Monday, August 28, 2017

Please Note: Our next session will be Wednesday, September 6th, the start to our return to Wednesday meetups at the gallery. 

We celebrated our last Monday meetup by playing some Canadian songs, old favourites and some new tunes. Louise, Zenith, Marge, Barry, Lana and Heather attended.

After we played Manitoba and Saskatoon Moon, Louise introduced the group to Glory of Love, a song, she, Lana and Lynn learned at the Silver Creek International Ukulele Carnival under the direction of Ukester Brown. It is a great song to practice moving chord shapes up and down the neck of your ukulele. Lana will be preparing an electronic version that I will then upload onto the blog. We then played Angeline the Baker, Cotton Fields, Darlin' Corey, House of Gold, Harvest Moon (which is coming along very well), Moon Shadow (chord sheet and practice video by Cynthia Lin is on the blog), Rox in the Box, Summetime (from the Bytown site on the blog), Sentimental Journey, Go Lassie (we picked the song in 3/4 time). Zenith gave us the chords to Breaking Up is Hard to Do which we will practice at home to try next time. We ended with our signature set-ending song.

We decided that we will hold our September 27th session, the last Wednesday of the month, at the Boyne Towers, with an invitation to Lodge residents.

The Ukulele Mass Appeal concert at the Forks will be Saturday, September 16th.  Some members will be attending or involved with planning for Carman's multicultural events being held throughout the month of September so we will not practice for the mass appeal event as a group. Some of the songs featured, however, are ones we have played before such as Sonny's Dream (the Ukulele Club of Winnipeg version has more verses), Four Strong Winds, Harvest Moon, and Manitoba. More information about the Mass Appeal ukulele concert and the song sheets can be found here: https://massappealwinnipeg.ca/2017ukuleles/

Hope to see you next Wednesday at the gallery!

- Heather

August 21, 2017

We had a bit bigger crowd this Monday evening as members came back from holidays and a couple of special guests joined us. Regular members Louise, Cathie, Judy, Heather, Lynn, Ian and Linda attended. Jack McKinnon joined the McKinnon family, attending to listen and sing along, and Kelly, Linda and Jack's grandson and Ian's nephew, joined us in playing and singing. He is a musically talented 13 year old and we look forward to him joining us again perhaps during winter break. 

Songs we played included: The Gambler, Sonny's Dream, Rain and Snow, Take One Last Look, Moonshadow (remember to check out the Cynthia Lin tutorial video and chord sheet that was sent and posted previously), Stand by Me (from the Vancouver book, second version), The Saskatoon Moon, January Wedding, Should I Stay or Should I Go (from the Vancouver book), Down On the Corner, Wagon Wheel, Tonight You Belong to Me, Hallelujah, Love Potion #9, Rox in the Box, Angeline the Baker, Cryin' Time, Redwing, Farewell to Nova Scotia, Under the Boardwalk and our signature set ending song. 

We decided the group would start meeting again on Wednesday evenings instead of Mondays starting the first Wednesday after Labour Day.

We hope to perform to raise some money for the gallery and the Active Living Centre and will also be investigating playing at the Farmer's Market, the Boyne Lodge and perhaps a couple of other locations in September. 

Hope to see you all at the train station next Monday, August 28.

Monday, August 14, 2017

After a bit of a hiatus as various members were on holidays, Bria, Lorna, Linda, Zenith, Lana, Judy, Barry, Louise, and Heather met at the gallery.


I forgot to write all of the songs down but we played a lot of old favourites including Wagon Wheel, Cotton fiields, Have You Ever Seen the Rain, Grow Old with You, Harvest Moon (coming along nicely), l'll See You in my Dreams, Walk Away, Three Little Birds, Rock and Roll Beat /I've Got Rhythm, The Littlest Worm (to the tune of the goat song - Heather will write out and distribute), Leaving on a Jet Plane (inspired by Lana's re-telling of what she termed the best Winnipeg Folk Festival she has ever attended where Peter of Peter, Paul and Mary fame performed and brought the audience to tears with his brilliance), Summertime, Sonny's Dream in C (we will try it in F again next time), That Saskatoon Moon, Silverwings, Something Stupid in F, Tonight You Belong to Me,  You Belong to Me in C. Love Potion #9, Cryin' Time, You Don't Know Me, and our signature set ending song. 

We will meet again next Monday evening in the gallery from 7-9 p.m.

Hope to see you then :)

July 31, 2017

UPDATE:  The group hasn't been meeting the last couple of Monday evenings because people have been away. Tonight the group won't meet at the gallery as our group email revealed that only a couple of people could make it. So, Linda and Lorna at least will be meeting at Lorna's house.  If anyone else would like to join them, check the group email for the address or email Heather at lady.library@gmail.com and I will forward you the address.

