patterns, chords and chord progressions, and picking options. Thanks to Bob’s step-by-step approach, we sounded good from the first time we played it through – and we only got better each time we practiced the song.

We took a break to enjoy the talented performers who participated in the open mic portion of the evening. Kelly & Tilly, Mike, Kaia, Cynthia, and Ronald played a terrific selection of cover tunes, that spanned several musical genres.

After the enjoyable open mic performances ended, we practiced our song again and recorded it for your listening and play-along pleasure. We hope you’ll check out the video, coming soon to our YouTube channel. We hope you will enjoy listening and playing with us!

To play along with us, you can download the lyrics and chords for our arrangement of “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” or download a copy of the presentation and instruction guide (what we project on the screen for all to follow along, including exercises and drills).

We are thankful to Aaron Lewis for joining us on bass and to our amazing volunteers who do so much to make the evening successful.

We’ll see you back in the same place on Thursday, March 9, at 7pm! See you there!! 🙂

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

Contact Us if you have any questions or would like to be added to our mailing list!

Ukulele Society T-shirts!
We are proud to unveil our latest shirt, new for 2022: the “AUS Classic Ukulele,” design, hot off the presses! All of our shirts are thoughtfully designed by the talented Lyda Guz!

The shirts are silk screened here in Austin at a fantastic locally-owned print shop and are available for purchase. The new “AUS Classic Ukulele” design, “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.

The Austin Ukulele Society was thrilled to kick off its 13th year of monthly meetings with a crowd of 120+ members from the Austin area and beyond! We’re very grateful for all of the enthusiasm and support we’ve had, and we loved seeing familiar faces and meeting new friends. We got the evening started with introductions and local ukulele news, before launching into our warm-up song: Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.”

Bob then introduced us to his arrangement of Dire Straits’ terrific and timeless tune, “Walk of Life,” by performing it for us. He guided us through the helpful exercises he’d prepared to help us learn the picking and strumming options, the chord progressions and the vocal harmony options. We sounded better and better, as we pieced the tune together, and we enjoyed playing it through before taking a break for the open mic portion of the evening.

Thank you to our open mic performers! It was a treat to hear Rich perform a beautiful cover of “The Wichita Lineman” and Jack Pott and Deb play a rockin’ and humorous original.

We got back to practicing “Walk of Life,” and we got so good at it that we made a recording to share with you. Be on the lookout for the video of our performance, coming soon to our YouTube channel. We hope you will enjoy listening and playing along with us! Many thanks to Aaron Lewis on bass for rounding out our rhythm.  🙂

To play along with us, you can download the lyrics and chords for our arrangement of “Walk of Life” or download a copy of the presentation and instruction guide (what we project on the screen for all to follow along, including exercises and drills).

As always, we appreciate all of the volunteer support we get to help us set up and break down and have a wonderful time.

We’re looking forward to getting the Valentine’s Day spirit going as we learn a love-themed song at the February 9 meeting. See you there! 🙂

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

Contact Us if you have any questions or would like to be added to our mailing list!

Ukulele Society T-shirts!
We are proud to unveil our latest shirt, new for 2022: the “AUS Classic Ukulele,” design, hot off the presses! All of our shirts are thoughtfully designed by the talented Lyda Guz!

The shirts are silk screened here in Austin at a fantastic locally-owned print shop and are available for purchase. The new “AUS Classic Ukulele” design, “Ukulele Around the World,” “10th Anniversary,” Mermaid, Cowboy,” “Austin Lasso” and other shirts are $20. 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.

The Austin Ukulele Society held TWO fantastic holiday events this year, one in-person and another online!

December 8: Holiday Strum-a-long and Potluck Party!

On a pleasant December evening, nearly 100 festive members got together to enjoy an evening of music and company. It was the first time in three years since we’d been able to meet in person for our (typically) annual Holiday Potluck and Strum-along, and the energy reflected appreciation for the opportunity. We really made the most of it, with plenty of cheer, holiday attire, laughter, good food and desserts – and, of course, music.

