Do You Remember The 2011/2012 Veggie Pick-up Jams?

I recall they started in the park, during the CSA veggie pick-ups.  One of the farmers also had a rarely-practiced-uke and so, we agreed to meet that once a week, with ukes in hand, to try and get at least that much (mutual) uke practice into our week...

We didn't make it an exclusively-uke jam tho, and, even provided percussion instruments to share...

Once upon a time, others would also gather and sit with us on the grass, and help to serenade fellow CSA members as they collected their fresh weekly produce!

The gathering grew organically over the weeks.  Would you believe every single pick-up had good weather?  That's how I remember it, ha.

Some of the 2011 events doubled as the Guelph Regional Writers Group Meetings I was still running then for the Songwriters Association of Canada...

In 2012, invited some of the previous ukers to join with me their instruments at the Ignatius Farm & CSA veggie pick-ups.  There might still be a donated uke in the farmer's office to this day !!!

When the seasons changed, the participants discussed how a music store would be the perfect venue for such a musical gathering. And eventually, at work, I got my hands on on the Kala brand step by step guide to creating a Ukulele Circle, created in collaboration with ukulele virtuoso and educator, James Hill.  (The Ukulele Circle Starter Kit is available as a free download to dealers). I was convinced that uke circles are a great way to attract new customers, create new musicians, and increase sales. And that they also generate a positive customer experience and a sense of community. I could see that they would be easy to organize at very little cost, and that they would really work to the benefit of both the store and the participants... I remember having to decide about whether to create the email invitations and marketing of the sessions as a personal endeavour, or as part of my role at work -- I was thrilled when my bosses at the time and I decided it would be a good fit for the shop's 2013 plans...
*
p.s.
I see Kala is promoting Uke Circles again -- they've said they are coming to your town!

"We are providing resources to  your local Kala Dealer so that they can put on a great Uke/U-Bass event at their location. Find your local Authorized Kala Dealer here...."

Uke Club, Fri. May 23, 2014

Once again, we were short staffed on the shop floor, so I didn't get to participate in the gathering in the reserved practice room...  but I heard some lovely tunes being sung and strummed from up there and came in to sing along and jokingly create a dance floor, ha.  I also snapped a pic or two during the signature, farewell, closing number...

Here's the song list:
Ain't She Sweet
Big Yellow Taxi
The Cup Song
Brown Eyed Girl
Can't Help Falling In Love With You
Yellow Bird
These Boots Are Made For Walking
What Colour Are You
The Lion Sleeps Tonite

Uke Club, Fri. May 16, 2014

Bye Bye Love
Brown Eyed Girl
Don't Worry Be Happy
What Colour Are You
Yellow Submarine
I Have A Dream
Margaritaville
Yellow Bird
When The Saints Come Marching In
These Boots Are Made For Walking
The Lion Sleeps Tonite

Uke Club Meeting Fri. May 9, 2014

Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone
5'2"
Hey Good Lookin
Lean On Me
Love Is A Rose
These Boots Are Made For Walking
Moody River
Going Up The Country
Stuck In The Middle With You
Crazy Little Thing Called Love
The End of The Line
The Cup Song
The Lion Sleeps Tonite.

Here are the link we shared on the email list for the cup song:
This is the video from the latest incarnation of the song, from the movie Pitch Perfect, by Anna Kendrick:
http://youtu.be/cmSbXsFE3l8
Here’s just a great video of the Cup Song that’s fun to watch:
http://youtu.be/6y1aOg_UO_A
And here’s a bit of the history  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cups_(song)

Wasn't that a fun one?  I was really glad to participate this week in the session!

Friday May 2, 2014, we were short staffed in the store, so I didn't participate...  there is still a song list tho:

Mull of Kintyre
Tennessee Waltz
These Boots Are Made For Walking
Lean on Me
The End of The Line
I Have a Dream
Iko Iko
Margarettaville (Jim & Steve)
Dreams
What Colour Are You?

Uke Club Fri April 25, 2014

There were 11 participants, and use of the washboard was recommended since we ran out of ukes.  Would you believe a tambourine was tastefully played?

