On the eve before Valentine’s Day, about 160 members of the Austin Ukulele Society joined together to spread a beautiful and global message of love by learning the Bacharach/David-penned classic “What the World Needs Now is Love.” It’s a lovely song that has been recorded by a number of famous singers, topped charts around the globe and has also been featured in films. Jackie DeShannon was the first to have a big hit with it, in 1965.

We kicked off the evening with introductions and welcomed our first timers and visitors from far and wide. To warm up our fingers and voices, we played Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.” Then Bob G. led the group in exercises to help us learn the chord progressions, strumming and picking options and vocal harmonies of our featured song. When we played through the song together, we sounded better and better each time. As always, we owe a special thanks to Aaron Lewis’ help on the U-bass! We hope you enjoy our performance here:

To play along with us, you can download the lyrics and chords for our arrangement of “What the World Needs Now Is 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).

 
Our open mic performance section was full of incredible talent, as usual! We were delighted by Marty’s cover of “You Belong to Me,” TUG’s PSA offering of “NyQuil Blues,” Kathy and the Kilowatts Duo on “I Like It Like That,” Bill’s instrumental original, and Michelle and Teigen’s great cover of Lenka’s “The Show.” We are grateful to all of you for sharing your music with us.

Clockwise from top left: Michelle and Teigen, Tuesday Ukulele Group (TUG), Bill, Kathy and the Kilowatts Duo, Marty

We look forward to seeing everyone at the Ukulele Open Mic on Saturday 2/22 at Kick Butt Cafe, and we look forward to our next monthly meeting on Thursday, March 12! 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!
As you may know, we release a new Austin Ukulele Society t-shirt design each year. Our latest edition was created, as usual, by the talented Lyda Guz and screen-printed right here in Austin at a fantastic locally-owned print shop! It’s available in charcoal heather cotton/poly blend in mens/unisex, womens, and kids styles.

These new “Austin Lasso” shirts are $20. They are available at our meetings or Contact Us if you would like to have one mailed to you!

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!

On January 9 over 150 ukulele players joined together to kick off the 10th year of monthly Austin Ukulele Society meetings in terrific style! We had a wonderful time, with a few friends who’d been present at our very first meeting in January 2011, as well as many friends we’ve come to know over the years, plus first-timers and visitors from afar. We thank you, as always, for your warmth and enthusiasm, your strumming and your singing, and affection for our favorite 4-string instrument.

We always like to kick off the year with a very popular and well known classic hit, and Culture Club’s 1983 chart-topper “Karma Chameleon” is a great pick. After introductions, sharing local ukulele updates, and warming up with Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds,” Bob G. performed “Karma Chameleon” to demonstrate his arrangement. He then took the group through some helpful exercises, so we could learn the chord progressions, strumming pattern, picking options, and vocal harmonies. We worked hard and sounded great when we put the song together and played it through. It was an especially wonderful addition having Aaron Lewis on Ubass and Cynthia Sadler on percussion. Check out our performance here:

To play along with us, you can download the lyrics and chords for our arrangement of “Karma Chameleon” 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 truly enjoyed some excellent open mic participants. Darryl backed up by Sweet Tea, Al (all the way from Stillwater, OK), Sho, Rodger and Rich all gave us beautiful and creative renditions of a variety of songs.

Clockwise from top left: Darryl and Sweet Tea, Al, Rich, Rodger and Sho

We look forward to seeing you all again on Thursday, February 13, for our next monthly meeting – and at our Ukulele Open Mic Happy Hour on Saturday, February 22, at Kick Butt Coffee! 🙂

 
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 release a new Austin Ukulele Society t-shirt design each year. Our latest edition was created, as usual, by the talented Lyda Guz and screen-printed right here in Austin at a fantastic locally-owned print shop! It’s available in charcoal heather cotton/poly blend in mens/unisex, womens, and kids styles.

These new “Austin Lasso” shirts are $20. They are available at our meetings or Contact Us if you would like to have one mailed to you!

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!

On a beautiful but chilly December evening, the Austin Ukulele Society celebrated its ninth annual Holiday Potluck and Strum-a-long, at the High Road on Dawson. We enjoyed sharing delicious food, desserts, and beverages, while mingling with friends old and new. We got our ukuleles out and played some of the wonderful Christmas tunes we’ve learned over the years. A wonderful evening of music! Many thanks to Jay Clement, who joined in on U-bass.

