Greetings, friends! Our next monthly meeting is fast approaching! On Thursday, November 12, 7:00–9:00pm, we’ll meet again at St. John’s United Methodist Church, located at 2140 Allandale Rd, Austin, TX 78756.

At St. John’s, parking is available on both the Wynona Ave. and White Rock Dr. sides of the church. You can also park in the Lamar Middle School lots across White Rock Dr. from the church. Street parking is available all along Wynona Ave. The entrance is on the Wynona Ave. side of the church.

As is our tradition in November, we’ll get the delightful holiday spirit going by learning to sing and strum a medley of holiday waltzes. “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” and “Christmas Don’t Be Late” (also known as “The Chipmunk Song”) are two classics from the late 50’s/early 60’s. Like most great holiday tunes, they’re as timeless and popular as ever!

“It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” has been covered by dozens of artists, but Bob relied on its first popular recording, by Andy Williams in 1963. This recording starts in D, then modulates to Eb. Alvin and the Chipmunks’ 1958 recording of “Christmas Don’t be Late” is in Ab. Bob brought both tunes into the key of C for ease of playing. He also has made some changes to “It’s The Most…” to be a better fit for the medley and us.

Here are some details about Bob’s song sheet:

• Pages 1-3 have the chords and lyrics.
• Page 4 has a description of the main strum pattern, with simplified alternatives.
• Page 4 also has tab for a picking part that can be played during the song’s Intro and Interlude.

As always, we encourage you to familiarize yourself with the song by using Bob’s song sheet, Andy Williams’ 1963 recording of “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” and Alvin and the Chipmunks’ 1958 recording of “Christmas Don’t be Late” – before the 12th, if possible. 🙂

At the meeting, Bob will perform the medley of “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” and “Christmas Don’t be Late” to demonstrate his arrangement, and then guide us through helpful exercises to get us comfortable with the chords and chord progressions, strum patterns, and picking options in each section of the song, before we put it all together to play it through.

Our meeting format, as usual, will begin with introductions and some local ukulele news/events. We’ll also include some open mic time for those of you who’d like to showcase one tune you’ve been working on. A sign-up sheet will be available at 6:30. As open mic time is limited to two participants, please sign up when you arrive and understand that preference will be given to those who have not participated recently or ever before.

After the open mic portion of the eve, we’ll play through our new-to-us song again and record a performance video. We’ll share this video on our YouTube channel about a week after the meeting – so please subscribe if you haven’t yet, and you’ll be notified when it’s available! 

Ukulele Society T-shirts and Merch!

We’ll have Austin Ukulele Society t-shirts available for purchase before and after our meeting. All are part of our holiday Flash Sale and are the only shirts we plan to sell at the November meeting. There are limited sizes available since we’ll be selling through our older styles. The shirts will be $10 each and you can purchase one or many – so stock up on designs you may have missed and holiday gifts! We do NOT sell shirts at the December holiday potluck/strum-along.

If you are looking for a newer style of our shirts, please email Jen to arrange for her to bring what you need on the 12th and to arrange for payment.

We also have patches for $5 and vinyl stickers for $1 each.

Please bring cash or a check made out to Austin Ukulele Society; you can also pay via our Square shop.

Location
Our meetings take place at St. John’s United Methodist Church, located at 2140 Allandale Rd, Austin, TX 78756. Map it!

Parking is available on the Wynona Ave. and White Rock Dr. sides of the church. You can also park in the Lamar Middle School lots across White Rock Dr. from the church. Street parking is available all along Wynona Ave.

For anyone who might be attending for the first time, the entrance to St. John’s is on the Wynona Ave. side of the church. From there simply follow the sounds of ukuleles tuning up. 🙂

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Newcomers and beginners are ALWAYS welcome! Even if you’re a complete novice, we encourage you to come out. Many beginners come to the meetings, and it’s so great to see their skills grow over time! There are almost always easier ways to play the songs, even if you can play only a few of the chords. Or just sing along!

