Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Zenith, Louise, Cathie, Karen, Lana, Judy, June, Lorna and Lynn decided on a tentative playlist for the Christmas Banquet at ALC.

Songs are:

Cryin' Time, Wagon Wheel, Red Wing, Sentimental Journey, Love Potion #9, Walkin' After Midnight, Spanish Melody, Unclouded Day, Bring Me Little Water Sylvie.  We recognize that this list may need to be altered, but we will practice these.

The Christmas portion will be:

Mele Kalikimaka, Let it Snow by us and then a Sing-a-long of White Christmas, O Come All Ye Faithful, Deck the Halls, Silent Night, Winter Wonderland, We Wish you a Merry Christmas and Christmas in Killarney, to be edited as well.

As members will not be able to practice all the songs this week, I suggest that we concentrate on Wagon Wheel and Cryin' Time for next Wednesday.

- Lana

Sounds like it was another great night. I will be sure to practice the songs listed and hope to see you next Wednesday. - Heather

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

We had three new people out last night:  Cathie Waldie, Karen Tjaden and Zenith Coates. 

Deb, Lorna, Louise, Lynn, Becky and I rounded out the group... fun!

We played:  You are My Sunshine, Rain n Snow, Red Wing, Wagon Wheel, Bring Me LIttle Water, On Top of Spaghetti, Jolene and Blame it... along with a few others. 

Louise taught us Spanish Melody-- Cathie and Karen seemed quite interested in tabs and chord melody.

We have been asked to do the Christmas dinner at the Active Living Centre.  I tentatively agreed and the group concurred.  Karen mentioned that Sonatrice would be asking us to do their Christmas concert as well.

With that in mind-- I will bring Mele Kalikimaka next week.  

- Lana

Sunday, September 18

Nine people attended the ukulele workshop at the gallery today. Kate Ferris with backup from her husband, luthier Fred Casey, began the session with a history of the ukulele. Despite its popularity in Hawaii, the ukulele was actually first introduced to Hawaii by sailors from Portugal when they brought two similar small guitar-like instruments with them to the island shores.

Kate took us through some different sizes and kinds of ukuleles. We got to see some of the fine ukuleles made by Fred including a domed back bass ukulele and an eight string ukulele as well as a a vintage 1920s Hawiian ukulele he and Kate found in an antique shop in Morden,

As we had a few beginners in the group we began by looking at how to make chord shapes, starting with C, F and G. After learning G7, we played "Jambalaya". Next was "You Are My Sunshine", a popular C, F and G7 song for players just starting out. Throughout the workshop Kate showed us how you can easily add extra embellishments to a song to make it more interesting.  For "You Are My Sunshine", following Kate's song sheet arrangement, we added a C7 on the first and fifth line, and an Am on the third line and seventh line.

Next we moved on to "Jamaica Farewell" which we played with a calypso strum.

With Bob Marley's "Three Little Birds" we learned a reggae strum, or at least a Manitoba version, drumming our ukes for the first beat to account for the strum beat coming on the second and fourth beats instead of the first and third.

Another extra embellishment we worked on was adding stops to songs . In the sheet music for "Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue" a stop was designated by an "x". The "x" (in the case of this song we actually moved it from where it was marked to directly above on the previous line) indicates where the player would quickly dampen all the strings.

Again employing a calypso strum we played "Under the Boardwalk" with a call and answer effect on the chorus split between the male and female singers.

After a short break we played "King of the Road". Kate taught us, with a very nice Circle of Fifths chord wheel she supplied in our song packages, how to easily transpose the key of the song from C to G.

Next up was "Tonight You Belong to Me". Kate pointed out that many different famous versions of the song have been recorded including:

the original by Gene Austin

this version by Patience and Prudence which inspired most of the modern day covers of the song

Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters' version from the movie The Jerk

Eddie Vedder and Cat Power's version

this version with the pink ukulele that went viral

and my second favourite version (my first being The Jerk version) that Kate didn't mention that features Zooey Deschanel and Ben Schwartz

A particularly interesting add on to the song was the full barre 6th fret slide to a full barre on the 7th fret at the end of the song.

Kate and Fred introduced reading tabs using the simple song, "When the Saints Go Marching In". After trying the tabs we broke into two groups with one group playing the tab while the other group played the chords. Then we switched so everyone got a turn playing the tab.

Expanding our knowledge of tabs to include multiple finger placements in one tab, we next played the Beatles tune, "And I Love Her" featuring a beautiful tab intro and extro.

Still working on tabs, we learned the main beginning riff for John Lennon's "Imagine", with some of us also incorporating the riff throughout the song. Departing from the supplied song sheet we switched the 2,3,4 riff on the G strong to an open, 1, 2, 3 riff on the A string.

Our final song was the classic Hawaii-inspired Tiny Bubbles with Kate filling in some Hawaiian lyrics.