After mingling and munching for a while, Bob led us in our always-optimistic warm up song, Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.” We then played songs in our holiday music repertoire. We enjoyed a terrific variety of tunes played by talented groups, duos and individuals during the open mic portion of the eve. The Tuesday Ukulele Group (TUG), Paul, Jay, Helen, Rodger, and Christen all had us smiling and singing along.

Then we resumed playing and singing some more lovely songs of the season!

Many thanks to those who brought tasty dishes to share, who performed in the open mic, and everyone who came out to play and sing so heartily! Happy holidays to all!

December 15: Online Holiday Strum-a-long!

We had a lovely evening of ukulele music, filled with many holiday favorites, at our quarterly livestreamed meeting, our 3rd annual Online Holiday Strum-a-long. It was wonderful to check in with our global uke community, as nearly 150 friends from England, Australia, Brazil and coast-to-coast in Canada and the U.S. (and Hawaii) joined in.

After Bob shared some information about the format of our strum-along, we warmed up our fingers and voices with Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.” Bob then provided a mini-tutorial for each Christmas tune before we played it; the hints and tips were well received. As always, it felt like the time flew by, and before we knew it, it was time to wrap up for the evening. We played our favorite closing song, Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again,” and then we bid one other good tidings for the holidays ahead.

You can watch a replay of the December 15 live stream. Watch the entire show or use the Table of Contents in the video’s description to jump to the song you most want to watch!

This songbook includes charts for all our joyous Christmas and wintry-themed songs in a condensed format designed to minimize page turns when printed two-sided. You can also play along with videos of these songs on our YouTube channel. On our website’s “Music Library” page, our holiday music repertoire – Holiday Season Favorites! – is grouped together near the top, for ease of video play-along. 

Bob asked folks to stick around to chat and enjoy a few of the fabulous collaborative videos produced by our good friends Marty Porter and Paul Butler. As always, we appreciate Jen Richardson’s tireless assistance with monitoring the chat and Lyda Guz’s fantastic projectionist skills throughout the song chart presentations. 

We are so glad to have had this holiday event with our great uke friends both near and far.  Thank you for joining us, sending in your selfies, and staying connected! We look forward to “seeing” you all on March 23, at our next virtual meeting.

And we look forward to seeing our local friends – near, far, visiting and otherwise – back in person on January 12 with a new featured song. 

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

Contact Us if you have any questions or would like to be added to our mailing list!

Ukulele Society T-shirts!
Austin Ukulele Society t-shirts are available for purchase at our in-person meetings, porch pick up locally, or via mail order. Each one is designed by the talented Lyda Guz! We are excited to now have our latest “AUS Classic Ukulele” design available as well.

The shirts are silk screened here in Austin at a fantastic locally-owned print shop. The new “AUS Classic Ukulele” design, “Ukulele Around the World,” “10th Anniversary,” Mermaid, Cowboy,” “Austin Lasso” and other shirts are $20. We also have vinyl decals with the AUS logo for $1 each. Please drop us a line if you’d like to purchase a shirt (or two or three). 🙂 Have a look at the shirts in our online “Shop“.

Season’s greetings! We’re looking forward to our upcoming in-person annual Holiday Strum-a-long and Potluck on Thursday, December 8, 6:30–9:00pm. In lieu of a regular monthly meeting, this is a social event with food, drink and, of course, ukulele strumming and singing. The event is family friendly, so you are welcome to bring family (and friends!) of all ages.

We’ll meet in the gym, at the Memorial United Methodist Church, located at 6100 Berkman Drive, Austin, TX, 78723. Feel free to bring a meal, snacks, treats and/or non-alcoholic beverages – we will set up the room to accommodate noshing. 🙂

Here are the details:

Where: The Memorial United Methodist Church, located at 6100 Berkman Drive, Austin, TX, 78723.
When: Thursday, December 8th, 2022; 6:30pm – 9:00pm
What: Strum-a-long and Potluck! Feel free to bring a dish or non-alcoholic beverage to share. We’ll mingle, eat, drink and play the holiday songs we’ve learned over the years. You can download our 12th Anniversary Holiday Songbook, which Bob thoughtfully updated to include our recent medley of “Blue Christmas” and “White Christmas”. We’ll project the songs on the screen, when we strum/sing them, too. If you’d like to print the songbook, it is designed to minimize page turns when printed two-sided.

