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