Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Lorna, Linda, Louise, Zenith, Lana. June, Barry, Lynn, Cathie and Heather met at the gallery. We practiced the set list for our performance at the Boyne Towers on Wednesday, September 27th. 

Next Wednesday, we will meet at the Towers. We will sit in a circle with two of our players together and then residents sitting between each pair of group members so they can easily follow the music and sing along. We will play through the set list and then play songs of our choosing to finish our normal two hour get together. Heather willl bring four stands and Lana will bring hers as well. Please take note that Lana sent on two sets of songsheets of the songs in easier keys to sing last week. I will re-send them together. 

You are my Sunshine

Amazing Grace

April Showers

By the light of the Silvery Moon

Cryin’ Time

Goodnight Irene

In the Good Old Summertime

Side by Side

Sentimental Journey

Take me out to the Ballgame

The Glory of Love 

I’ll See you in my Dreams

We'll Meet Again (take out repeat of We'll Meet Again part)

After we practiced the set list we played Down on the Corner, Cotton Fields, Don't Worry, Breaking Up is Hard to Do (from the Scorpex website), The Lion Sleeps Tonight (from Cynthia Lin), Rock and Roll Beat, Rox in the Box, That Saskatoon Moon, and our signature set ending song.

Heather reported on attending the Mass Appeal Ukulele event at the Via Rail Station on September 16, 2017. Over 65 ukulele players attended with representation from Winnipeg and Brandon as well. There were lots of compliments about our Boyne River Strum and Picnic held at Ryall Park last June and players were pleased to hear we will be holding a third annual strum and picnic in June 2018.

See you at Boyne Towers next Wednesday. :)

- Heather

Wednesday, September 13, 2017

Lynn, Lorna, Lana Louise and June played the songs that we will play on September 27th at the Boyne Towers.  Louise and Lana put together a playlist that will encourage audience participation.

Lana sent out the songs as well as some revisions to members.

Please note you may want to re-print the latest versions Lana sent as the keys are changed in some of them for easier singing.

Here is the list:

You are my Sunshine

Amazing Grace

April Showers

By the Light of the Silvery Moon

Cryin’ Time

Goodnight Irene

In the Good Old Summertime

Side by Side

Sentimental Journey

Take me out to the Ballgame

The Glory of Love 

I’ll See you in my Dreams

We'll Meet Again

We will meet at 7 p.m. at the gallery on Wednesday, Sept. 20 to practice for the Sept. 27th performance on the Towers.

September 6, 2017

Cathie, June, Lorna, Louise, Heather, Zenith, Lori and Tom attended our first return to Wednesday strums after the summer. 

We played: Breaking Up Is Hard To Do, Saskatoon Moon, Harvest Moon, Go Lassie Go, My Gal Sal, We're Going to be Friends, Tonight You Belong to Me,  One Tin Soldier (introduced by Lori), Rox in the Box, Lie Down Beside Me,  Hard Times Come Again No More, Have You Ever Seen the Rain, Summertime, Leaving on a Jet Plane, J. Edgar Hoover,  Cotton Fields, Country Roads, Tennesee Waltz (c too low g too high) January Wedding and our signature set ending song, which we did discuss changing in the future.

We still plan on playing at the Boyne Towers for our strum night on Wednesday September 27th. Bring a chair and stand as well as your music. Heather will bring four stands.

Anyone who is planning on attending the Mass Appeal ukulele event can find the songs and details here:

https://massappealwinnipeg.ca/2017ukuleles/

The event will take place on Saturday, September 16th at Oodena Circle at the Forks. Bring your music (preferably in a binder), a lawn chair, a music stand, clothes pins or binder paper clips for your music if its windy, and, of course your ukulele. Rehearsal takes place between 12:00 and 1:00 p.m. with tthe concert from 1:30 to 2:00 p.m. You can download and print the songs from the site and practice them ahead of time. Please not that Both Sides Now and Something to Sing About were recently corrected and re-uploaded by Kate to the site.

Even if you can't attend, there are some fun songs to play including a few that we play already at our strums.

We will meet again this coming Wednesday, September 13th  at the gallery.

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.