The Lion Sleeps Tonite

Down By The Bay

I Have A Dream

Come By The Hills

End of the Line

First of May - Steve

Waltzing With Bears

I felt there was conflicting leadership and confusion so, suddenly I took over hosting at this point collecting votes with comments like "i have __ copies of _______.  how do you feel about that?"

Ruby Tuesday

What Colour Are You

The Lion Sleeps Tonite

How would the powers at be feel about a weekly open mic in the store Friday nites 7-9?

It's true I can't stop thinking about how its an honest, people's instrument.  Or wanting to continue to participating in a uke revolution and creating an alternate musical universe, lol.

I would like some tips for learning to match pitch at a campfire.  Is it just that I need to know more chords, or where to find notes?
Also, does anyone have tips to memorizing chord patterns, or for that matter, lyrics?

Uke Club, Fri April 11, 2014

I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing
Da Do Ron Ron
Don't Worry Be Happy
5'2"
These Boots Are Made For Walking
What Colour Are You
I Will
Me & Julio
Lion Sleeps Tonite

Uke Club, Fri Apr 4, 2014

We sent a text to my mom for her 70th b-day.  Have a listen:

 Songlist:
The Lion Sleeps Tonight
Me & Julio
Happy Birthday
I Will - fingerpicking
I Will - strum
What Colour Are You (i made a voice memo on my phone of this one to practice with)
Altogether Now
Red Bird (i played the red guitar for that one and then gave it away)
5'2"
Song For A Winter's Night
Don't Worry Be Happy
The Lion Sleeps Tonite

Uke Club, Fri. Mar 28, 2014

So, the good news is that the uke club meetings at the music store are totally free from now on!

The published (but not enforced) $6 cover charge was suggested in the first place, in the hopes that the store's SOCAN lisence covered "concert distributions" regarding orginal music for live performance at the uke club... you know because anything from a large outdoor music festival to a small club/bar performance can be considered a live performance that may be eligible for a concert distribution, if the venue or promoter is licensed by SOCAN, and if there is a minimum of $6 cover charge. But, I've just learned that the venue's performing right's licence of musical works in repetoire of the Society of Composers, Authors ad Music Publishers of Canada only covers music under Tariff 15A anyway -- that is, "background music" in establishments.

Here's an update from the store about the club "In other news, while the club has enjoyed a successful run, it's time to try out a new venue and so sessions at the music shop will be winding down by the end of June.  The store will continue it's pursuit of Ukulele through more structured group classes, aimed at providing students with knowledge of standard tunings, strumming patterns and basic chord progressions."

Club members were pleased to hear more good news about the group classes in ukulele available through the music store in future - and club members will begin alternate venues for informal uke circles/jams in the meantime... What do you think about "uke orchestra" practices?

The Song List:

The Lion Sleeps Tonite

Song For a Winter's Night

Stand By Me

Scarborough Fair

Don't Fence Me In

To Make You Feel My Love

Blowing in the Wind

Wagon Wheel

You Ain't Going Nowhere

What Colour Are You

Yellow Bird

The Nicest Letter Came In Last Week!

it read kind of like this:

Dear Store Manager,

I want to thank you, the store and especially Kim Logue for the weekly Ukulele club. It provides an opportunity for ukulele enthusiasts, such as myself, to gather on Friday evenings. It has become a very important part of my week.

Kim Logue is a wonderful leader. Her love of music and particularly the ukulele has a positive effect on everyone. She has a quiet effectiveness and gives people in the club opportunities to shine both musically and organizationally. Everyone, from first time beginners to advanced players feel comfortable.

Because of the Ukulele Club I feel a loyalty to the store. I wanted to let you know that the Ukulele Club provides Long & McQuade a good opportunity to sell merchandise, both during the Friday evening break and at other times during the week. Since joining the group I have purchased a new ukulele and case, a music stand, a harmonica and have attended a harmonica workshop at Long & McQuade. I also follow Long & McQuade on facebook.

It is difficult to put into words how much this club means to me. The ukulele club has helped keep my spirits high, despite personal challenges and the difficult winter.  My ability to play the ukulele has greatly improved and I am now playing at song circles and open mikes in Guelph, something I would never have considered previously.

