The Austin Ukulele Society’s September meeting warmly welcomed friends from near and far, regulars and first-timers, and experienced players and beginners to our lovely space at St. John’s UMC. We kicked off the evening with some local uke news including the upcoming the Uke Stars concert as well as introductions.

This month, we learned to sing and strum the rock ‘n’ roll classic, “Handle With Care.” It was a 1988 global hit by one of the greatest supergroups of all time, the Traveling Wilburys. Composed of British and American all-stars including George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Roy Orbison and Jeff Lynne, Traveling Wilburys made two terrific albums and we thoroughly enjoyed playing this tune!

After we played our warm-up song, Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds,” Bob G. played through his lovely arrangement of “Handle With Care.” Then he taught each component of the song, including the chords, chord progressions, strum styles, picking options, and vocal harmonies.

We enjoyed practicing each part and ultimately putting it together to play through. We sounded better and better with each practice!

The group took a break from their learning to enjoy the talented open mic participants. We were delighted by a terrific variety of covers from Walter Minkel, Angela Morris and mom and daughter duo “Like Mother, Like Daughter” (Kelly and Kimberly).

After, we resumed work on “Handle With Care” a bit more. We were sounding even better, so we made a recording of it. We hope you’ll enjoy playing along with us on our YouTube channel. 🙂

To play along, you can download the lyrics, chords, and tab for Bob’s arrangement of “Handle With Care” 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 immensely grateful to Aaron for his accompaniment on U-bass and to Jen, Lyda and all the AUS volunteers, for their hard work.

We look forward to seeing you soon and especially at our Thursday, October 10, in-person meeting at St. John’s United Methodist Church. 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.

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 2024: the “AUS Grackle 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 Grackle Ukulele” design, “”Classic Ukulele” 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 delighted to host a friendly group of 130+ ukulele players from near and far. We truly enjoy hosting our quarterly(ish) virtual meetings on a ‘fourth’ Thursday of the month. 🙂

During this event, we revisited a song we learned at an in-person meeting way back in 2015: the infectious hit from 1968 by British band The Foundations, “Build Me Up Buttercup.” We enjoyed learning to sing and strum this timeless hit that still gets plenty of airplay in pop culture and on the radio. 💓

Bob kicked off the evening with a little local ukulele news and reminders that donations of any amount are always appreciated to help keep the AUS running smoothly and free for ages to come. He introduced our good friend Evan Kolvoord, who sat in on behalf of Lyda, and also reminded folks that AUS co-founder Jen Richardson was moderating the chat.

Bob then demonstrated his great rendition of “Build Me Up Buttercup” before teaching his detailed educational tutorial of the song. We had a great time learning to play the various chords and chord progressions with tips to make these easier. It was also great learning more about the swingy feel of the song, the strum style, and a picking option. We enjoyed the vocal options and practicing the components of the song, before we put it together and played it through a couple of times (we sounded great!). 🙂 Your questions and feedback were much appreciated throughout the workshop-style meeting!

We then played Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again” and spent a little more time in the meeting chat while we watched a few AUS videos together.

You can download the song sheet for “Build Me Up Buttercup” to play along, or download a copy of the presentation and instruction guide, including exercises and drills.

You can also watch a replay of the August 22 live stream. Watch the entire show or jump to the part you most want to see!

As always, we love to give to a shout out to AUS co-founder Jen Richardson, who moderated the chat with finesse through the evening and to Evan Kolvoord, who skillfully managed the presentation slides and joined in on the vocal harmonies. Thanks Evan!!

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

We hope you’ll be back to join us again at our next virtual meeting on Thursday, October 24, 2024. Also, note that you are always welcome to visit us in person at our “second Thursday” in-person meetings in Austin. 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.

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.

On a balmy Thursday evening, the Austin Ukulele Society’s August meeting got off to a great start with local ukulele news and introductions. We also warmed up our voices, fingers and hearts with our traditional opening tune, Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.”

We love learning to strum, pick, and harmonize songs from a variety of artists and musical genres, and this month was no different. We covered a modern classic by an immensely popular ‘boy band’: The Backstreet Boys’ 1999 megahit “I Want It That Way.”

Bob introduced us to his arrangement of “I Want It That Way” by playing it through beautifully. We then got to work, learning the strum patterns, picking, and harmonizing, with Bob’s helpful tutorial and instruction.

It was a lot of fun getting to know this terrific song, and we sounded great when we put it all together!

We took a break to enjoy the wonderful talent of our open mic participants, Ronald and Rich.

