Wednesday, December 5, 2018

UPDATE: I sent out some ukulele links for Christmas carols and seasonal tunes via email. You can also find links here. See Lana's email for details on the December 12th strum.

- Heather

Barry, Linda, Verna, Thelma, Lynn, Lana, Marge, Louise and Lorna attended. Hope I didn't forget anyone

Songs: Early Morning Rain, If I Needed You, I'll See you in my Dreams, Cryin' Time, Song for a Winter's Night, You don't know me, Fannin Street, Silent night, Come on Ring Those Bells, Harvest Moon, Angeline the Baker, Rock and Roll Beat, This World is not My Home, Leaning on the Everlasting Arms, Silver Wings, Working Man, Rox in the Box, Me and Bobby McGee, Moon River, Lie Down beside Me, Hey Good Looking' and We're Going to be Friends.

It was one of the best quality strums we have done.  We nailed some of those songs we struggle with and had a great time doing it.

- Lana

I'll be updating the blog with some posts about what we've been doing the last month or so for those of you following along from home or afar. 

- Heather

Sunday, December 3, 2018

It was an honour to perform at the Sonatrice Singers' Christmas Cheer Board concert on Sunday afternoon.

The concert featured performers aged from 11 to 100. A special treat was a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday for 100 year old Carm Colvin who was there playing piano with the Scratching Fiddle Band. There were also performances from some students, a trio who sang, part of the band Group Therapy, the Active Living Centre Choir, the United Church Choir and, of course, the Sonatrice Singers themselves.

Our first tune was Ring Those Bells with Lana not only playing ukulele and singing but adding some jingling bells to accompany us.

For our second tune, which we kept sort of a surprise by not mentioning it on this blog or elsewhere, was, the Good Ole Hockey Game. Deanna, who was playing organ at the venue for a number of acts during the concert, channeled a hockey game organist and provided us with a  a fantastic intro - Da, da, da, da, da, da.... Da, da, da, da, da, da... Da, da, da, da, da, da,... 

Lynn and Barry provided a count down and then came in with, "Hello out there... we're on the air. It's hockey night tonight..."

Lynn, Barry and Tom, who accompanied us on bass ukulele, sang the verses while Barry called out the period "updates". We all joined in for the chorus parts and yelled out our cheers for the Beavers and "He shoots, he scores!" at the end. 

It was great fun to play and sing and enjoy the other performances. I recommend attending this annual concert to start the holiday season.


- Heather

Saturday, December 1, 2018

Photo courtesy of Philip Natividad instructor for a workshop some of our members signed up for on the Beatles strum. It sounds like it was a great workshop and I'm sorry I missed it. I was thinking of you while sipping hot chocolate and singing Christmas carols at the Christmas at the Museum event (sadly, no Beatles tunes). We are hoping to host another workshop this spring so watch this space for more details. 

- Heather