Greetings, friends! Our next monthly meeting is fast approaching, on Thursday, August 11, 7:00–9:00pm. We hope August has started off well for you and that you’re looking forward to this month’s in-person meeting as much as we are! We’ll meet, as usual, at the Memorial United Methodist Church, located at 6100 Berkman Drive, Austin, TX, 78723.

Please note the COVID-19 precautions in place for our meeting, at the bottom of this post.

We’re looking forward to our August new-to-us song: Neil Young’s “Heart of Gold.” This song was released 50 years ago and was Young’s only #1 hit in the U.S. It’s a beautiful folk/rock ballad that has stood the test of time, as it’s been covered by other artists for nearly fifty years, including Willie Nelson, Bettye LaVette and Passenger, to name just a few. If you’re not already familiar with it, we’re sure you’ll enjoy getting to know it and learning it with us next week.

Neil Young’s 1971 recording is in the key of Em/G, but Bob changed it to Am/C to make it a bit simpler on the ukulele and because this key uses the same chord shapes that Young is playing on guitar, just transposed to the uke. This makes the song a lovely 4-chord ballad using very common chords: C, G, F, Am and Am7.

Neil Young’s 1971 recording is in the key of Em/G, but Bob changed it to Am/C to make it a bit simpler on the ukulele and because this key uses the same chord shapes that Young is playing on guitar, just transposed to the uke. This makes the song a lovely 4-chord ballad using very common chords: C, G, F, Am and Am7.

To practice, you can preview or download the lyrics and chords for “Heart of Gold.” To provide an example in the key of C, Bob also created a demo video, in which he plays the strum pattern and each of the picking parts. He also sings each vocal part – please give it a listen and feel free to play/sing along. 🙂

Here are some details about the song sheet:

• Pages 1 through 3 have the chords and lyrics.
• Page 3 also has a description of the main strum pattern, along with a couple of simplified alternatives.
• Page 4 has tab for a picking part that can be played during the Instrumental Verses. This is intended to evoke one of the harmonica parts that appears in Neil Young’s original recording.
• Page 4 also has details of the strum pattern we’ll play during the last line of each Chorus (while singing the lyrics “…and I’m getting’ old“).
• Pages 5 and 6 have vocal harmony options for the Choruses.
• Pages 7 – 9 have vocal harmony options for the Ending of the song.

As always, we recommend practicing the song using the chart and diagrams, Bob’s sample demo audio clip, and Neil Young’s recording on YouTube before we meet on the 9th, if possible. 🙂

At the meeting, Bob will perform “Heart of Gold” 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.

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.

Ukulele Society T-shirts!
As you know, we create a new t-shirt every year. Celebrating our global AUS community, we are thrilled to unveil our 2022 edition t-shirt, “Ukulele Around the World,” 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 via mail order. The new “Ukulele Around the World” design, “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.

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!

Our friends from the TUG (Tuesday Ukulele Group) now make available loaner ukuleles at the AUS monthly meetings! 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.

We’re looking forward to seeing everyone on Thursday, August 11, at 7:00pm!

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

Since the COVID-19 pandemic is ongoing, 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 medium risk of transmission category, wearing a mask at the MUMC is optional for those at low risk.
• We request that anyone at risk or anyone unvaccinated/not boosted wear a mask.
• 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

Over eighty ukulele players gathered on a warm summer night at the July 14 Austin Ukulele Society meeting, to strum and sing together. After introductions and sharing some local news, including info about Sho Humphries’ upcoming workshop and concert on July 28, we warmed up our fingers and voices with Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.”

We enjoy doing an upbeat, cheerful pop song from time to time, and we were excited to do our first ever song by the very popular and prolific British band, The Cure: “Friday I’m In Love”. It was a huge hit in 1992 and still gets plenty of air play.

Bob shared some information on and performed his lovely arrangement of The Cure’s “Friday I’m In Love.” He then led us through very helpful exercises to practice the chords, chord transitions and progressions as well as the finger-picking and vocal harmony options. We played through the song a couple of times and sounded great.