Thank you, Mgr, Kim and music store for your support of Guelph music.

Uke Club, Fri. Mar 21, 2014

Iko Iko
Just When You Needed Me Most
Hit The Road Jack
This Land is Your Land
I Can See Clearly Now (Steve & Cynthia)
All My Loving
Fisherman's Blues (no paperwork)
Wagon Wheel (no paper)
Crazy Little Thing Called Love
What Colour Are You
Lay Down Sally
Blowin' In The Wind

Practice Room Rental $31.80

Uke 101, Mar 26, 2pm

The activity manager from a retirement residence in Cambridge reached out to our store with a note, "I was on your website and read about Ukulele Club and wondered if Kim Logue would be interested in doing a feature event here.  If interested Kim could come in and talk about the instrument and then do a simple interactive session that residents can participate in."

We set the date and time, and then she borrowed 8 ukuleles, and I brought 6.

We spent a lot of time getting comfortable with tuning, and passing around different ukes to experience first hand the different sound and feel of each.

We learned the so-called z-chord, and practiced a lot of G-C-E-A open string plucking, before trying the c-chord.

Then we sang lots of songs together,
Row Row Row Your Boat
Three Blind Mice

We even tried to master the F chord and enjoyed more tunes together:
Skip To My Lou
Iko Iko

And also Mary Had A Little Lamb, which one participant had in their uke kit booklet!

"The residents are still talking about how much they enjoyed that afternoon, so you were awesome!!"

Uke Club, Fri. March 14, 2014

"Watch, it will only be the two of us..." said the first arrival this week, who had brought a music stand, as did others that did in fact join us!  I kept thinking, how like Bev, who wasn't there this week, I really like to sit back and listen sometimes.

Do we need to bring back name tags? How did we do on the mailing list updates? We did not do well with the re-filing as we went, lol.  Also, the group-uke shot was taken before everyone arrived, oops.

Also, I think during Christmas break, we should offer some special extra sessions through the lesson centre, instead of fully shutting down.  And, that maybe it could work in the store's favour that the lesson parents haunt the sales floor, while the waiting room is too uncomfortably full of uking carollers? ha.

Songlist:
Me & Julio
Pay Me My Money Down
Tennessee Waltz
Hit The Road Jack
Wagon Wheel
Hey Good Looking
The Lion Sleeps Tonite

Uke Club, Fri. March 7, 2014

Song List:

The Lion Sleeps Tonite

Down By The Bay

What A Wonderful World

Fever

I'm Gonna Be A Country Girl

Brown Eyed Girl

Happy Birthday (to Peter)

You're Looking At Country

What Colour Are You

Yellow Bird

Carmelita (no paperwork)

Tennesee Waltz

The Lion Sleeps Tonight

We didn't have enough staff in the store that I could actually participate very much.  I rang in uke club practice room rental contributions at $17.  

For next week I propose some new steps:

[ ] back to group teaching room #7

[ ] free pass for role takers (secretary re: set list, librarian for refiling paperwork, host with a new song or 2?)

[ ] practice room contributions will be processed during intermission aka "shopping break"

[ ] MAXIMUM 3 NEW TUNES PER WEEK

[ ] MAXIMUM 5 COPIES OF EACH, no take homes

[ ] members will provide and share music stands

I also want to use some some sort of audio/photo permission sign in page.  I forgot to take the group uke photo, but I have a snap of participants in action that I don't know if I have their permission to publish or not.

Family Uke Jam, Sunday Mar 2, 2014

I am so glad I crashed the family jam hosted by Momma Uke.  I sure do want to be in her band!

It was fun to walk into the pub to be reunited with one of my ukes!  I should have handed out a biz card or two, or mentioned that I can sell them, because Cynthia gave it such an introduction, one man came up to meet it after the music.  He even took a picture of it, if you can believe it!  I thought it was a bit out of tune, and I hadn't loaned my tuner with it for the return that had just happened, so I have really GOT to learn to tune by ear.

my cfru toque made the video posted on facebook

I got there just in time for my "favourite" song, the Danny Michel one.  My kid seat neighbour didn't have the paperwork, and we couldn't see the projected song sheet  overhead screen run by the stand up bass ipad dad, ha, from where we were sitting, but I know a lot of the words and have practiced all the chords, and i love singing it!

