TULSA UKULELE CLUB

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.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

This is good advice

Jim D'Ville has a great series of blogs in his "Play ukulele by ear" series. This is a free site to view and has a lot of good information for our use.

The latest blog has a short video where he has a good instructor in Santa Cruz, Dave Egan, discussing both left and right hand mechanics. One thing that he did not verbally highlight was that he strongly recommends holding the uke high and at a significant angle -- somewhere near 45 degrees -- so as to get both left hand and right hand knuckle positions more aligned with the strings than many players seem to use. A good video to view. Scroll down to this interview.

Ralph
http://playukulelebyear.blogspot.com/

Jake Shimabukuro -- the best!

Some of you may already know of Jake Shimabukuro, arguably the top ukulele performer in the world. This video shows the wide range of his skills but even more importantly, his performance shows the wide range of musical capability of the ukulele in the right hands. This is a long video, some 19 minutes, but worth viewing.

Now if only I could do a small fraction of his capability, I would be one happy fellow.

Want more from Jake? YouTube has them, in all different musical genre's.

Ralph

Tulsa Ukulele Club Open Mic Jam

GoAnimate.com: OPEN MIC JAM by BillKumpe@yt

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!

Video of the Week - Glen Rose, Beyond the Sea

Glen Rose is a fabulous entertainer who just happens to use a uke a lot these days. He also plays a mean jazz guitar and keyboards ... and his wife Linda Dathe is an accomplished vocalist in her own right. And to top the package off, Glen has published a number of very good FREE jazz ukulele lessons on YouTube and sells downloads of his uke arrangments in songbook form very reasonably. Enjoy.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Another Uke Number Recorded at Lo-Fi's

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Video of The Week - Miss Zooey

I would post this young lady's real name if I knew it but I don't. Online she is just "MissZooey." What we do know is that she is Australian, a PHD candidate somewhere, is cute as a button, has a strong, clear singing voice, great ukulele skills and a sharp sense of humor. The ukulele seems to encourage smart people to speak their mind musically. MissZooey is one of hundreds of ukulele players who perform their own compositions online. Many of these compositions are smart, funny, and entertaining. This one is no exception. MissZooey has a vanity channel on YouTube. I can highly recommend it.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Learn Another Instrument - The Uke

Many famous songwriters (like the Beatles) use a uke to compose with since the chords are simpler and the smaller neck does not cause hand and arm pain when being played for long periods of time. And, the uke is increasingly gaining respect as a serious instrument. It's easy to learn, fun to play and cheap to acquire. What's not to like about a uke?