We practiced “Friday I’m In Love” a few more times before recording ourselves to share with all on YouTube. We hope you enjoy strumming along from home with us, so be on the lookout for the video of our performance, coming soon to our YouTube channel. 🙂

To play along with us, you can download the lyrics and chords for our arrangement of “Friday I’m In Love” 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).

Sho Humphries performed his terrific original composition, “Dream Again,” during the open mic portion of the evening! We hope to see our local friends at Sho’s workshop on July 28. Contact Us to reserve your spot today!

We look forward to seeing you on August 11 for our next monthly meeting!! 🙂

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!
As you may know, we create a new t-shirt every fall. Celebrating our global AUS community, we are thrilled to unveil our latest edition t-shirt, “Ukulele Around the World,” 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 via mail order. The new “Ukulele Around the World” design, “10th Anniversary,” Mermaid, Cowboy,” and “Austin Lasso” shirts are $20 – all other styles are $15. 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 hosted its first virtual meeting in 3 months, on June 23rd, and it was such a blast to connect with 130 of our friends, near and far. Ukers from England to Vietnam, Singapore to Germany, Australia to England, and Germany to Brazil, joined in with coast-to-coast uke players in the U.S. and Canada, to learn to sing and strum Jimmy Buffet’s timeless and idyllic beach/island-life tune, “Margaritaville.”  💓

Bob shared some local uke news and then took us through our warm-up song, Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.” Then he dove into the tutorial he prepared for “Margaritaville,” leading us through helpful exercises on the strum style, chord progressions, and picking options. We had a lot fun practicing the various components, and we really enjoyed putting the song together to play and sing through a couple of times, near the end of the meeting.

“Searchin’ for that lost shaker of salt.”

A big thank you to Bob for being a thoughtful and thorough instructor, and much appreciation to Lyda for running the presentation and to Jen for moderating the chat.

You can download the lyrics, chords, and tab for “Margaritaville,” or download a copy of the presentation and instruction guide, including exercises and drills. You can also watch a replay of the June 23 live stream. Watch the entire show or jump to the part you most want to see!
● Welcome and announcements
● “Three Little Birds” warm-up song
● Bob’s “Margaritaville” tutorial
● “On the Road Again” closing song
● Our 2016 performance of “Margaritaville”.

Before we said good night, Bob shared some of the great collaborative videos produced by our friends Marty Porter and Paul Butler of our past virtual meetings as well as some videos from recent Austin Ukulele Society in-person meetings.

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

We hope you’ll keep strumming and singing – we’ll see our local friends at the in-person meeting on July 14, and we’ll look forward to ‘seeing’ our extended ukulele family at the next virtual meeting on September 22. Stay in touch, keep strumming, and 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!
As you may know, we create a new t-shirt every fall. Celebrating our global AUS community, we are thrilled to unveil our latest edition t-shirt, “Ukulele Around the World,” 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 via mail order. The new “Ukulele Around the World” design, “10th Anniversary,” Mermaid, Cowboy,” and “Austin Lasso” shirts are $20 – all other styles are $15. 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 hold our June in-person meeting on Thursday, June 9th, with around 110 ukulele enthusiasts from all walks of life. We were so happy to welcome seasoned and new members alike and to see some friends we had not seen since February 2020.

As you may have guessed, we are more than a bit partial to rock/pop music from the 1980’s. Since we’ve never before done a song by the talented and incredibly popular rock band The Police, this was THE month to do it! We learned “Every Breath You Take,” a 1983/84 #1 hit in the U.S. and one of The Police’s most popular and enduring tunes.

As usual, Bob kicked off the meeting by setting the agenda, introducing Jen Richardson and himself and then giving everyone a chance to share their name (and location, if visiting from outside the area). After intros, we warmed up our voices and fingers with Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.” Then Bob shared some information about The Police’s timeless, mega-hit from 1983/84, “Every Breath You Take,” before giving us a lovely demo performance of his arrangement.