One of our other-uke-club adult buddies was there, but she said she couldn't keep up, and admired how I snuck right in and at least tried to...  I was also there for Hey Soul Sister, Five Foot Two, Down By The Bay, one i didn't know but love, as they clearly did too, by Owl City.  It was so nice to hear all the kid voices! And to see them strumming their ukes.  Especially on the lyrics of a song called Brave, that they did by duress, yet all sang, "you can be amazing… be the outcast or backlash of somebody's lack of love...or you can start speaking up...say what you wanna say...let the words fall out... honestly, i want to see you be brave."  It was so beautiful!

Uke Club, Fri. Feb 28, 2014

The GREAT news is, the club has an accidental/new secretary!  An angel visited today to create an index of songs in the uke club binder. We have a few 2 chord songs, we have lots of 3 chord songs, and she listed a category of 4 chord songs as well.

The same aforesaid angel also refiled the loaner hand outs back in to the book after we played them, so I won't publish a song list this week...  isn't that cool?  In future though, we will also keep a list.

I remember we did the Lion Sleeps Tonite as both the almost-opener and closer.  Also that we had agreed to start with my request, the Danny Michel tune, What Colour Are You, as some complete beginners showed up, creating conflicting priorities, and that we then proceeded as planned - the newbies did like it, and mostly could keep up, but only a few folks sang tho.  We also did a new song from at least 2 members, really stretched out the paperwork for Will The Circle Be UnBroken by adding the real words, enjoyed Five Foot Two at a very perky pace and added Dreams back to the set.

I know I rang in Practice Room Rental Contributions at $32 less tea expense.  I think we resolved to keep music stands to a maximum of 5 and gather around that minimized maximum of photocopies.  We do 2 sided copies as 2 pages one sided and, also talked about an upcoming workshop with Eve Goldberg, a virtual ensemble project we are interested in being a part of, and the two uke-centric events this weekend being hosted by Cynthia Kinnunen.  We also created a mailing list to be maintained by a second accidental/volunteer secretary, ha.  And, it was good that I formally announced the Shopping Break, because there were transactions that needed to get done, well before the registers were closed down, ha.

Uke Club, Fri. Feb 21, 2014

Under The Boardwalk

Hey Good Lookin

Freight Train

My Girl

Da Do Ron Ron

Iko Iko

The Lion Sleeps Tonite

Love Call

Into The Mystic

Moody River

Practice Room Rental $32.75

It was more a uke row this week, instead of a uke song circle...

Uke Club, Fri. Feb 14, 2014

Today at uke club, you can tell I didn't remember the group shot until the very last minute!

At one point, brought the u-bass over for show and tell... but I put it back after half a song because
i.) i forgot for a second that it wasn't UKE club members i needed permission to bring a BASS into uke club from, but my co-workers i.e. as in use in the practice rooms in the lesson centre of instruments off the floor.  aren't we supposed to be doing paperwork about it?
ii.) i haven't looked at a bass chord chart in a while, and hadn't tuned it, and could only find G
iii.) p.s. unamplified (and played by me) it doesn't get to do itself justice.

I also showed a Kyser Capo, which someone asked about, and that we happen to have in stock.  I wished I'd also brought a Shubb mandolin option over for consideration.  A second-timer bought the student copy of Ukulele in the Classroom book I'd ordered in to show, and 2 others committed to buying it, including me.  The Teacher's version is still in the uke book bin - but more on that later.

Talk about your open door policy.  We set chairs right into the lesson studio doorways, to let the waiting area have more of a hallway while we gathered.  I wish more people showed up with their own music stands, and tea cups, and I need to learn more about...

Goals that we talked about this week include having Cynthia at least once a month to instruct us, and to invite some other special guests, including Ian Reid and Danny Michel.