For the monthly meetings, our friend Lori brings our loaner ukuleles! There are tenors, concerts, and sopranos, 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 loaner uke. 🙂

Feel free to get familiar with the chord charts for any of the songs in our repertoire, all available on the “Music Library” page. We always play “Three Little Birds” and “On the Road Again” as our opening and closing songs, so if you’re new to the group and want to get familiar with them, you can play along using the presentations and our videos.

Stay tuned and keep strumming! We’re looking forward to seeing everyone on Thursday, November 12, at 7:00pm!

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

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Thursday’s virtual meeting was a sp-uke-tacular meetup of ukulele friends from near and far! From Friday lunch hour participants in Australia to folks joining in from Hawaii, we represented approximately 20 hours of time zones! Thanks so much for joining in and getting the Halloween spirit going! 🙂

With Halloween and Día de Los Muertos just ahead, we enjoyed paying homage to this spooky season with our song choice. For this virtual meeting, we covered a rockin’ tune by one of music’s most enduring bands – The Rolling Stones. “Paint It Black” is a dark and timeless hit. Nearly 60 years since its release, it is still popular and on many a Halloween party playlist. We were singing along together in no time!

Bob kicked off the meeting with local ukulele news, including a reminder about the Groundwork Music Project’s upcoming fundraising event in Austin on November 7.

To start things off musically, we warmed up with Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.”

Bob introduced our pals Evan Koolvoord and Jay Clement and got started on our “Paint It Black” lesson. They played the song through to share the arrangement. Then Bob dove into his tutorial, teaching us the chords, chord progressions, picking options, and some fun but challenging strumming techniques.

We got better and better as we practiced, and we sounded terrific when we put the song together to play through a couple of times.

We ended the eve with our traditional farewell song, Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again” and some more chatting with you while Bob shared a few AUS in-person meeting videos.

You can download the song sheet for “Paint It Black” 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 October 22 livestream. Watch the entire show or jump to the part you most want to see!

We owe a big thank you to Jay Clement and Evan Kolvoord for joining Bob, and as always, we’re grateful to Lyda for running the presentation and Jen for moderating the chat.

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

We hope to see you at the next Austin in-person meeting on Thursday, November 12, at St. John’s United Methodist Church. And we definitely look forward to our next virtual meeting on Thursday, December 17. Be well and keep strumming!  🙂

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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.

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The Halloween season got off to a great start at our October in-person meeting! There were many fun accessories, costumes and attire on display, to ward off the “red-eyed cows” we’d soon be singing about. ❤

We started the evening with introductions, welcomes to visitors and first-timers, and some local ukulele news. The Groundwork Music Project Fundraiser and Soirée is coming up on November 7. Come sing along with us and support a great organization that provides music education for Central Texas kids. Purchase a ticket here.

Then we got the music-making started by playing our traditional warm-up song, Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.”

Bob played a terrific demo of his arrangement of the haunting, country & western classic folktale “Ghost Riders in the Sky” to help us get ready for the lesson. He then taught us the chords, chord progressions, strum pattern, tab, and vocal harmonies. We enjoyed working through each exercise and then putting the song together to play through.

We enjoyed a break from our practice and learning by getting some terrific entertainment from our open mic performers. Guy, Chris, and Cake for Charlie delighted us with their talents!

We then got back to practicing “Ghost Riders in the Sky” and made a spooky recording that we hope you’ll play along with from home. Look for our video performance of “Ghost Riders in the Sky,” coming soon to our YouTube Channel! 

To play along, you can download the lyrics, chords, and tab for Bob’s arrangement of “Ghost Riders in the Sky” or download a copy of the presentation and instruction guide (what we project on the screens for all to follow along, including exercises and drills).

We’re very grateful to Aaron Lewis for backing us on bass and to The John Davenport on slapstick to create a great whip-crack effect! As always, many, many thanks to all the fabulous AUS volunteers for their hard work.  

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We’re looking forward to seeing you at the October 22nd livestream on our YouTube Channel! We’ll see our Austin-area friends and visitors on November 12 at St. John’s United Methodist Church. Be well and keep on strumming until 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.

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Ukulele Society T-shirts and Merch!