The group enjoyed working on all aspects of the song through exercises Bob had prepared of the chord transitions, strum style, tab options and harmonizing opportunities. We got to sounding so good that Bob turned the cameras on and made a recording to share with our YouTube family around the globe. Look for the video of our performance, coming soon to our YouTube channel. 🙂

To play along with us, you can download the lyrics and chords for our arrangement of “Every Breath You Take” 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 thoroughly enjoyed the fantastic and eclectic Open Mic portion of the evening. Jessica, Rodger, Rich, Tate & Mason, and Sho & Shin all performed creative and cool covers that emphasized not just their talent but how versatile our mighty uke can be. We appreciate our open mic performers!

Please join us for our virtual meeting on our YouTube channel on Thursday, June 23 and at our next in-person meeting on Thursday, July 14. Be well and we look forward to seeing 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!
As you may know, we create a new t-shirt every fall. Celebrating our global AUS community, we are thrilled to unveil our latest edition t-shirt, “Ukulele Around the World,” 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 via mail order. The new “Ukulele Around the World” design, “10th Anniversary,” Mermaid, Cowboy,” and “Austin Lasso” shirts are $20 – all other styles are $15. 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.

On a warm and lovely May evening, 100+ members of the Austin Ukulele Society gathered together, in person, for a night of community ukulele music. It is truly wonderful seeing the faces of our Austin-area friends, and we were also delighted to welcome uke players from Madison, WI, Cape Cod, MA, McGregor, TX and Dallas, TX.

Our evening started out, as usual, with introductions and local ukulele news. Then Bob took us through our warm-up song, Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.”

We love learning songs from different genres and spanning many decades, so it’s always fun to choose each month’s new-to-us song. Since we hadn’t done a country song in a while and have long wanted to do a Dolly Parton song, we were VERY excited to learn her 1973 hit “Jolene.” It’s Dolly’s most-covered song, and has been covered over the decades by many, including Olivia Newton John, The White Stripes, and Lil Nas X. 🙂

Bob shared information about his arrangement of “Jolene,” before performing it for us. He took us through some very useful exercises on the strum style, chord progressions, fingerpicking options and harmonizing possibilities. We had fun trying out each component of the song and then putting it together to play through a couple of times. As we practiced, we sounded better and better each time, and recorded it for your listening and playing-along pleasure – we hope you enjoy it!

To play along with us, you can download the lyrics and chords for our arrangement of “Jolene” 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).

During our open mic session, we enjoyed the talents of Jay Clement, Kelly Howard, and Kim Carducci. Thanks for your excellent performances!

We look forward to seeing you again on Thursday, June 9, for our next in-person meeting at MUMC! 🙂

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!
As you may know, we create a new t-shirt every fall. Celebrating our global AUS community, we are thrilled to unveil our latest edition t-shirt, “Ukulele Around the World,” 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 via mail order. The new “Ukulele Around the World” design, “10th Anniversary,” Mermaid, Cowboy,” and “Austin Lasso” shirts are $20 – all other styles are $15. 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.

On a beautiful spring evening, a great group of ukulele players from the Austin area and beyond gathered in central Austin for the enjoyable opportunity of playing music together. Many, many thanks to all who came out to join the fun!

The evening began with local ukulele news, including the happy occasions of the Tuesday Uke Group (TUG) beginning in-person meetings again soon. South Austin Ukulele Community & Events (SAUCE) will also resume in the near future, so keep an eye out for more info there, too! After introductions and news were shared, Bob led us through our ever-cheerful warm-up song, Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.”

It has been a VERY long time since we’ve gotten to play a great rock ‘n’ roll anthem together as a large group. Some of our favorite group meeting tunes have been up-tempo, huge rock hits, from across the decades. For April’s meeting, we strummed, sang and rocked out to a 1995 hit by English rock band Oasis: “Don’t Look Back in Anger.”  🙂

Bob shared some info about his arrangement and gave us a great demo performance of it. He took us through helpful exercises to get comfortable with the tempo, chords, chord changes, strum styles and picking options. We put it all together and got better each time we played it through. We recorded this terrific performance and play-along video, so that you can rock out with the AUS, from wherever you are:

To play along with us, you can download the lyrics and chords for our arrangement of “Don’t Look Back In Anger” 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).

The talented Jay Clement treated us to his beautiful rendition of the classic song, “Paper Doll,” written in 1915 (but made famous in the 40’s by The Mill Brothers). Thanks Jay!