Turn, Turn, Turn
Ruby Tuesday
Song For A Winter's Night
Brown Eyed Girl
Iko Iko
I Will Remember You
Lace And Pretty Flowers
What Colour Are You
Under The Boardwalk
The Lion Sleeps Tonite

Practice Room Rental $18

Uke Club, Fri. Feb 7, 2014

Today at uke club I put up my hand and said that I'd been practicing, if you can believe it, and felt the need for a variety on the D parts in "What Colour Are You"... since we go A to Asus4 in the other part for the variety, would D to Dsus4 work in those parts?  And, if so, how do you do it again?

We decided D6 (hooray, good question!) but in a different fingering than the bar chord we use in our rock 'n roll chord part each verse ha.

This Old Man

Hey Good Looking

I Will Remember You

What Colour Are You

Wagon Wheel

To Make You Feel My Love

These Boots Are Made For Walking

Hey Soul Sister

Tonite You Belong To Me

Five Foot Two

Learning the Game

Miss Ohio

The Lion Sleeps Tonite

Practice Room Rental $23

Uke Club Fri Jan 31, 2014

Love Is A Rose
You Ain't Going Nowhere
It's Alright Cheer Up You're Okay, Gayle Ackroyd All My Loving
I Still Miss Someone
Werewolves of London
Will The Circle Be UnBroken
PUG Riff
Iko Iko
I Will Remember You
What Colour Are You
Hey Soul Sister
The Lion Sleeps Tonite

 $6.50 Practice Room Rental

Uke Club Fri Jan 24, 2014

Warm Up Exercise, Reading Exercise (open strings)
This Land is Your Land
Hey Good Lookin'
I Walk The Line
Project Ukulele Gangsterism pattern, with our own made up lyrics...
Love Call
These Boots Are Made For Walking
I Will Remember You

Practice Room Rental $7

Uke Club Fri. Jan 17, 2014

7-7:45 Instructional Session, and new songs, with guest instructor
7:45 – 8 shopping break & group uke photo
8 – 8:15 open mic format??
8:15 – 8:45 jamming

Cynthia Kinnunen, by day, specializes in communications, fundraising, event planning, and is the Director of Resource Development for First Light Theatre in Guelph. She also has a blog called Little Red Mixtape, to promote Canadian music that she likes, old and new, on no fixed schedule. She also serves on the boards of the Guelph Arts Council and Guelph Youth Singers, and has a diploma in Arts Administration

As for her musical background, she has been playing since she was a child. She has studied piano, flute, bassoon, voice and ukulele, as well as becoming a certified Kindermusik educator. She completed her Grade Ten Royal Conservatory certificate in piano and went on to pursue an honours degree in music with a major in piano and secondary in oboe.  Recently she launched a ukulele club for grades five and six at a local school.  It was there I caught her teaching the very elements of reading music, from the Ukulele in the Classroom books.  I invited her here today to repeat that lesson, as a very selfish act, ha, and, for her to teach us the Danny Michel tune, that she's been working on with the kids, What Colour Are You.  Imagine a student interpreting it as a racist song! Its about a mood ring. With the diverse-humanist lyric "Why can't we all just communicate?"  Not many of the attendees had previously heard the song.  Luckily, I had an E10p at the ready, not to mention the tune on my iPhone!  I will post you the song list later.  I am still not clear about my copyright conduct in this club ha.  (I still have to look up if we can get that book in for customers at the store.)

Since the poster on head office's web site mentions the "song sheets from meeting #1" I'm also wondering, if the photocopies in the shared songbook were all taken on a day an instructor was present, are we legit? Do we submit setlists as NLMP or no? p.s. I haven't seen the 2014 license in the store yet.  But for sure, my notes for the day include:

What Colour Are You? Blackbirds Are Dancing Over Me, Danny Michel, 2012
Iko Iko

The C G Am F walk got started at least, ha.  It's a good lead in to the Shopping break.

I proposed The Lion Sleeps Tonite as our signature closing number.  Its Ian Reid's arrangement from a Folkway Music workshop when I was first in line to buy a ukulele, that Bev does at the Magnolia Open Stage once in a while.  Maybe one day we can play it making eye contact with each other instead of STARING at the paperwork, lol.

