A great example

Here is a nice video that shows that the ukukeke can be a really nice instrument for accompanying a vocalist on a soft, sweet tune.

Open mike night

Our open mike night was a success.  I was not counting but I think we had about 10 folks step up to the microphone, performing a wide variety of songs.

Our little club has come a long way in the last couple years, not only with the addition of new members who were already musicians but with the increased confidence of the beginners.

We will have to do again some time.

Thanks to all who participated as well as to Cap'n for doing all the arranging and setup.

Ralph

We should do this song too

Ukulele Lady was written by Kahn and Whiting in 1925, performed by many artists including this version by the Muppets.  I've got the song sheet if we want to try it.

Great cartoon

A slightly altered Blondie cartoon, even better if you know about the Barnkickers

(Here is a link to their first award winning video, about 5 years ago.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEs2qViWECs 

It was a nice evening

Well, we had a nice turnout last night at the pizza shop.  I think we all had a good time.

Let's welcome John Nicholas.  John is a guitar teacher at Saied, and while not really too familiar with the uke yet, one can tell that he will be one the talented folks that we can always use to help the newcomers.  He is planning to come to our "Four Strings, Four Fingers, For Fun" evenings in the future as time will allow.

Some of you may find that the music shop in Bartlesville is close to you,  Tom Stevens is giving uke specific lessons at that shop.  Tom brought a couple nice ukes that that shop sells to our meeting last night and I really like the tone of the RipTide mahogany tenor he had with him.  (Tom normally plays a baritone with CGEA tuning strings, giving an overall lower tone than mostukes.).

Tom and Mark are working on a gig at a restaurant in Bartlesville.  When this is finalized, they will let us know and maybe ask some of us to set in during their evening entertainment.  Tom did have a couple evening gigs at the local Dusty Dog Pub last month too.

Next week we will have more ujke opportunities with our regular meeting at the WCD on Tuesday and the open mike night the Cap'n is setting up for Thursday evening at the pizza shop.  Hope you can make it.

Formal music lessons

If you know of anyone who wants formal instruction in the ukulele, I see that the Firey Bros. shop in Sand Springs is now advertising uke lessons.  To the best of my knowledge, this is the first shop to offer uke lessons.   So for those who want more than the simple strums and open chord fingering, this could be what you are looking for to aid in playing enjoyment.

Ralph

Open Mike, June 27

Cap'n is arranging for an open mike night at the NYC Pizza shop on Thursday, June 27.  He will be setting up a mike for vocals, and maybe a mike for the uke too.  (A mike for the uke may be overkill, most of us cannot sing as loud as we play, and this is a small room.)

So, look over your songs and select some you like.  Even if you don't think you can do it as well as the professionals you see on YouTube, non't fear -- nobody will be throwing pizza slices at you!


Ralph

July schedule

At the club meeting last night, there was complete agreement that we should drop the first Thursday meeting of July.  So for July, we now have three planned club meetings.

Of course, maybe we can get some interest in meeting at a restaurant patio, a park setting or somewhere  else on a weekend, so if you are interested in this, let us know

Ralph

Vintage music source

Some of you may like what can be called vintage music -- material from the late 1800's to about 1940 or so.  Ian has made it a hobby of collecting and scanning old sheet music and old music book material and put them in a pair of DVDs.  These are not video DVDs, but data DVDs, full of pdfs of the sheet music.  Much is arranged and show ukulele chords (some with fingering in C, some in D tuning), some show guitar chords and fingering.

All told there are about 7600 songs in the two DVDs, some of which are probably duplicates, but even with that, this is a huge resource for those who like this material.

This web page has a link to the song index and a link to order the DVDs.  For $15, one gets two DVDs packed with vintage material.  A fantastic resource for those interested in this music.

http://vintageukemusic.com/


Ralph

Thursday was an unusual club day

The regularly scheduled meeting at the NYC pizza shop  became a show of our resilience.

For some reason, our communication with the shop had slipped up and they booked their rear room for a local business group.  So, as folks arrived, we had to decide what to do.  Well, Toby came to the rescue.  He offered his house for our evening jam session.

And it was a lifesaver in that we had a couple new folks show up as well as a large group of regulars.  A total of 14 folks were milling around wondering where we would go, where we would eat.  

Toby's offer solved the location problem and we decided to just eat at the pizza shop and then caravan to Toby's house.

It worked out well.  

While we normally end up or jams about 8:30 to 8:45 (both restaurants want to close at 9 PM), with our late start and no closing period, we stayed at the Bogle residence till almost 9:30, leaving just because a lot of folks had to go to work the following day.  I'm sure if this had been a Friday or Saturday evening, we would have gone on for much longer.

It was a record attendance last night and it was really good to see everyone enjoying themselves.

Hat's off to Bill and Janice Dunn for bringing enough copies of a new song to share.  How they knew how many to produce, given our record attendance, I don't know.  And we should give recognition to Bill for leading the song.  Given that he is a real beginner, he deserves credit for the effort.

And a Gold Star to Mary for suggesting some songs for us to play.  Rex and I don't really want to be dictators in song selection and we want others to show their preferences.  Thanks to Mary for selecting some songs we all like.

Just so we don't get too bored with our current material, I am suggesting that every now and then we have a Theme Night.  This could include songs with a railroad theme (i.e., I've Been Working On A Railroad, Freight Train), maybe ships (i.e., Titanic, Blow The Man Down), cities (Amarillo By Morning, San Francisco Bay Blues) or just Oklahoma (could be hundreds --see  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_songs_about_Oklahoma  )

So give me some feedback -- good idea or not?  And if you like a song but don't have the resources to find the lyrics and chords and make up song sheets, just let me know and we will do our best to find it.

There was some interest shown for some instruction in the proper way to play Hawaiian music andI I'll get with Leilani and come up with a schedule.  Maybe we can come up with something a bit less expensive, but this is her reference book.  :  http://www.amazon.com/Hawaiian-Ukulele-1-Learn-beloved-Hawai%60i/dp/1427626936/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1370617475&sr=1-1&keywords=island+joy+hawaiian+music

Feedback is always welcome.  This is your club.