We are so grateful for the wonderful year we’ve had, making great music with our Austin-area ukulele friends and visitors from many places. We wish everyone peace, love, and joy through the holiday season!

 
We enjoyed a terrific display of open mic performances, with some great holiday song renditions, originals and creative covers. The performers included Dave Smith, a lovely debut by Uku Girls Meet Hula Girl, Jack Pott, Cranius Astounding, Mary Jane Ford, Jay Clement, Walter Minkel, Barry Bramhall and Sho & Shin Humphries. So much talent was shared, and we truly appreciate it!

Clockwise from top left: Dave Smith, Jack Pott, Cranius Astounding, Jay Clement

Clockwise from top left: Uku Girls Meet Hula Girl, Barry Bramhall, Walter Minkel, Sho & Shin Humphries, Mary Jane Ford

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Download the 2019 Edition of the Austin Ukulele Society Holiday Songbook! It includes charts for all of the joyous Christmas and wintry-themed songs belong in a condensed format designed to eliminate page turns when printed two-sided. See charts, presentations and video performances for each individual song below. Enjoy!

We wish everyone a wonderful holiday season and a happy start to 2020!! We’ll see you at our regular meeting on Thursday, January 9, as we kick off the 10th year of the Austin Ukulele Society! 🙂

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 Make Fantastic Gifts!
As you may know, we release a new Austin Ukulele Society t-shirt design each Fall. We are thrilled to reveal our 2019 edition, as usual created by the talented Lyda Guz and screen-printed right here in Austin at a fantastic locally-owned print shop! Available in charcoal heather cotton/poly blend in mens/unisex, womens, and kids styles.

These new “Austin Lasso” shirts are $20. They are available at our meetings or Contact Us if you would like to have one mailed to you!

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!

On a chilly November evening, around 150 members of the Austin Ukulele Society created plenty of warmth and cheer as they gathered to sing and play ukulele together. After sharing some local ukulele news, introducing ourselves and welcoming visitors, we played Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds,” as we always do, to kick off our musical time together. As is our habit at our November monthly meeting, we learned to sing and strum a holiday favorite together. This year, we enjoyed paying tribute to Mariah Carey’s modern-day classic, “All I Want For Christmas Is You.”

First, Bob demonstrated his arrangement for us by performing it. Then he led the group through some very helpful exercises, to get us comfortable with the strum pattern, chord progressions, picking options, and vocal harmonies. We sounded better and better as we played each part and then the song in its entirety. We are grateful to Aaron Lewis on U-bass for helping us keep the rhythm. We hope our performance gets you in the holiday spirit — check it out:

To play along with us, you can download the lyrics and chords for our arrangement of “All I Want For Christmas Is 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).

 
As always, we were thrilled to enjoy the talents of our open mic performances. Kevin Carroll and his Ukestra treated us to a Scottish instrumental piece, Bob and Jay did a great cover of the Beatles’ “Two of Us,” Rodger performed a ukulele classic from “Blue Hawaii,” and we were very pleased to welcome Pastor Cynthia to the stage for her first time ever, as she did a fabulous cover of R.E.M.’s “It’s the End of the World as We Know It.”

Clockwise from top left: Jay and Bob, Cynthia, Rodger, Kevin Carroll and the Ukestra

We hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving, and we look forward to seeing everyone at our 9th Annual Holiday Strum-a-long and Potluck on Thursday, December 12, at the High Road on Dawson. More details coming soon! 🙂

 
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 Make Fantastic Gifts!
As you may know, we release a new Austin Ukulele Society t-shirt design each Fall. We are thrilled to reveal our 2019 edition, as usual created by the talented Lyda Guz and screen-printed right here in Austin at a fantastic locally-owned print shop! Available in charcoal heather cotton/poly blend in mens/unisex, womens, and kids styles.

These new “Austin Lasso” shirts are $20. They are available at our meetings or Contact Us if you would like to have one mailed to you!

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 had a howling good time at our Halloween-spirited October meeting! We started off the evening with introductions, local ukulele news and performance info, and our warm up song, Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.” We took time to admire the great costumes that many members wore. We were especially pleased to have several “Little Red Riding Hoods” and a big, bad wolf or two in the room as we got ready to learn a spooky hit from the 1960’s that pays tribute to the classic, dark fairy tale: Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs’ “Li’l Red Riding Hood.”