Be well and we’ll see you at the in-person Thursday, May 12th meeting! 🙂

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!
As you may know, we create a new t-shirt every fall. Celebrating our global AUS community, we are thrilled to unveil our latest edition t-shirt, “Ukulele Around the World,” 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 via mail order. The new “Ukulele Around the World” design, “10th Anniversary,” Mermaid, Cowboy,” and “Austin Lasso” shirts are $20 – all other styles are $15. 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 have a live-streamed meeting on March 31, with 130+ ukulele players joining in from all over the U.S., Canada, Australia, Brazil, Singapore, England and Spain. We’re grateful, as always, for your participation and positive feedback! 💓

Our virtual meetings will give us the opportunity to take deep dives into learning songs from past AUS live meetings, with detailed tutorials presented by Bob (and live Q&A fielded by Jen and Lyda). This time we revisited a tune AUS first played in September 2014: the Hal David/Burt Bacharach classic made famous by BJ Thomas: “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head.” We love this upbeat, humorous and beautifully-composed song and hope you appreciated this delightful tune as much as we do.

Bob led the group through our warm-up song – Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.” He then dove into a detailed tutorial of “Raindrops.” Bob led us through helpful exercises to get us comfortable playing the chords, chord progressions, strum styles and more. We put it all together and sounded terrific when we played it through twice, and we look forward to our collaborative video with friends from all over again, too.

A big thank you to Bob for being a thoughtful and thorough instructor, and much appreciation to Lyda for running the presentation and to Jen for moderating the chat.

You can download the lyrics, chords, and tab for “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head,” or download a copy of the presentation and instruction guide, including exercises and drills. You can also watch a replay of the March 31 live stream. Watch the entire show or jump to the part you most want to see!
● Welcome and announcements
● “Three Little Birds” warm-up song
● Bob’s “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head” tutorial
● “On the Road Again” closing song
● Our 2014 performance of “Raindrops”.

Before saying goodnight, we premiered the group video of our February song: Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time,” expertly edited by Marty Porter and mixed by Paul Butler. Thanks to Jen Richardson for skillfully coordinating communications with all the participants.

Huge thanks and congratulations to every one of our very talented participants: Heiko and Svenja Andresen, Vany Anyc, Chris Armstrong, Shelly Benjamin, Patrice Bovero, Susan Burke, Linda Christensen, Deana Dossey, Pam Ellis, Victor Erickson, Ina Ferrara, Shel Fung, Bob Guz, Jens Haag, David Haye, The Hayes, Gail Johnson, Sandy Johnson, Sue Kaneko, Mary Kealy, Arlene Krassner, Ann Kuehnel, Errol Lipschitz, Andrew Matlaga, Margaret McCrank, Irene Messina, Michael Paderes, Beth Pickens, Jean Pollack, Leslie Poppen, Kim Prezio, Sabine Pütz, Jerry Raihl, Jen Richardson, Darrell Rose, Laurel Rulison, Al Saloha, Martha Schreffler, Janet Shimzu, LeAynne Snell, Paula Taylor, Michelle Whitehead and Steve Workman. Absolutely beautiful work everyone! Check it out:

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

We look forward to anyone local or visiting joining us at our upcoming in-person meeting on April 14. Of course, we’ll all be looking forward to our next virtual meeting on Thursday, June 23, too. Stay in touch, keep strumming, and 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!
As you may know, we create a new t-shirt every fall. Celebrating our global AUS community, we are thrilled to unveil our latest edition t-shirt, “Ukulele Around the World,” 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 via mail order. The new “Ukulele Around the World” design, “10th Anniversary,” Mermaid, Cowboy,” and “Austin Lasso” shirts are $20 – all other styles are $15. 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.

If you don’t already follow this website, why not take a moment to click on the “Follow Austin Ukulele Society” button? We’d really appreciate it! It’s in the right margin, just under the “Like us on Facebook” button and looks just like this: .

By following our website, you’ll always be kept up-to-date with the latest meeting announcements and other Austin Ukulele Society news. Thank you so much!

What can we say?! There are few words that can describe the feeling of elation experienced in a room of 100 ukulele-playing friends. Bob and Jen had an absolute blast hosting the first in-person AUS meeting in two years! We are thrilled to be hearing from many who attended that you also had a wonderful time.