It's a bummer that the headstock of my borrowed Fender tenor uke is cut off in the photo.  My buddy Trish loans me just the best equipment, ha.

Practice Room Rental $21

Other Tunes We Played Together:
Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue
I Will Remember You
Stand by Me
I Walk The Line
These Boots Are Made For Walking
It Ain't Gonna Rain No More
Into The Mystic
Tennessee Waltz

Uke Club, Fri Jan 10, 2014

Auld Lang Syne
Song For A Winter's Night
I Will Remember You
I Walk The Line
C G Am F - parade to the uke tree
Wagon Wheel in the same pattern
You Can't Always Get What You Want
These Boots Are Made For Walking
Into The Mystic
The Lion Sleeps Tonight

"Thanks Kim, I had a great time. So inspiring. Who knew such greats songs could be so much fun. I was really energized and inspired. 6 ukes, or however many, fearlessly sang & strummed, strummed and sangand it was the magic of music, ukellele style. Thanks for your warm circle hospitality in holding and spiriting this venture and the commitment."

Practice Room Rental $18

Uke Club, Fri Jan 3, 2014

Auld Lang Syne
Song For A Winter's Nite
I Will Remember You
You Can't Always Get What You Want (strum pattern \ \  \ / \ /)
I Walk The Line

Practice Room Rental $4, 2 attendees + facilitator

Proposed Meeting Format

Tuning & Introductions

Warm-ups

[ ] finger exercise

[ ] lime and coconut

[ ] row row row your boat

C-scale?

Practice main chord changes of each song at least 5X before starting the tune.

7:50-8:05 "shopping break"

[ ] open mic format???

8:45 wrap up!

Musical Background

I have had some private lessons from Steve Briggs, Dave Clark, Fiona McCairely, Steve Sladkowski, Mike Brooks and Ian Reid.  And lots of valued coaching from Jeff Allman and also Jeff Bird. I thank Sam Turton for the singalongs that got me started in this town, and the T-jam for the education and joy that followed.  During these Guelph years I have attended workshops with James Gordon, Katherine Wheatley, Jane Lewis, Linda McLean, Eve Goldberg, Wendell Ferguson, Jude Vadala, Jason Raso, Vito Rezza, Jory Nash, Don Kerr, David Baxter, Ken Whitely, Rich Burnett, Tannis Slimmon, Louisa Kratka, Jonathon Byrd, Neville Quinn, John Switzer, David Newland, Tony Coleman, and Gurf Morlix.  I have sung in groups with Shannon Kingsbury and Sue Smith as well, and also participated in the Guelph Community Singers and the Element Improv Choir during the Jazz Festival. And, p.s. I don't think I have never missed a Cornerstone Campfire session with Greg Denton, ha.  Shall I go on?

Perhaps a list of performances?

PRACTICE RECORD

Date	Exercise	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total

Folk Music Ontario News:

And the winners are....

Congratulations to the five winners of our conference survey contest! Each of the following will receive complimentary registration for the 28th Annual FMO Conference, being held October 16-19, 2014 at the Westin Bristol Place in Toronto:

• Anthony 
• Joanna 
• Shelley 
• Brittany 
• Kim Logue

Thanks to everyone who completed the conference survey!

The 2014 L&M Guelph Uke Club Meeting Invite:

L&M Guelph Uke Club Meeting Sat Nov 23, 2013

Cynthia sent this pic

Annie sent me this pic

Do do ron ron
Jingle Bells
Country Roads
Freight Train
Lovecall
Have An Awesome Day
Rockin Around The Christmas Tree
Winter Wonderland
Mele Kalikmaka
Let It Snow
I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas
Santa Claus is Coming To Town
Santa Baby

Steve posted this pic on facebook

Week 8 Grade 5 Uke Club Meeting Guest Visit, Tue Nov 19, 2013 12:15

Hello Grade Five Ukulele Parents:

A really fun session today, I hope the kids enjoyed it.  Special guest, the multi-talented and creative Kim Logue, who works at Long & McQuade and runs the ukulele club there once each month, sat in today and sang and played along with us.  She thought it sounded great!  If you ever need ukulele help locally, make sure to visit Kim at L&M Guelph.