Afterward, we played through “I Want It That Way” and as we got better and better at it, we recorded ourselves in a video, coming soon to our YouTube channel. We hope you enjoy it and play along with us from home!  🙂

To play along, you can download the lyrics, chords, and tab for Bob’s arrangement of “I Want It That Way” 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 immensely grateful to Aaron for his accompaniment on U-bass and to Jen, Lyda and all the AUS volunteers, for their hard work.

We’ll see you again in person on September 14, at St. John’s United Methodist Church. Plus, we’re looking forward to our next virtual meeting, on our YouTube Channel, on Thursday, August 22. 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.

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 2024: the “AUS Grackle 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 Grackle Ukulele” design, “”Classic Ukulele” 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 welcomed locals, regulars, first-timers, and visitors from as far as England and Iowa, bringing in a terrific turnout of nearly 150 uke players for our July meeting! The mood was extra festive as many folks turned out in tropical attire for our summery Beach Boys new-to-us tune!

We kicked off the meeting with local ukulele news and introductions. Then we warmed up our voices, fingers and hearts with Bob Marley’s always optimistic “Three Little Birds.”

Since we are in the in the heart of summer here in the heart of Texas, it was the perfect time to learn a song with summer/island vacation vibes. So we were excited to strum and harmonize on the The Beach Boys’ 1988 smash hit, “Kokomo” and thoroughly enjoyed “getting away from it all” with you!

Bob played through his excellent arrangement of “Kokomo,” and we got a feel for what we’d be playing. Bob then took us through helpful exercises to learn the chords, chord transitions, strum and picking options, and vocal harmonies. It was great learning this infectiously poppy tune, and we sounded great when we played it through.

Taking a break to enjoy a pair of wonderful open mic performances by Ellie and Leta and Bob Guz himself was a lovely interlude in our song practice.

We got back to playing “Kokomo” and got better and better at it, so we made a recording!  Look for a video of our performance coming soon to our YouTube channel. Please enjoy playing along with us from your home.  🙂

To play along, you can download the lyrics, chords, and tab for Bob’s arrangement of “Kokomo” 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’re looking forward to our next in-person meeting on Thursday, August 8 (at St. John’s United Methodist Church), as well as our virtual meeting on Thursday, August 22 (on our YouTube Channel). 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.

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 2024: the “AUS Grackle 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 Grackle Ukulele” design, “”Classic Ukulele” 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.

At our June meeting, ukulele players of all ages and stages and from places near and far, gathered to make music together! We were very excited to meet at our new home at St. John’s United Methodist Church, and we were thrilled to have 150+ participants this past Thursday. This was our largest number for in person attendance since February 2020!

After we did our introductions, we shared local ukulele news, including our upcoming ukulele Open Mic Happy Hour at Kick Butt Coffee on Saturday, June 22, from 4:00-6:00. We’re looking forward to seeing you there! Then we warmed up our hearts and voices with Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.”

This month we learned our second tune by one of New Jersey’s best gifts to rock and pop music: Bon Jovi. We rocked out on 2000’s “It’s My Life,” a top 10 hit in several countries and Bon Jovi’s most-viewed video (nearly 1.5 billion views!). This infectious rock anthem gets plenty of airplay to this day, and we had a blast strumming, picking, and singing it!

Bob performed “It’s My Life,” to demonstrate his great ukulele arrangement. Next, he taught us each part of the song, getting us comfortable with the chords, strums, muting, chord progressions, picking and vocal harmonies. When we played the song through a couple of times, we sounded very good!

We took a break to enjoy fantastic open mic performances by Kathlyne, Kaia, and Sho Humphries, who all shared terrific, creative covers with us!

We got back to practicing “It’s My Life,” and we got better and better at it, so we recorded a video we’ll soon be sharing with you on our YouTube channel. We hope you’ll play along with us from home! Please know you’re always welcome to visit us in Austin and join us on the second Thursday of the month for our in-person meetings.

To play along, you can download the lyrics, chords, and tab for Bob’s arrangement of “It’s My 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).

Thanks and see you on July 11 at St. John’s United Methodist Church! Until then, 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.

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 2024: the “AUS Grackle 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 Grackle Ukulele” design, “”Classic Ukulele” 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 (AUS) and its extended ukulele family around the world enjoyed an evening together at our May 23rd virtual meeting. We loved hearing from the about 150 of you signing in from various places like Singapore, Spain, Canada, Grand Bahama Island, Germany, Australia, and all over the U.S. We appreciate all of the kind sentiments from those who joined the livestream or watched the recording afterward.