We brought back our tried and true format, by kicking things off with a brief introduction of the evening’s agenda and having everyone share their names (and locations, if visiting from outside of Austin). We shared some local ukulele news and had some friends mention their upcoming meetings and gigs. We warmed up our voices, hearts and fingers by playing Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.” As always, we wrapped up our night with Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again.”

The month of March brings us many things to celebrate, including St. Patrick’s Day. We were excited to learn a big hit by one of the most popular rock bands of all time, who hail from Ireland: U2’s “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.”

Bob performed his lovely arrangement of the song to get us familiar with the tempo and style. We got down to business, using his thoughtfully-prepared exercises, and learned the strum style, the picking option, the chord progressions, and the vocal harmony options. We sounded great when we put it all together and played it through. Check out our performance:

To play along with us, you can download the lyrics and chords for our arrangement of “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” 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).

It was fantastic to enjoy the sounds of Jay Clement, Kathy & the Kilowatts (Kathy Murray and Bill Jones), THE John Davenport and Anna K Dysart, and Jack Pott during our open mic portion of the evening.

Clockwise from top left: Kathy Murray and Bill Jones, Jack Pott, THE John Davenport and Anna Dysart, and Jay Clement

We can’t wait to see everyone back for the next in-person meeting, on Thursday, April 14. We also look forward to our upcoming virtual meeting on Thursday, March 31. Happy spring, everyone! 🙂

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!
As you may know, we create a new t-shirt every fall. Celebrating our global AUS community, we are thrilled to unveil our latest edition t-shirt, “Ukulele Around the World,” 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 via mail order. The new “Ukulele Around the World” design, “10th Anniversary,” Mermaid, Cowboy,” and “Austin Lasso” shirts are $20 – all other styles are $15. 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.

Happy Valentine’s Day to our wonderful ukulele community! 💓 Thank you for being part of our virtual meetings and sharing so much enthusiasm and positive feedback. Over 160 ukulele players from around the globe tuned in live at our February live-streamed meeting!

With our February meeting always near Valentine’s Day, we especially enjoy doing a song about love and this year was no different. After we began the evening with some ukulele news and our warm-up song – Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds” – we quickly turned our attention to the featured song Bob had prepared for us. We had a blast learning a song often mentioned as one of the top love songs of all time, the 1980’s mega-hit by Cyndi Lauper, “Time After Time.”

Bob performed the song to demonstrate his arrangement, and then he took us through helpful exercises to get comfortable with the chords, chord changes, strum styles and picking options. He shared many tips and tricks, and by the time we put the song together, we all had learned a lot and felt confident in our playing. After playing it through twice, we played Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again.” 🙂

As always, we owe Lyda our appreciation for managing the presentation during the meeting and Jen for moderating the live chat/comments.

You can download the lyrics, chords, and tab for “Time After Time,” or download a copy of the presentation and instruction guide, including exercises and drills. You can also watch a replay of the February 10 live stream. Watch the entire show or jump to the part you most want to see!
    ● Welcome and announcements
    ● “Three Little Birds” warm-up song
    ● Bob’s “Time After Time” tutorial
    ● “On the Road Again” closing song
    ● Bob’s demo video of “Time After Time”.

Before saying goodnight, we premiered the group video of our January song “Happy Together,” expertly edited by Marty Porter and mixed by Paul Butler. Thanks to Jen Richardson for skillfully coordinating communications with all the participants. Gratitude and congratulations to every one of our very talented participants: Gary Adair, Heiko Andresen, Vany Anyc, Shelly Benjamin, Patrice Bovero, Susan Burke, Todd Bushlow, Paul Butler, Linda Christensen, Pam Ellis, Victor Erickson, Ina Ferrara, Pauline & Vince Forbes, Shel Fung, Bob Guz, Sherry Hall, Sandy Johnson, Gail Johnson, Sue Kaneko, Arlene Krassner, Ann Kuehnel, Anne Langford, Errol Lipschitz, Andrew Matlaga, Irene Messina, Marino Michelazzi, Thomas Mroz, Emily Grace Nalley, Ann Peters, Jean Pollack, Leslie Poppen, Kim Prezio, Sabine Putz, Jerry Raihl, Katherine Repogle, Jen Richardson, Darrell Rose, Al Saloha, Martha Schreffler, Alan Smith, Rafaela Carla Sousa, Becky Spargo, Robin Starling, Paula Taylor, Denise Tecchio, Andy Tyerman, Cindy Walker, and Cathy Whalen. It’s amazing! Check it out:

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

We look forward to seeing local friends at the in-person meeting on Thursday, March 10, and seeing all of you back on the Austin Ukulele Society’s YouTube channel for the March 31 virtual meeting. Be well and keep strumming. 🙂

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!
As you may know, we create a new t-shirt every fall. Celebrating our global AUS community, we are thrilled to unveil our latest edition t-shirt, “Ukulele Around the World,” 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 via mail order. The new “Ukulele Around the World” design, “10th Anniversary,” Mermaid, Cowboy,” and “Austin Lasso” shirts are $20 – all other styles are $15. 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.

If you don’t already follow this website, why not take a moment to click on the “Follow Austin Ukulele Society” button? We’d really appreciate it! It’s in the right margin, just under the “Like us on Facebook” button and looks just like this: .

By following our website, you’ll always be kept up-to-date with the latest meeting announcements and other Austin Ukulele Society news. Thank you so much!

The Austin Ukulele Society was thrilled to kick off its 12TH YEAR with ukulele friends from Australia, Brazil, England, Canada, Germany, and nearly half the states in the U.S.! While we look forward to getting back to meeting in person soon, Bob and Jen truly enjoy the virtual AUS meeting experience with all of you. Thank you for being there and making music with us!

Our first meeting of each year is often full of ‘new year’ energy, for many reasons, including resolutions to play more or learn to play ukulele (of course!), Santa Claus putting new ukuleles under the tree, etc. Therefore, we typically pick an upbeat, well-known and infectious song to kick the year off right. This year was no different, and we had a blast learning the Turtles’ timeless and well-loved classic hit rock tune, “Happy Together.”

Our meeting kicked off with local ukulele news and with our favorite warm-up song, Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.” Then Bob G. beautifully performed his terrific arrangement of The Turtles’ “Happy Together” for us. He broke down the song into helpful exercises, to help us gain confidence with all parts – even the daunting Bb chord. 🙂

We had fun harmonizing, strumming, picking and, of course, learning lots from Bob. We put the song all together and enjoyed playing it through a couple of times. To finish up the eve, we played Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again” and enjoyed some of our amazing collaborative videos (produced by Marty Porter) from the past 20+ virtual meetings!

As always, we owe Lyda our appreciation for managing the presentation during the meeting and Jen for moderating the live chat/comments.

You can download the lyrics, chords, and tab for “Happy Together,” or download a copy of the presentation and instruction guide, including exercises and drills. You can also watch a replay of the January 13 live stream. Watch the entire show or jump to the part you most want to see!
    ● Welcome and announcements
    ● “Three Little Birds” warm-up song
    ● Bob’s “Happy Together” tutorial
    ● “On the Road Again” closing song
    ● Bob’s demo video of “Happy Together”.

We will keep you posted about our February 10 meeting’s ‘in-person‘ or ‘virtual‘ status, and we’ll be sure to have one of each should we get to meet in person – so stay tuned and subscribed on the Austin Ukulele Society’s YouTube channel . Be well and keep strumming until 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!
As you may know, we create a new t-shirt every fall. Celebrating our global AUS community, we are thrilled to unveil our latest edition t-shirt, “Ukulele Around the World,” 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 via mail order. The new “Ukulele Around the World” design, “10th Anniversary,” Mermaid, Cowboy,” and “Austin Lasso” shirts are $20 – all other styles are $15. 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.

If you don’t already follow this website, why not take a moment to click on the “Follow Austin Ukulele Society” button? We’d really appreciate it! It’s in the right margin, just under the “Like us on Facebook” button and looks just like this: .

By following our website, you’ll always be kept up-to-date with the latest meeting announcements and other Austin Ukulele Society news. Thank you so much!