Bob shared some information about his arrangement and played it through to demonstrate it. He took us through exercises that helped us get comfortable with the chord changes, the strumming patterns, the vocal syncopation and the harmonizing options. We learned a lot and got better and better as we practiced, and we hope you’ll enjoy the video of us performing the song for all of our YouTube friends around the world. We are so grateful to everyone who joined us for the fun and a special thanks to Aaron Lewis playing U-bass!

To play along with us, you can download the lyrics and chords for our arrangement of “Li’l Red Riding Hood” 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 had a fantastic time during the open mic portion of the evening, as several folks got up to play a terrific variety of tunes they’ve been working on. Walter, Vince (aka Superman), Vincent and Pauline, Jay, and Kaia contributed an impressive array of cover songs that we all loved. And to round out the open mic performances, the Grim Reaper (aka THE John Davenport) and the Devil (aka Sue) performed an appropriate and wonderful original by Death himself called “I Woke Up Dead.”

Clockwise from top left: Walter, Kaia, Jay, Vincent and Pauline, John and Sue, Vince

We always have a fabulous time at our monthly meetings and we all look forward to our next one, on Thursday, November 14. Please join us! 🙂

 
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!

New T-shirt Design!
As you may know, we release a new Austin Ukulele Society t-shirt design each Fall. We are thrilled to reveal our 2019 edition, as usual created by the talented Lyda Guz and screen-printed right here in Austin at a fantastic locally-owned print shop! Available in charcoal heather cotton/poly blend in mens/unisex, womens, and kids styles.

These new “Austin Lasso” shirts are $20. They are available at our meetings or Contact Us if you would like to have one mailed to you!

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 September Austin Ukulele Society meeting got off to a wonderful start with a visit from our friend Jacob Borshard who brought beautiful silk-screened posters and shared info about the upcoming Voyage to Uketania X: Uku-Beatle-ele-lele show Thursday, September 26, at the Sahara Lounge. After some introductions and additional ukulele news, we warmed up our fingers and voices with Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.”

With September 2019 being the 50th anniversary of the release of the Beatles’ iconic album Abbey Road, over 140 ukulele players from Austin (plus visitors from Dallas, Houston, Florida, and more!) learned to play an incredibly fun and catchy track from it, penned by Ringo Starr: “Octopus’s Garden.” Bob demonstrated his great arrangement for us and took us through some very helpful exercises, to get us comfortable with the strumming styles, the harmonizing options, and the picking part of the outro. After practicing each component, the group put it all together and got better and better with each run through. We hope you enjoy our tribute to Ringo Starr and the Beatles. We are so grateful to everyone who joined us for the September meeting and a special thanks to Aaron Lewis for his great U-bass playing!

To play along with us, you can download the lyrics and chords for our arrangement of “Octopus’s Garden” 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 had several wonderfully talented open mic participants. Alex performed a ballad he’d written as a teen, John performed a fun and bluesy tune he’d penned, and Bob graced us with a Beatles cover of “Please Please Me.”

Clockwise from top: Alex, Bob, John

As always, we look forward to our next meeting — see you on Thursday, October 10! 🙂

 
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!

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!

On a warm and muggy August evening, a group of 160+ ukulele enthusiasts joined to sing, strum, and learn together. The evening began with folks sharing local ukulele news and events, including a reminder about our upcoming ukulele open mic event at Kick Butt Cafe Saturday, August 17. We then quickly warmed up our voices and fingers with Bob Marley’s uplifting “Three Little Birds.”

This month, we learned to play and sing Passenger’s epic 2012 hit “Let Her Go.” Bob demonstrated the arrangement he’d prepared for us and explained the strum styles and the picking part. He led us through great exercises to help us learn the picking parts as well as the strumming and singing. The group got better and better with each practice! Together with Aaron Lewis’ terrific u-bass rhythm, we recorded “Let Her Go” to share with our YouTube community around the world. We hope you enjoy playing along with us as much as we enjoyed singing and strumming this one together.

To play along with us, you can download the lyrics and chords for our arrangement of “Let Her Go” 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 usual, the open mic performers wow’ed us with their talent and variety. For the first time, we had a song sung to us in German by our friend Sabine. She even provided the lyrics in case we wanted to sing along! John performed a moving original called “California,” Kathy and Bill did a killer version of the Beatles’ “She Was Just Seventeen,” Rich performed a stellar version of “Girl From Ipanema,” and Helen rocked out on a punk favorite of hers called “One Chalupa, One Enchilada.”

Clockwise from top left: Kathy and Bill, Sabine, Helen, Rich, John

As always, we look forward to our next meeting — see you on Thursday, September 12! 🙂

 
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!

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!