During this event, we revisited a song we learned at an in-person meeting way back in 2012: the English version of Pablo Beltrán Ruiz’s timeless classic “Sway.” This song was written in 1953 and is a pop standard famously covered by many artists over the years, including Dean Martin in 1954 and Michael Bublé in 2003. We loved taking a deep dive into this tune. 💓

We kicked off the evening by warming up with Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds” and sharing some Austin-local uke news, including our upcoming workshop with Sho H. on June 20 and our Kick Butt Ukulele Open Mic on June 22. We hope you’ll join us for those great events as well as our in-person meeting on Thursday June 13, if you’re here in town!

Bob performed “Sway” to demonstrate his arrangement and then took us through some helpful exercises to get comfortable with the chords, chord progressions, strum styles, picking options, and more. Bob patiently worked with us, in particular, on the chuck and fan strum. We had a great time learning and challenging ourselves. By the time we played “Sway” through a couple of times, we all had a new trick or two we could add to our playing styles.

We then played Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again” and spent a little more time in the meeting chat with Bob, Lyda and Jen, while we watched a few AUS videos together.

You can download the song sheet for “Sway” to play along, or download a copy of the presentation and instruction guide, including exercises and drills.

You can also watch a replay of the May 23 live stream. Watch the entire show or jump to the part you most want to see!

As always, we love to give to a shout out to AUS co-founder Jen Richardson, who moderated the chat with finesse through the evening and to Lyda Guz, who skillfully managed the presentation slides.

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

It was a great evening, and we look forward to our next virtual meeting on Thursday, August 22, at 7:00pm US Central Daylight Time. Be well and we’ll see you then!  🙂

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.

The May in-person meeting of the Austin Ukulele Society was full of terrific energy and spirit, as we celebrated the first meeting in our new home, St. John’s United Methodist Church. Thank you for making it extra special by attending and giving us positive feedback! What a wonderful place to kick off our next chapter!

After we did our introductions, we shared local ukulele news, including our next ukulele Open Mic Happy Hour at Kick Butt Coffee on Saturday, June 22, from 3:30-6:30. Mark your calendars!

We then warmed up our fingers and voices with Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.”

For the month of May, we paid tribute to native Texan Buddy Holly, who left an indelible mark on rock-n-roll. Though we lost Holly sixty-five years ago at the age of 22 in a plane crash, his legacy and influence are unending. Bob crafted a terrific medley of two of Holly’s biggest hits – “Everyday” and “Rave On.” We really enjoyed strumming and singing these rock-n-roll classics!

Bob performed his terrific arrangement of the Buddy Holly medley and took us through helpful exercises so we could get comfortable with the strum patterns, the chords and chord progressions, and the finger picking options. We had a great time getting comfortable with the components of the songs and even more fun when we got to rock out and play through the medley a couple of times!

We took a short break to enjoy the talents of our open mic performers. Jay, Jack, Paul and Daniel all performed creative, excellent covers of classic tunes that had the audience singing along!

We continued practicing our Buddy Holly medley, getting better and better at it! We recorded our performance of “Everyday / Rave On” for you to enjoy and play along with at home. Look for the video coming soon to our YouTube channel. We hope you’ll enjoy playing along with us! 🙂

To play along, you can download the lyrics, chords, and tab for Bob’s arrangement of the “Everyday / Rave On” 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).

Looking forward to ‘seeing’ you at our virtual meeting on Thursday, May 23, and our next in-person meeting June 13 at St. John’s Methodist Church. See you then! 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.

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 2024: the “AUS Grackle 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 Grackle Ukulele” design, “”Classic Ukulele” 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 April meeting of the Austin Ukulele Society was an extra special one, and we’re so glad you were part of it! We’re grateful to all of our regular participants as well as our numerous special visitors, like Jochen and Kersten from Germany, Peter and Donna Thomas from Santa Cruz, CA, Vicky from Florida, and many others.

To kick off our evening, we shared local ukulele news – including our own! We’re moving our meetings to St. John’s United Methodist Church, located at 2140 Allandale Rd, Austin, TX 78756. We’ll meet in the church’s Great Hall on the second floor, starting with our May 9th meeting. Please join our mailing list if you’re not already on it, to be kept up-to-date on all of the details!

After sharing the news, we warmed up our fingers and voices with Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.”

To celebrate Austin being in the Path of Totality for the recent eclipse, our featured song this month was the timeless Pink Floyd classic “Brain Damage / Eclipse.” Bob performed his arrangement for us, to give us a great example of what we’d be learning, before he launched into helpful exercises.

Bob taught us the chord progressions, the tab options, the strum styles, and some harmonizing opportunities, too. When we put the song together to play it through, we were feeling and sounding good!

