March 4 Ukulele Jam

Greetings!

We have an exciting week. First, the next ukulele jam is tomorrow, Wednesday, March 4, 7:00pm, at the Royal Tavern. Second, the next meeting of the Kingston Sing-along Society takes place this Friday, 7:30pm, at the Kingston Unitarian Fellowship, 206 Concession Street. The songs are typically three-chord folk songs, and ukulele players are always welcome. (I usually bring my banjo uke.)

And on Saturday, Jake Shimabukuro visits Kingston, with a show at the Grand Theatre. I checked the Grand Theatre website, and there are still tickets available. Jake has a busy schedule this week, with shows in Markham, Oakville, St. Catherines, and Burnstown, in addition to Kingston.

Stay tuned, though, there may be one further exciting event. But for now, keep your calendar free for Saturday afternoon.

Lately, I've been lazy, and haven't arranged any new songs for this weeks jam. I plan on bringing a few copies of our new favorites document, and leading the group in some of those songs. You can download the latest draft here. It's a lengthy document, so please print out your own copy. Based on discussion at the last jam, the only change from the last draft is the addition of a couple of Elvis Presley songs. As usual, feel free to bring copies of your own favorite songs.

We jam in the Royal Tavern, 344 Princess Street. Parking is normally available on Princess Street. Or park in the lot at the back of the Royal, off Brock Street, just past the fire hall. Be sure to show your appreciation to the Royal by visiting the bar and purchasing a beverage or two. Don't forget that they also offer soft drinks, in addition to their assortment of beers and other alcoholic drinks.

Cheers! Hans

February 18 Ukulele Jam

Greetings!

This brutally cold Winter continues to drag on. But we can forget about the cold for one evening this week while we enjoy our usual ukulele jam, 7:00pm this Wednesday, February 18.

Here are some songs I'll be bringing:

• Kansas City words by Bob Dylan, music by Marcus Mumford and Taylor Goldsmith
• Marrakesh Express by Crosby, Stills and Nash
• Massachusetts by the Bee Gees

Feel free to bring copies of your favorite songs. In addition, we'll further discuss the proposed songs for a new edition of our favorite song list. You can download a draft here.

We jam in the Royal Tavern, 344 Princess Street. Parking is normally available on Princess Street. Or park in the lot at the back of the Royal, off Brock Street, just past the fire hall. Be sure to show your appreciation to the Royal by visiting the bar and purchasing a beverage or two. Don't forget that they also offer soft drinks, in addition to their assortment of beers and other alcoholic drinks.

Cheers! Hans

February 4 Ukulele Jam

Greetings, ukulele fans!

Today was Groundhog Day. Today is when some hibernating mammal decides whether we'll have six more weeks of Winter, or if Spring will arrive in a month and a half. Regardless, this Wednesday is when we'll have our usual ukulele jam.

Come to the Royal Tavern, 7:00pm this Wednesday. If there's interest, we'll start with a beginners workshop. This will be followed by our usual open jam. You'll have your chance to show off your latest techniques, or lead the group with your favorite songs. I'll bring a few myself, including:

• Kokomo Beach Boys 1988
• Love Is All Around the Troggs 1967
• It Don't Come Easy Ringo Starr 1971
• San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair) Scott McKenzie 1967

Please feel free to bring copies of your favorites.

We jam in the Royal Tavern, 344 Princess Street. Parking is normally available on Princess Street. Or park in the lot at the back of the Royal, off Brock Street, just past the fire hall. Be sure to show your appreciation to the Royal by visiting the bar and purchasing a beverage or two. Don't forget that they also offer soft drinks, in addition to their assortment of beers and other alcoholic drinks.

Cheers! Hans

January 21 Ukulele Jam

Greetings, ukulele fans!

Our next ukulele jam is this Wednesday, January 21, at 7:00pm. If there's enough interest, we'll start with a beginner's workshop. This will be followed by our usual open jam, where you'll have your chance to show off your favorite song, or lead the group. If you want to lead the group with a song, be sure to bring extra copies. I usually bring a few songs too.

By the way, here's a little known fact about another stringed instrument: Take a tenor banjo tuned to its normal tuning, CGDA. First, switch around the 3rd and 4th strings. Then, re-tune the 2nd string up a whole note. You end up with a banjo that can be played exactly like a ukulele. The tenor banjo isn't very popular these days. However, there are a couple for sale in local stores. And Renaissance Music even has a tenor guitar. That's a small guitar tuned like a tenor banjo. But some people restring it with baritone uke strings.