We’re very excited about our 2026 Austin Ukulele Society t-shirt, “Ukin’ Armadillo,” designed by Lyda Guz. This cool design features a rockin’ and rollin’ armadillo happily strumming his favorite ukulele decorated with 16 stars to celebrates the Austin Ukulele Society’s 16th year of making music together. As always, the shirts are silk-screened right here in Austin at a fantastic locally-owned print shop.

Our new “Ukin’ Armadillo” design, “Circle of Stars,” “AUS Grackle,” “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 had a fabulous September meeting! With nearly 200 uke enthusiasts, we celebrated the remarkable Dolly Parton, as we learned to sing and strum her chart-topping “9 to 5.” The passing of this inspirational musician, songwriter, actress, philanthropist, and business woman has shown us how much she was revered around the world.❤

Bob welcomed newbies and visitors alike and presented the agenda for the evening. He shared local ukulele news, including info about the upcoming the Groundwork Music Project Fundraiser and Soiree on November 7 and the Austin Steel Guitar Fest with a ukes-welcome Kanikapila on Friday, October 2.

Then we got the music-making started by playing our traditional warm-up song, Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.”

Bob performed his arrangement of “9 to 5” to help us get ready to pay homage to the late great Dolly Parton. We then jumped into learning this peppy song. Bob broke down the strum patterns, chord progressions, picking option and harmonies for us; we practiced each part of the song and sounded great when we put it together.  

For the open mic portion of the eve, we had the lovely leader of Fort Myers, Florida’s “oo koo lay lay” group – Dawn – lead us in her fun rendition of “Tiny Bubbles.” Download the lyrics and chords of her rendition of this tune. Thanks so much for sharing your skills with us Dawn! 

After Dawn’s great sing-along, we got back to work on “9 to 5.” After playing it through a few more times, we recorded it for you to enjoy and play along with from wherever you are in the world. Look for our video performance of “9 to 5,” coming soon to our YouTube Channel! 

To play along, you can download the lyrics, chords, and tab for Bob’s arrangement of “9 to 5” or download a copy of the presentation and instruction guide (what we project on the screens for all to follow along, including exercises and drills).

We’re very grateful to Aaron Lewis for backing us on bass and to our special guest drummer, Grant Anderson, for helping us keep the beat on this terrific cover. As always, many, many thanks to all the fabulous AUS volunteers for their hard work.  

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We’re looking forward to seeing you again at our next meeting on October 8 at St. John’s United Methodist Church and our October 22 live online meeting. Be well and keep on strumming until 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.

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Ukulele Society T-shirts and Merch!

We’re very excited about our 2026 Austin Ukulele Society t-shirt, “Ukin’ Armadillo,” designed by Lyda Guz. This cool design features a rockin’ and rollin’ armadillo happily strumming his favorite ukulele decorated with 16 stars to celebrates the Austin Ukulele Society’s 16th year of making music together. As always, the shirts are silk-screened right here in Austin at a fantastic locally-owned print shop.

Our new “Ukin’ Armadillo” design, “Circle of Stars,” “AUS Grackle,” “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.

Our August meeting was a super fun way to stay cool on a hot summer night! We kicked off the meeting with shout-outs to our out-of-town visitors and first-timers, and then Bob shared some local ukulele news! ❤

One important piece of news is Sho Humphries and Tyler Donkoh-Halm’s August 29 Workshop and Concert. Read descriptions of the two workshops and purchase tickets at the Event Page. It’s a fantastic opportunity to meet and learn from two rising stars in the ukulele world and we hope to see you there!

Then we got the music-making started by playing our traditional warm-up song, Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.”

At this meeting we learned to sing and strum a rockin’ American hit. John Mellencamp’s “Hurts So Good” is from 1982 and spent the most weeks (16!) on the Top 10 Billboard chart of any 1980’s song. This great tune still gets plenty of airplay, and we were singing along in no time to its contagious refrain.

Bob performed “Hurt So Good” to give us a great preview of his arrangement. He took us through exercises to help us learn the chord progressions, strum styles, picking options and harmonizing possibilities. We had a great time practicing and putting the song all together to play through a couple of times.  

We took a break from our practice to hear two terrific performances during the open mic portion of the evening. Rodger did a great instrumental cover of an Ennio Morricone classic, and Bill Jones and Kathy Murray played one of Kathy’s beautiful originals. Thanks so much for sharing your skills with us! 