Thanks to Kate and Fred for an informative and enjoyable workshop and to Brenda and Louise for coordinating the arrangements for the session.

Kate reminded us about the Ukulele Club of Winnipeg Strum at the Kings Head every second Sunday (the next one will be October 2 from 2-4:30), and the monthly Tuesday jam at Casa Grande Pizzeria (the next one will be Sept. 20 from 6:30 - 9:00 p.m.). In the future the Winnipeg club will be organizing sessions at the Casa Grande Pizzeria once a month where members can learn one or two songs in depth.  You can find out more about the Ukulele Club of Winnipeg here.

Hope to see you next Wednesday evening at our strum at the gallery starting at 7 p.m.

- Heather

Wednesday, September 14

Lorna, Louise, Lana, Lynn, Heather, Deb and June attended. June brought a new song, "Daydream" in G and Lana brought "We'll Meet Again" in C.  We didn't get a chance to work on "Silent Night" or "Spanish Melody" however we played a lot of our regular favourites including:  "Cryin' Time", "Silver Wings", "Bring Me Li'l Water Silvy", "Love Me Tender", "Unclouded Day", "Walk Away", "You Don't Know Me", "Red Wing", and "Lie Down Beside Me" on which we spent considerable time. 

Remember, if you are interested, the mass appeal ukulele concert is Thursday, Sept. 15 at the Forks. You can find all of the songs and recordings of the songs in a previous post.

Don't forget the ukulele workshop conducted by Kate Ferris in Carman the afternoon of Sunday, Sept. 18. The cost is $55 for gallery members and $60 for non-members. A gallery membership is $15. The workshop will be held on the main floor of the gallery.

We will meet again Wednesday Sept. 21  at 7 p.m. on the second floor of the gallery, although perhaps we may see if we can move to the main floor as our numbers are growing assuming there isn't someone else using the first floor space.

Update:

The Mass Appeal ukulele concert was a success with about 85 participants and another 100 people or so watching and listening.  You can read an article about the event here. Kate said there is sure to be another event next year so hopefully at least some of us can make it. :)

Wednesday, August 31

From Lana:

Lorna, Kim, Lynn, Lana and June attended. June brought a new song, Mandy Lee and we decided we would practice it for next week.  We also want to practice Jolene, January Wedding and Lie Down Beside Me.  In the last two we struggled some with the timing. 

Next week we will try to remember to learn Spanish Melody and Silent Night early in the evening.

Lana will bring We'll Meet Again

We played some of the usual songs as well.

From Heather:

Remember, if you are interested, the mass appeal ukulele concert is Thursday, Sept. 15 at the Forks. You can find all of the songs and recordings of the songs in a previous post.

Contact Brenda Major at Golden Prairie Art Council if you are interested in participating in a ukulele workshop conducted by Kate Ferris in Carman the afternoon of Sunday, Sept. 18. The cost is $55 for gallery members and $60 for non-members. A gallery membership is $15. The workshop will be held on the main floor of the gallery.

We will meet again Wednesday Sept. 14th  at 7 p.m. on the second floor of the gallery.

Wednesday, August 31

Lorna, Louise, Lana, Lynn, Heather, Kim, Tom and Lori attended. Tom added some bass and Lori added some banjo and additional harmony beyond the harmonies we currently use in a few of our songs such as Cryin' Time, Wagon Wheel, and Bring Me L'l Water Sylvie. 

We played the following songs: Hello Mary Lou p 76 in the Vancouver Circle book, Come On Up to the House, Red Wing, Cryin' Time, Wagon Wheel, Don't Be Cruel, Silver Wings, Walk Away by Tom Waits, Bring Me L'ill Water Sylvie, Rain and Snow, You Don't Know Me, Tonight You Belong to Me in C (we also play this in G), Love Potion #9 from the Vancouver Circle book, The Whistling Gypsy Rover, January Wedding (we are going to work on the timing from D to A), Unclouded Day in G, Farewell to Nova Scotia from the Vancouver Circle book with no stops and the extra C that the Ukuleel Group of Winnipeg play, and we repeated the last line, Jolene, All I Want is You, and our set ending song.

Lana brought a nice arrangement of Silent Night but we didn't have a chance to look at it as a group yet. 

Remember, if you are interested, the mass appeal ukulele concert is Thursday, Sept. 15 at the Forks. You can find all of the songs and recordings of the songs in a previous post.

Contact Brenda Major at Golden Prairie Art Council if you are interested in participating in a ukulele workshop conducted by Kate Ferris in Carman the afternoon of Sunday, Sept. 18. The cost is $55 for gallery members and $60 for non-members. A gallery membership is $15. The workshop will require 10 participants to go ahead and will be tailored by Kate to all levels. You will need to bring a ukulele. A number of us have signed up as have a couple of other community members. The number was under ten so far but you or your friends have until Sept. 15 to sign up. :)

We will meet again Wednesday Sept. 7th  at 7 p.m. on the top floor of the gallery.