Welcome to the Tulsa Ukulele Club Website

Welcome to the Tulsa Ukulele Club website. We are a group of people of all ages who enjoy playing the ukulele. We welcome every level of player from beginner to professional. We play a wide variety of music, as diverse as our membership. Right now, if you come to one of our meetings you are going to hear a lot of old time standards, country, folk and blues, possibly some Gospel, but we are welcome to new influences.

While our emphasis is on ukuleles, we welcome other instruments too. Bring your harmonica or guitar and of course, a kazoo is always welcome.

We are a family oriented organization and encourage the entire family to attend, even the little guys, so long as they do not disrupt the meeting. Watch this site for special announcements for meetings when we will be offering free beginner's ukulele lessons.

We have been evaluating several alternative sites for our meetings. Watch the blog postings below for the latest meeting place. At this time (10-17) we are meeting in the lobby of the Cancer Center of America in the first Thursday, have an Open Mike Night and jam on the second Thursday at Burgundy Place and the other Thursdays are jams at Burgundy Place or some other location. Check the blog, the web page or contact us for latest plans.

Thank you for visiting our Blog. You will also find a lot of useful links for songs and instruction material in the Handy Links section on the right side of the page.

We also have a web page that contains a lot of the songs in our song book -- see https://sites.google.com/site/tulsaukuleleclub/

We also have a YouTube channel and a Facebook page ("Tulsa Uke Club").

Please contact us if you have any questions at tulsaukes@gmail.com.







Sunday, April 28, 2013

A sing-along site

Here is a site out of the Netherlands that has a large number of songs arranged for a play-along mode.  Select the tuning key -- C, or G for the baritone.  (D, is also available but most of us do not use that option).  Click on a song, click on Open and then the start icon.   You will see a video of someone(or a group) doing the song, a lower bar scrolling along with the vocals and the chords, along with a fretboard with the fingering positions showing the chords that should be played at that time.

I found this site a long time ago but I just looked at all the songs and they have really enlarged the song list.

Going over some of these songs is great fun and educational as well.  One thing that is good -- not all the songs are in the key of C!  Check it out.

For future convenience, I have added a link to this site in the Handy Links section.


http://www.ukuleleplayalong.nl/#

For raw beginners ----

Here is a gent from Mississippi that is a very good guitar player offering suggestions for beginners.  Raw beginners.  But there are some gems in here for everyone.

Have a few smiles, learn a bit too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maIpJ3n2vx0





Rex is highlighted here

The host of Humble Baritonics has just posted one of the videos of Rex in his web page.  Check out Rex on his baritone doing this song, one of the many that he posts almost weekly.

http://humblebaritonics.blogspot.com/

The site is a good one for those interested in the baritone uke and the variety of different tunings that this longer scale ukulele can provide.

Saturday, April 27, 2013

The Music Shop has received a number of Mahalo ukes, mostly the highly decorated ones with smiley faces and the like.  So if you know anyone interested in a cheapie, or maybe to use as a wall hanger, you might check them out.

Monday, April 22, 2013

Workshop report

Rex and KR report that the attendance at the workshop on Saturday the 20th at Saied Music was well attended -- 28 folks showed up, with a wide range of ages, some from some distance from Tulsa.  There was interest in future workshops expressed.  We may have something going here.


Sunday, April 21, 2013

Weekend meeting -- should we plan one?

At this time we have about four meetings a month, but always on weeknights.  This precludes a fair fraction of the local uke world from participating if they are occupied during the evenings with work or family.

I hosted a meeting a few months ago on a Sunday afternoon and it was not well received.  Maybe it was a lack of extra promotion for the special event, maybe Sunday afternoon was not good, maybe it was just the wrong day -- I don't know, but it was not popular.

But maybe the club should entertain looking at a weekend event again.  The Oklahoma folks meet on a Saturday evening,  The extremely popular Dallas club has club meetings on Tuesday evenings and on Saturdays.  Sometimes  the Saturday meetings are in the afternoon, sometimes in the evening and their "beginners" sessions are on a Saturday morning.  So that suggests that a Saturday could be a popular day.

Give me some feedback.  Does this have any appeal?

Ralph


Saturday, April 20, 2013

A busy man today

Rex has been busy today.  First thing this morning he and his Dulcimer Magic group performed at the Sand Springs festival and then he led the ukulele workshop at Saied Music.

Friday, April 19, 2013

Rambling along


I was just rambling along this morning and I wondered if one could come up with a story about the different size ukes. Here is my take.

Soprano. Like a young girl, lively, full of fun and optimism, but not yet fully developed. Young, bright voice.

Concert. A young lady, with all the proper traits, sometimes dressed out with a lot of bling, but not yet fully mature. Voice is getting a bit more mature.

Tenor. A matured woman, confident, willing to be seen and heard, sometimes bright and gay (high g) and sometimes a bit dark (low g) depending on the mood. Can be in the spotlight with or without a lot of bling or be happy in solitude.

Baritone. The male figure in this family. Generally best kept in the background in a support role but willing to star when needed.

What is yours?

Monday, April 15, 2013

Kimo Hussey is a great teacher

Kimo has been to the Dallas Uke festivals a couple of times and he is a great teacher.  He is in demand for workshops around the world.  Now that he is a retired AF pilot, he has time to enjoy his passion for the uke.

Here is a small video on some basic right hand technique (plus some more fancier stuff)


Saturday, April 13, 2013

It does not take a genius to play the ukulele.  Need proof?

AL

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Lessons at Saied Music April 20

The folks at Saied Music at 32nd and Yale have arranged for Rex to teach a workshop for the ukulele.  This lesson will be at 1PM on Saturday April 20.

So if you know of anyone who might be interested, let them know about it and they can contact Saied for a slot in the program.  Please note that this workshop is not just for raw beginners.

It is my understanding that some instruments will be available for use during the program and that passout material will be provided.  I also think that there is no age restriction, but best check with Saied on any minimum age for youth.

We know that Rex can do a great job so pass the word.

Ralph

Friday, April 5, 2013

Gals,this is for you

Gals, this is for you.


http://goanimate.com/videos/0Gt5qskNXGi4/1

Good information for the beginner

Mike Lynch has a nice video that he prepared several years ago on some basics on how to finger chords.  There is some good basic information here, including the need to keep the thumb behind the neck to keep the pressure on the strings.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=pJme1gtN1SM#at=90

May schedule

Greetings.  I know it may be a bit far ahead for some of you, but the calendar for the month of May demanded that we change the dates for the meetings at the NYC Pizza shop from the 1st and 3rd Thursdays to the 2nd and 4th Thursdays.  I have changed the club calendar posted in out blog and web page to match the changes.  This change will give us one meeting a week instead of jammng two meetings into one week.