We got right back to work on “Hurt So Good,” and after we practiced some more, we made a wonderful recording for you to enjoy and play along with from home. Look for our video performance of “Hurts So Good,” coming soon to our YouTube Channel! 

To play along, you can download the lyrics, chords, and tab for Bob’s arrangement of “Hurts So Good” or download a copy of the presentation and instruction guide (what we project on the screens for all to follow along, including exercises and drills).

We’re immensely grateful to Aaron Lewis for his bass accompaniment. Many, many thanks to all the fabulous AUS volunteers for their hard work.  

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We’re looking forward to seeing you again at our next meeting on September 10 at St. John’s United Methodist Church. Be well and keep on strumming until 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.

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Ukulele Society T-shirts and Merch!

We’re very excited about our 2026 Austin Ukulele Society t-shirt, “Ukin’ Armadillo,” designed by Lyda Guz. This cool design features a rockin’ and rollin’ armadillo happily strumming his favorite ukulele decorated with 16 stars to celebrates the Austin Ukulele Society’s 16th year of making music together. As always, the shirts are silk-screened right here in Austin at a fantastic locally-owned print shop.

Our new “Ukin’ Armadillo” design, “Circle of Stars,” “AUS Grackle,” “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 virtual July meeting was a terrific way to wrap up an extra special month for our ukulele community. July had already given us our biggest-ever in-person meeting and the first-ever Uke Stars Central Texas Ukulele Festival! It was great to engage with you at the virtual meeting, too, and we were thrilled to welcome first-timers and regulars, from all points and time zones, spanning our planet! 🙂

This month, we revisited a tune by one of New Jersey’s best gifts to rock and pop music – Bon Jovi. We rocked out, learning to strum, pick, and sing 2000’s “It’s My Life,” a top 10 hit in several countries and Bon Jovi’s most viewed video (~1.5 billion views!). This infectious rock anthem gets plenty of airplay to this day, and we were singing along in no time!

We shared some ukulele news, including info on Tyler Donkoh-Halm and Sho Humphries’ upcoming workshops and concert. And during this live event, you helped us hit the 4-million view mark on our YouTube channel!

To start things off musically, we warmed up with Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.”

Then Bob and special guest Evan Kolvoord gave us a great performance of Bon Jovi’s “It’s My Life” to get us ready to learn. Bob broke down his excellent uke arrangement and took us through helpful exercises to learn the strum styles and patterns, the chord progressions, the tab option, and the vocal harmonies. He also dove into some useful tips on how to become stronger and more self-aware strummers.

We had fun practicing everything and sounded terrific when we put “It’s My Life” together and played it through a couple of times.

We ended the eve with our always-swan song, Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again” and some more chatting with you while Bob shared a few AUS in-person meeting videos.

You can download the song sheet for “It’s My Life” 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 July 23 livestream. Watch the entire show or jump to the part you most want to see!

We owe a big thank you to Evan Kolvoord for joining Bob, and as always, we’re grateful to Lyda for running the presentation and Jen for moderating the chat.

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

We hope to see you at the next Austin in-person meeting on Thursday, August 13, at St. John’s United Methodist Church. And we definitely look forward to our next virtual meeting on Thursday, October 22. Be well and keep strumming!  🙂

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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.

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Our July 9th meeting was extra fabulous, thanks to the record-breaking number of participants (220!) and it being the kickoff event for the Uke Stars Central Texas Ukulele Festival. We loved having friends new and old, of all ages and stages, bring so much enthusiasm into one room, for a couple of hours of learning, strumming, and singing! ❤

Bob started the meeting by sharing local ukulele news, including a preview of the Festival events and a run-down of what to expect for the evening.   

Then he helped us warm up our voices and fingers with Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.”

To celebrate hosting our very first festival, we revisited one of our most popular covers, “Sweet Caroline,” which we learned at the January 2019 meeting (7.5 years ago)! Neil Diamond’s contagiously catchy hit has gotten continuous accolades and play since it was released in 1969.This tune was a chart-topper around the world, and is still as timeless as ever.