We took a break to enjoy some terrific open mic performances. Jochen and Kerstin (Los Penúltimos Ukuleles), Peter Thomas, and Spence all gave enjoyable performances! We truly appreciate them for sharing their talent with us!

After the open mic session, we got back to work on our Pink Floyd tune and got better and better with some additional practice. We recorded our performance of “Brain Damage / Eclipse” for you to enjoy and play along with at home. Look for the video coming soon to our YouTube channel. We hope you’ll enjoy playing along with us! 🙂

To play along with us, you can download the lyrics, chords, and tab for Bob’s arrangement of “Brain Damage / Eclipse” 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’re looking forward to our May 9 meeting at St. John’s Methodist Church – we’ll see you there! 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.

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 2024: the “AUS Grackle 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 Grackle Ukulele” design, “”Classic Ukulele” 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 truly great March meeting! It was made extra fabulous by 12 vibrant and energetic Galveston Ukulele Society (GUS) members joining us, as well as first timers from as far as Wisconsin and California, friends we hadn’t seen in a while, and so many wonderful regulars as well. To kick off the evening, we introduced ourselves and Bob shared some local ukulele news, including some exciting info: after more than a decade at Memorial United Methodist Church, we will be changing our meeting location to St. John’s United Methodist Church, effective our May 9th meeting. More details will be shared on this soon, so please join our mailing list if you’re not on it already!

At this meeting, we learned to strum and sing Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For?”, which she and her brother wrote for the film “Barbie.” It won Grammy Awards for Song of the Year and Best Song Written for Visual Media, as well as the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

Bob shared some details about our featured song and gave us a terrific performance of his arrangement. He then took us through his presentation, where he broke down each part of the song via short lessons, to help us get comfortable with the strum patterns, chord progressions, tab and more.

We took a break for the open mic portion of the evening, where the Galveston Ukulele Society, Jana, Rodger, and Bruce treated us to terrific performances. We’re so grateful to them for sharing their talent with us!

After the open mic session, we got back to work on “What Was I Made For?” and got better and better with thoughtful instruction from Bob as well as practice. We recorded our performance for you to enjoy and play along with at home. Look for the video coming soon to our YouTube channel. We hope you’ll enjoy playing along with us! 🙂

To play along with us, you can download the lyrics, chords, and tab for Bob’s arrangement of “What Was I Made 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).

Have a great start to spring, and we’ll look forward to seeing you at our April 11th meeting at Memorial United Methodist Church. Be well and keep strumming till then! 🙂

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 2024: the “AUS Grackle 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 Grackle Ukulele” design, “”Classic Ukulele” 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’s first virtual meeting of 2024 was a terrific success! We truly enjoyed having 170+ participants from all over the globe in attendance during the livestream, and we appreciate all of the kind sentiments from those who joined the livestream and/or watched the recording afterward.

During this event, we revisited TWO great songs from the our repertoire. Both are terrific American standards that you are likely to sing along with right away: “L-O-V-E” (made famous by Nat King Cole) and “Fly Me To the Moon” (as performed by Frank Sinatra). 💓

The evening started off with some local ukulele news, introductions of Jen and Lyda, and sharing the agenda for the evening. Then we played our tradition warm-up song, “Three Little Birds.”

Bob demonstrated “L-O-V-E” and took us through each part of the song, including the chords, strums and chord progressions. We had a lovely time putting it all together to play through a couple of times. Then Bob gave us his all with “Fly Me to the Moon,” including teaching us a little about chord melodies. Everyone loved playing and singing these two American standards together.

We then played Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again” and closed out the evening by sharing some of the Austin Ukulele Society videos (both collaborations produced by Marty Porter and Paul Butler) as well as the videos Bob has produced from the AUS meetings. It was nice to have a chance to ‘chat’ during theses videos and close out the evening in a lovely manner.

You can download the song sheet for “L-O-V-E” to play along, or download a copy of the presentation and instruction guide, including exercises and drills. Also download the song sheet for “Fly Me To the Moon” or a copy of the presentation and instruction guide, including all of its exercises and drills.

You can also watch a replay of the February 22 live stream. Watch the entire show or jump to the part you most want to see!

As always, we love to give to a shout out to AUS co-founder Jen Richardson, who moderated the chat with finesse through the evening and to Lyda Guz, who skillfully managed the presentation slides.

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

We look forward to seeing many of you at our next in-person meeting, on Thursday, March 14. We look forward to visiting with you all at our next virtual meeting, on Thursday, May 23. Be well and keep strumming till then.  🙂

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.