Today we moved quickly through some technique and warm ups, right into some songs: Jingle Bells and a new one, Iko Iko.  Link to this one is here but please note it’s not in the same key.  I transposed it for our group to make the chords easy to play.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQFYddXhU3U


So for this week, kids can work on:

1. finger picking exercise on all four strings (plucking one note at a time on each finger/fret, one string at a time)
2. Clapping and playing lines 1 – 5 in the Ukulele in the Classroom book
3. Jingle Bells (attached)
4. Iko Iko (attached in key of F)

Starting next week, I’ll be saving a few minutes at the end of each class for anyone who wants to share a song with us, either a cover or an original.  Please let your kids know they can prepare something to perform for the group, if they’d like.

Also, if your child is struggling with anything, please touch base with me and I’ll see what I can do to help

2013 L&M Uke Club "Press"

Ukulele club facilitates inclusive learning

"Logue is currently the store's lesson coordinator but advocated the creation of a ukulele club prior to finding employment with Long & McQuade."

Subject: Ukulele Club Launched in Guelph!
For Immediate Release (and for Event Listings)

A newly formed Uke Club will host its second gathering on February 23, 1pm at L&M Guelph at 30 Arrow Rd (at Woodlawn), and will be hosted by Gayle Ackroyd (photo by Kim Logue attached).

Bring your uke (or borrow one) to join in this friendly, informal group session! Seating is limited so an RSVP is recommended by email to guelphlessons@long-mcquade.com or by phone at 519-763-6709. The small fee of $6 will be requested of attendees.

The uke is as popular today as it has ever been. Interested parties of all ages and skill levels are invited to get together in a song circle to celebrate an instrument that is easy (especially to play and sing at the same time), portable, and fun!

At the first meeting, on January 26th, 2013, 16 participants with ukes gathered (photo by Kim Logue attached), sharing simple tunes from You Are My Sunshine, to Freight Train, to some original tunes from fellow participants, including local celebrity Ian Reid who stopped in to perform and lead others in his song "Starfish."

- ENDS

For more information, contact
Kim Logue
Long & McQuade
Musical Instruments & Lesson Centre
30 Arrow Road Guelph, ON N1K 1S6
519-763-6709
Where The Music Begins

2014 Proposal, Approved Oct 29, 013

2014 L&M-Guelph Uke Club Proposal

 

Friday night Uke Club meetings at L&M, from 7-9pm.  

 

Lessons Waiting Area, Piano Studio #5 or Drum Studio #6 preferred, but Group Teaching Room #7 is also available.  The meetings currently run themselves, I can work the floor vs. participate in the circle as store traffic dictates.

 

I would like to program guest hosts of the circle to provide a more instructional session once a month.  Invitations I would extend include Eve Goldberg (Blues Skies Orchestra Tune?), Ian Reid (You Are My Sunshine, Lean on Me, Starfish), Tricia Brubacher (Wagon Wheel, Sinead tune, original), Jeff Allman (Fever, Reading Music, Uke/Percussion Tips), Gayle Ackroyd (Cheer Up, Reading Tab). Maybe even Brennan Galley?

 

A $6 or pwyc charge for participants, will be input in the pos to sku 97 Practice Room rental.  Should the fee be higher for the sessions that include a lesson? And, can the guest hosts get a payout for the amount we collected?

 

Note that more of an effort can be made to make sales around meetings, especially music stands, tab & staff paper, pitch pipes, tuners and pencils.  Ukes and cases of course also.

 

Other Random Goals include either creating songbooks or using a projector for song charts during meetings.

 

A Blog Submission with the set list and other notes and mandatory ukes-as-a-group photo will be submitted to Head Office each week.  Side note: I would like the facilitating and promoting of these sessions to be a staff role, rather than taking lieu time, and name it the L&M-Guelph Uke Club.  What do you think? 

 

L&M Guelph Uke Club Meeting, Sat Oct 26, 2013