Bob (with support from Aaron Lewis on bass) played through his excellent uke arrangement of “Sweet Caroline.” He led us through his helpful exercises to learn each component of the song, and we enjoyed getting comfortable with the chords, chord progressions, strum styles, and tab and harmonizing options.

We put the song together and played it through a few times, and we got better with each try!   

Once we share our recording on YouTube, we hope you’ll have fun playing along with us from home. Look for our video performance of “Sweet Caroline,” coming soon to our YouTube Channel! 

To play along, you can download the lyrics, chords, and tab for Bob’s arrangement of “Sweet Caroline” or download a copy of the presentation and instruction guide (what we project on the screens for all to follow along, including exercises and drills).

We’re immensely grateful to Aaron Lewis for his bass accompaniment. Many, many thanks to all the fabulous AUS volunteers for their hard work.  

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Please plan to join us for our next virtual meeting on Thursday, July 23, on our YouTube channel, and we hope to see you in person on August 13 at St. John’s United Methodist Church. Keep on strumming until 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.

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Ukulele Society T-shirts and Merch!

We’re very excited about our 2026 Austin Ukulele Society t-shirt, “Ukin’ Armadillo,” designed by Lyda Guz. This cool design features a rockin’ and rollin’ armadillo happily strumming his favorite ukulele decorated with 16 stars to celebrates the Austin Ukulele Society’s 16th year of making music together. As always, the shirts are silk-screened right here in Austin at a fantastic locally-owned print shop.

Our new “Ukin’ Armadillo” design, “Circle of Stars,” “AUS Grackle,” “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.

On a hot June evening, we were delighted to keep everyone cool at our monthly meeting. We had a terrific, enthusiastic turnout of 165 uke players of all ages and skill levels — thank you all for being there! ❤

The evening kicked off with local ukulele news, including a reminder to check out and purchase tickets for the Uke Stars Central Texas Ukulele Festival coming up July 9 through 12. Ticket sales will close on July 1.  

Then we got the music-making started by playing our traditional warm-up song, Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.” Such a great way to limber up our fingers, warm up our voices, and remind ourselves that every little thing is gonna be alright!

We’ve long wanted to do an Electric Light Orchestra cover, and since there’s no time like the present, we learned to strum, pick, and sing 1979’s timeless, rockin’ hit, “Don’t Bring Me Down.” This tune was a chart-topper around the world, and it still gets plenty of airplay. Bob (with support on bass from Aaron) performed his great arrangement of the song to get us familiar with it. He took us through exercises to practice the chords, chord progressions, strumming styles, picking options, and harmonies. We put the song all together and improved with each take.  

Our open mic participants – Jay, Rich, and Jack – were wonderful! Thanks so much for sharing your skills with us! 

When we got back to practicing our song, we got better and better and shot our latest video, so please play along with us from home. Look for our video performance of “Don’t Bring Me Down,” coming soon to our YouTube Channel! 

To play along, you can download the lyrics, chords, and tab for Bob’s arrangement of “Don’t Bring Me Down” or download a copy of the presentation and instruction guide (what we project on the screens for all to follow along, including exercises and drills).

We’re immensely grateful to Aaron Lewis for his bass accompaniment. Many, many thanks to all the fabulous AUS volunteers for their hard work.  

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We’re looking forward to seeing you again at our next meeting on July 9th at St. John’s United Methodist Church. This meeting is the opening event of the Uke Stars Central Texas Ukulele Festival! Keep on strumming until 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.

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Ukulele Society T-shirts and Merch!

We’re very excited about our 2026 Austin Ukulele Society t-shirt, “Ukin’ Armadillo,” designed by Lyda Guz. This cool design features a rockin’ and rollin’ armadillo happily strumming his favorite ukulele decorated with 16 stars to celebrates the Austin Ukulele Society’s 16th year of making music together. As always, the shirts are silk-screened right here in Austin at a fantastic locally-owned print shop.

Our new “Ukin’ Armadillo” design, “Circle of Stars,” “AUS Grackle,” “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.

