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!

A fantastic group of ukulele players from all over the Austin area – and beyond, including a visitor from Germany – got together on a warm, summer night, to sing and strum together. We kicked off the meeting with introductions and local ukulele news, including workshop opportunities, performance info, and a reminder about our upcoming ukulele open mic eve at Kick Butt Cafe on Saturday, August 17. Then we warmed up our hearts, voices and fingers by playing Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.”

Since summertime has undoubtedly arrived in central Texas, this month we learned to sing and strum a classic, up-tempo rock hit with a nostalgic summer theme: Canadian rocker Bryan Adam’s hugely popular 1984 hit “Summer of ’69.” After Bob previewed his arrangement, we launched into very helpful practices of the strum patterns, chord changes, and vocal styles using the great exercises Bob had prepared for us. When we put the song together and played it through a few times, we sounded terrific. We hope you’ll check out the video we recorded to share with our uke friends around the globe. Very special thanks to Jay Clement for his rockin’ accompaniment on U-bass!

To play along with us, you can download the lyrics and chords for our arrangement of “Summer of ’69” 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 were treated to a great variety of talent from our open mic participants. Helen, Iris, Rodger, Vince, and Sho & Shin all gave us fabulous renditions of the songs they’d been working on.

Clockwise from top left: Iris, Helen, Rodger, Sho & Shin, Vince

As always, we look forward to sharing our favorite night of the month together – see you on Thursday, August 8! 🙂

 
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!

The Austin Ukulele Society was pleased to host its June meeting for a wonderful group of ukulele-playing friends from far and wide. Our summer meetings are especially fun, as we find teachers and students who are too busy during the school year making time for our favorite hobby – strumming that uke and singing along! We began our meeting with local ukulele news, including announcing a fundraising workshop and concert to be presented by Bob Guz on Friday, July 26, and a reminder about our upcoming ukulele open mic eve at Kick Butt Cafe on Saturday, August 17. Then we warmed up by playing Bob Marley’s always uplifting “Three Little Birds.”

This month, we learned to sing and strum Carly Simon’s 1972 hit, You’re So Vain.” This great song has definitely stood the test of time in its popularity; it has been covered, sampled, used in films, and more over the years. Bob shared some details about his arrangement and played it through to give us a delightful example of what we’d be learning. Bob then took us through some helpful exercises to get us comfortable with the chord progressions, strum patterns, picking options and vocal harmonies. We put the song together and sounded better and better with each practice. We later recorded it for our YouTube friends around the world. We’d like to give a special thanks to Aaron Lewis for his excellent accompaniment on U-bass – it always enhances our uke performance but was especially nice for providing the rhythm on “You’re So Vain.”

To play along with us, you can download the lyrics and chords for our arrangement of “You’re So Vain” 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 portion of the evening we enjoyed the talented brothers Sho and Shin on a great duet, while Marie (with baby Zia) performed a clever original, and Jay did an excellent tribute to Leon Redbone. As always, we’re so thankful to our open mic performers for sharing their craft with us.

 
We can’t wait to see you all on Thursday, July 11, for our next 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!

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 stormy May evening, approximately 150 friendly musicians gathered to enjoy strumming their favorite four-stringed instrument. As usual, we welcomed a delightful mix of members who have been attending our meetings since 2011 along with first-time guests visiting from as far as California and Florida. We got started with some ukulele-related announcements and introductions and then quickly moved into our warm up song (Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.”)

This month, we learned to sing and strum a huge early-1990s hit, made even more popular by its critically acclaimed music video: R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion.” The mandolin riff on which the song is built translates really well to the ukulele! Bob told us a little about his arrangement for this song and gave us a great solo live demo to boot. He led us through very helpful exercises for learning the chord progressions, strumming patterns, picking part options and vocal harmonies. When we put the song together and practiced it, we sounded better and better each time through. We recorded it for our YouTube friends around the world – we hope you enjoy it!

To play along with us, you can download the lyrics and chords for our arrangement of “Losing My Religion” 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 enjoyed the excellent offerings of our talented open mic participants for the evening! Bertie gave us a great rendition of “Sentimental Journey,” Helen rocked us with the Meat Puppets’ “Backwater,” and Rich crooned and strummed a great version of Sinatra’s “Young at Heart” (as tribute to his own recent birthday and Kevin Jolly’s recent retirement).

 
We’re looking forward, as always, to our next meeting! See you all on Thursday, June 13, at 7:00pm! 🙂

 
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!

The Austin Ukulele Society was thrilled to host its 100th consecutive, always free and open to everyone, monthly meeting on April 11th, 2019, with over 200 members of our ukulele community in attendance! In addition to having in-person friends who drove from as far as Friendswood, TX, we were delighted to expand the horizons of our meeting’s attendance by live streaming part of the meeting, for the first time ever. An additional 59 ukulele friends from far and wide, joined us virtually via our YouTube channel – and played along with us on our warm up song, Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.” You can watch a recording of the live streaming event on YouTube.

To commemorate our journey to 100 meetings, we learned one of the most inspirational hits of all time: Journey’s 1981 classic “Don’t Stop Believin’.” Bob led us through some very helpful exercises and drills so that the group could get comfortable with the chord progressions, strumming styles, picking options and harmonies. We sounded better and better each time we played the song through. The added enhancements of Bob’s solo and Aaron Lewis’ u-bass playing truly added some magic to our interpretation of Journey’s epic tune. We appreciate all of the positive feedback from our YouTube ukulele friends!

To play along with us, you can download the lyrics and chords for our arrangement of “Don’t Stop Believin'” 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’re very grateful to our amazing open mic participants. Sho and Shin did a great Stevie Ray Vaughan cover, while Walter wowed us on a uke and kazoo version of a nearly-100-old-song tune. Jay did a rousing cover of the Beatles’ “Come Together” and welcomed plenty of audience participation. Kathy and Bill payed tribute to a dear friend and musician on an original song written by Kathy. Victoria performed a beautiful arrangement of Pink Floyd’s “Is There Anybody Out There” on guitalele.

 
We hope that you’ll all join us for our next meeting, on Thursday, May 9th! 🙂

 
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 beautiful and breezy spring evening, ukulele players both local to Austin and visiting from points all around the U.S. for SXSW or spring break, participated in the wonderful music community that makes up the Austin Ukulele Society. Folks enjoyed getting to know each other before we kicked off the meeting with introducing ourselves, sharing local ukulele events and playing our warm up song (Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.”) Our Bob G. then jumped into demonstrating our arrangement of Florence + the Machine’s 2015 infectious hit, “Ship to Wreck.” He took the group through helpful exercises for each section of the song, getting us comfortable with the strum pattern, chord progressions, picking parts, vocal styles and harmonizing options. When we played the song through, our playing and voices were melodic and strong.

To play along with us, you can download the lyrics and chords for our arrangement of “Ship To Wreck” 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, we took a break to enjoy some very talented friends share the songs they’d prepared for the open mic portion of the evening. A huge thanks to Rich, Dave, Emma and Rodger for playing beautiful renditions of songs we could all appreciate.

 
We look forward to seeing you all at our 100th meeting on Thursday, April 11th! 🙂

 
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!