Open Mic: There will be more time than usual for an open mic, so feel free to plan to share a holiday (or non-holiday) song you’ve been working on. A sign-up sheet will be available at 6:30pm.

Loaner Ukuleles: Our friend Lori will bring the TUG (Tuesday Ukulele Group) loaner ukuleles, so if you find yourself uke-less that day, fret not. 🙂

Approximate schedule:

• 6:30pm – 7:30pm – mingle, nosh, sip
• 7:30pm – 8:00pm – group strum-a-long of songs from the AUS Holiday Songbook
• 8:00pm – 8:30pm – open mic performances (+ more noshing)
• 8:30pm – 8:40pm – group closing song or two (from our holiday songbook)
• 8:40pm – 9:00pm – pack up our instruments and shared dishes, throw out trash, put up chairs and head out

Ukulele Society T-shirts!
We’ll have Austin Ukulele Society t-shirts available for purchase before and after our meeting, including our brand-new “AUS Classic Ukulele,” design, hot off the presses! All of our shirts are thoughtfully designed by the talented Lyda Guz!

The shirts are silk screened here in Austin at a fantastic locally-owned print shop and are available for purchase at our meeting. The new “AUS Classic Ukulele” design, “Ukulele Around the World,” “10th Anniversary,” Mermaid, Cowboy,” “Austin Lasso” and other shirts are $20. 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, Zelle, or PayPal.

Location
Memorial United Methodist Church, 6100 Berkman Drive, Austin, TX 78723. We meet in the school located behind the church, in the gym.

Map it

Where to park and find the gym

For those attending for the first time, the church is easy to find – but it is big. You’ll enter from Berkman Dr. using a ‘one way’ entrance and you can park anywhere alongside or behind the church. Past the canopied main entrance, on the same side of the building, there is another entrance on the right. Walk in there and you’ll be in the gym. 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!

Stay tuned and keep strumming! We’re looking forward to seeing everyone on Thursday, December 8, at 6:30pm!

Contact Us if you have any questions, need more information, or would like to be added to our mailing list.

Members of the Austin Ukulele Society kicked off the holiday season with cheerful spirits, stylish accessories, and plenty of smiles, at our November 3rd meeting! We kicked off the meeting with introductions and local ukulele news. Then we warmed up our fingers and voices with Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.”

Bob shared information about the holiday medley of two terrific Christmas standards, “Blue Christmas” and “White Christmas,” and gave us a lovely performance to demonstrate it. He then led us through very helpful exercises to get comfortable with the chords, chord progressions, strumming and picking options, and harmonizing opportunities. We enjoyed learning the song, piece by piece, and then putting it all together to play through a couple of times.

We then took a break to enjoy the terrific talents of our open mic participants – (left to right) Jay Clement, Teagan Whitehead and Bob Guz – who, by chance, all played terrific covers of quirky, entertaining tunes we all wanted to sing along with.

When we got back to playing our holiday medley, we got better and better at it! We look forward to sharing the recording with you, later this month, so check back around Thanksgiving time on our YouTube channel.

To play along with us, you can download the lyrics and chords for our arrangement of “Blue Christmas / White Christmas Medley” or download a copy of the presentation and instruction guide (what we project on the screen for all to follow along, including exercises and drills).

As always, we appreciate all of the volunteer support we get to help us set up and break down and have a wonderful time.

We’ll see you at our annual in-person Holiday Strum-a-long and Potluck, on Thursday, December 8, and we’ll look forward to a virtual Holiday Play-along on our YouTube channel on Thursday, December 15! See you then! 🙂

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

Contact Us if you have any questions or would like to be added to our mailing list!

Ukulele Society T-shirts!
We are proud to unveil our latest shirt, new for 2022: the “AUS Classic Ukulele,” design, hot off the presses! All of our shirts are thoughtfully designed by the talented Lyda Guz!

The shirts are silk screened here in Austin at a fantastic locally-owned print shop and are available for purchase. The new “AUS Classic Ukulele” design, “Ukulele Around the World,” “10th Anniversary,” Mermaid, Cowboy,” “Austin Lasso” and other shirts are $20. 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.