On a balmy Austin mid-May evening, Austin Ukulele Society participants, young and old, seasoned and new, visiting from as far as Oregon, and more, all came together to enjoy a terrific evening of learning, singing, and strumming!    

We started the evening with some ukulele news, and we introduced our friend Neal Kassanoff, founder of Groundwork Music Project. Together with support from the Austin Ukulele Society and EdUkeCation, Groundwork is hosting the first Central Texas Ukulele Festival from July 9 – 12! Please plan to join the fun; find out more and sign up for the email list, purchase workshop tickets, and more on the Festival’s website.  

Then we got the music-making started by playing our always uplifting warm-up song, Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.”

Bob (with support on bass from Aaron) gave us a lovely performance of the song we’d be learning. We moved some decades into the future from the Beatles era that we explored in April, with East Sussex’s alternative rockers Keane, to cover their 2004 smash hit “Somewhere Only We Know.” This tune is a lovely, catchy, and piano-driven rock ballad which was also a #1 hit for Lily Allen when she covered it in 2013. 

Everyone did great, learning the strum style, tab, harmony options, and more, as we practiced Bob’s great arrangement and helpful exercises. 

By the time we recorded the song, we sounded terrific. We hope you’ll play along with us from wherever you are! Look for our video performance of “Somewhere Only We Know,” coming soon to our YouTube Channel! 

To play along, you can download the lyrics, chords, and tab for Bob’s arrangement of “Somewhere Only We Know” or download a copy of the presentation and instruction guide (what we project on the screens for all to follow along, including exercises and drills).

We’re immensely grateful to Aaron Lewis for his bass accompaniment. Many, many thanks to all the fabulous AUS volunteers for their hard work.  

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We’re looking forward to seeing you again at our next meeting on June 11th at St. John’s United Methodist Church. Keep on strumming until 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 and Merch!

We’re very excited about our 2026 Austin Ukulele Society t-shirt, “Ukin’ Armadillo,” designed by Lyda Guz. This cool design features a rockin’ and rollin’ armadillo happily strumming his favorite ukulele decorated with 16 stars to celebrates the Austin Ukulele Society’s 16th year of making music together. As always, the shirts are silk-screened right here in Austin at a fantastic locally-owned print shop.

Our new “Ukin’ Armadillo” design, “Circle of Stars,” “AUS Grackle,” “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 2026 virtual meeting was tons of fun. Thank you for joining in from all over the world, for the first time or the 50th time, solo or with your local group, and bringing your great questions and friendly conversation, too! 🙂

Beatlemania will never end, and the Austin Ukulele Society has had a Beatles month! We first covered “She Loves You” just over 10 years ago, in February 2016, as a Valentine’s-inspired tune. Like most Beatles hits, it is timeless and just as fun and fresh as ever. We had a blast learning it together!

Bob kicked off the meeting by sharing some local information, including the July 9th – 12th Uke Stars event. You can sign up to get details from our friends at Groundwork Music Project.  He also introduced our good friend Jay Clement, who joined him at his home, to play U-bass and sing harmonies.

Then we warmed up with Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds” before getting started on our featured song. Bob shared some info about “She Loves You” and played it through (with Jay’s accompaniment) to give us a feel for the arrangement we’d be learning. Bob took us step by step through his great arrangement.

We had a great time learning the chords, alternative chords, progressions, and more. Many of you were very impressed with how multi-layered this seemingly simple song is, and we are glad you enjoyed the lesson. After we practiced each component, we played it through twice – and we sounded terrific!

To close out the evening, Bob and Jay performed another Beatles tune, “Two of Us.” We played our traditional closing song, Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again,” and Bob shared a few of the AUS in-person meeting videos.

You can download the song sheet for “She Loves You” 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 April 23 livestream. Watch the entire show or jump to the part you most want to see!

Thanks again to Jen for all of her back-end work with the AUS, including moderating the live events, to Lyda for all she does to keep our presentation slides in perfect time, and to Jay for helping out on bass and vocals.

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

We look forward to being back with our friends from near and far online on July 23, 2026! And we hope to seeing all our nearby friends at our next in-person meeting on Thursday, May 14, at St. John’s United Methodist Church. Be well and keep strumming!  🙂

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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.

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