June 26, 2017

NOTE as Lana mentions below, we will not meet this Monday evening July 3 unless someone wishes to get the key from Louise.

June, Manae, Zenith, Linda, Lorna, Judy, Louise, Lana, Cathie, Lynn after baseball and Tom and Lori attended.  We practiced Moonshadow by Cynthia Lin-- just with the strum for now.  The tutorial is good help for practicing the fingerpicking.  Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJgHgFtVKPk&feature=youtu.be.  Other songs: Manitoba, I Like Ukuleles, Rain n Snow,  Saskatoon Moon, Rox in the Box,  Cotton Fields,  I'll See you in my Dreams, You Belong to Me.  Harvest Moon, Rock n Roll Beat (harmonies were great) and others I forgot.

June brought A Harlem Goat (the song, not the beast) and Anytime. 

This was Manae's last night with us-- she leaves this week to return to Japan-- but she promised to keep in touch and to watch the blog for our new songs.  She brought special (Japanese) treats for us.  Thanks so much, Manae.  We wish all the best for you: health, happiness and a safe trip home.

Since next week is Folk Fest and people are busy with July 1st festivities etc. we decided not to meet next Monday.  However, if you really need your Uke-fix-- Louise will happily relinquish the key.

Happy Canada "150" to all.

- Lana

I was sorry to miss ukulele night this week but was busy getting slideshows ready for Manae's graduation. She will be missed from our school and our club as well. She will be taking home the Luna Peace ukulele I loaned and now gave her for a parting/grad gift.  She confirmed with me yesterday at grad that she will indeed be following our ukulele journey on the blog. During her grad speech she said she would be thinking of ways to come back to Canada to visit again. I'm sure playing ukulele with us again will be one of them. 

The tutorial for Moonshadow that Lana emailed our member list can be found on the practice videos page on the blog. You can download the chord sheet directly from the video as Cynthis mentions. We have also emailed it to club members. 


- Heather

June 19, 2017

Cathie, Barry, Lynn, Lana, Louise, Lorna, June, Zenith  practiced Harvest Moon (3 times-- getting there-- the harmony sounds good), Sonny's Dream, The Saskatoon Moon, Rox in the Box, Flowers on the Wall, Darlin' Cory-- one time slow and then second time-- fast, Cotton Fields, Walk Away, I'll See you in my Dreams, You Belong to Me, Wildflowers and lots of others. (I'd rather play than write) We accompanied Louise in two of her Clawhammer songs-- sounded really good.

Only Cathie from the group that attended tonight will be able to play on Wednesday night. 

Lana will practice I Like Ukuleles and try to teach it to the group next week.

- Lana

It sounds like Cathie, Linda, Heather and Lynn will be able to play at the Boyne Library this Wednesday. We will play from 5:30 to 6:00 and 6:30 to 7:00.  These are the songs we discussed playing (I sent the below note to some of you already), however we can have our binders and the Vancouver Circle book ready if we need more songs.

Songs for Wednesday June 21 at the Boyne Library:

Four Strong Winds, Manitoba, Farewell to Nova Scotia, Ise the Bye, Sonny's Dream, The Saskatoon Moon, Rox in the Box (could be about a Canadian mine just as easily) and if we need some extra songs, Red Wing, Silver Wings, Wildflowers and perhaps You Are My Sunshine for a sing along, especially since there should be kids there. 

- Heather

June 12, 2017

Marge, Lana, Cathie, Kim, Louise, Zenith, Manae and Heather attended.

We played Harvest Moon which is coming along nicely, Manitoba, Annie's Song which Marge brought along, Hard Times Come Again No More, I'll See You In My Dreams, Jolene, Rox in the Box, Silver Wings, Red Wing, Wildflowers, Three Little Birds, You Belong to Me and out signature set ending song.

We have been asked to play outside at the Boyne Regional Library for their Canada 150 event on Wednesday, June 21. Many members will be golfing (hence why we have been practicing Mondays instead of Wednesdays for the last three weeks) but Heather, Lynne and Linda have said they can attend so far.

Since we have been asked to play Canada and outdoor songs we have come up with the following set list:

Four Strong Winds, Manitoba, Farewell to Nova Scotia, Ise the Bye, Sonny's Dream, The Saskatoon Moon, Rox in the Box (could be about a Canadian mine just as easily) and if we need some extra songs, Red Wing, Silver Wings, Wildflowers and perhaps You Are My Sunshine for a sing along, especially since there should be kids there. The event is from 5-7 pm.  Do we have players who can play between 5 and 6 and then again from 6:30 to 7?  Erica is playing from 6:00 to 6:30. They will play music from the clock tower until we would be ready.  The violin girls will be away at camp.