We jam in the Royal Tavern, 344 Princess Street. Parking is normally available on Princess Street. Or park in the lot at the back of the Royal, off Brock Street, just past the fire hall. Be sure to show your appreciation to the Royal by visiting the bar and purchasing a beverage or two. Don't forget that they also offer soft drinks, in addition to their assortment of beers and other alcoholic drinks.

Cheers! Hans

January 7 Ukulele Jam - Three Chord Jam

Happy New Year, everyone!

We had a great 2014! Last winter, we returned to a twice a month schedule. In the spring, we held a Manitoba Hal workshop, which was well attended. And in the fall, we had some successful concerts. For the Christmas shows at Conservatory Pond and at the Fairmount Home, we had eight ukulele players performing seasonal favorites.

What does 2015 hold in store for us? We'll just have to wait and see. But for now, we have our next ukulele jam this Wednesday, January 7. We'll start with a workshop at 7:00pm. We'll focus on first steps for beginners, such as strumming basics. At 8:00pm, we'll have our open jam. And in order to make things easier for beginners, let's just bring three-chord songs. Note that this doesn't necessarily mean the usual I-IV-V type of three-chord song. Any song with just three chords will do. I've put together a few songs, packaged as one PDF. (I'll probably add a couple more before the jam.) Please feel free to bring copies of your own favorite three-chord songs.

We jam in the Royal Tavern, 344 Princess Street. Parking is normally available on Princess Street. Or park in the lot at the back of the Royal, off Brock Street, just past the fire hall. Be sure to show your appreciation to the Royal by visiting the bar and purchasing a beverage or two. Don't forget that they also offer soft drinks, in addition to their assortment of beers and other alcoholic drinks.

Cheers! Hans

December 17 Jam

Mele Kalikimaka, everyone!

Thanks to all who participated in the performances this past weekend! We all had a great time, singing songs with our ukes at the Conservatory Pond retirement home and at the Fairmount Home.

This coming weekend, some of us will be performing at the Sunday market at the Memorial Centre. If you're interested in joining us, we're scheduled for 11:00am to noon.

But now to this Wednesday's jam, at 7:00pm. We'll keep things informal, skipping the workshop. I suppose some people may not have gotten tired of Christmas songs yet, so we'll still do some. All I ask is that we do Christmas songs that we haven't already done this month. I've arranged some more Christmas songs, downloadable here. If you have your own favorite songs, holiday related or not, please do bring along copies.

We jam in the Royal Tavern, 344 Princess Street. Parking is normally available on Princess Street. Or park in the lot at the back of the Royal, off Brock Street, just past the fire hall. Be sure to show your appreciation to the Royal by visiting the bar and purchasing a beverage or two. Don't forget that they also offer soft drinks, in addition to their assortment of beers and other alcoholic drinks.

Cheers! Hans

December 3 Ukulele Jam - It's Christmas, Man!

Happy Holidays, everyone!

As the snow begins to fall, we know it's time once again for Christmas music. And so the theme of the December 3rd jam is, well, you know what! There are two reasons for doing the Christmas theme early in the month: First, this month is a busy time for everyone, and many people will probably be too busy to attend the December 17th jam. Second, this gives us a chance to practice in advance of our Christmas performance schedule.

Yes, that's right. We have a couple of Christmas-time gigs, both on Saturday, December 13. The first is at 10:00am at the Conservatory Pond retirement home, and the second is 2:00pm at the Fairmount nursing home. At the last jam, there were about eight of us who expressed interest in participating. But of course, the more the merrier. If anyone else wants to join in, just let me know. Between the two events, we'll probably meet somewhere in the middle for lunch.

In preparation for this week's jam, 7:00pm on Wednesday, December 3, I've prepared some songs appropriate to the season, downloadable here. I'll probably prepare a few more songs for Wednesday. And if there are songs you like that aren't in that list, please feel free to bring them along.

One more thing: I still have the $50 gift certificate from KingstonFest. I'll bring it on Wednesday, and give it away at random to one of the participants in that event.

We jam in the Royal Tavern, 344 Princess Street. Parking is normally available on Princess Street. Or park in the lot at the back of the Royal, off Brock Street, just past the fire hall. Be sure to show your appreciation to the Royal by visiting the bar and purchasing a beverage or two. Don't forget that they also offer soft drinks, in addition to their assortment of beers and other alcoholic drinks.

Cheers! Hans