Photos from our first two concerts (UkuleleCentralUK)

I have mentioned the ukulele club which I have joined (must be once or twice at least, LOL) and there is now a FaceBook group set up for the club. It is an open group so anyone can browse. Of course not too much to read or see at the moment but it may be of interest to ukulele lovers (you know who you are!).

Find it at https://www.facebook.com/groups/1642007132694396/.

I have " borrowed" a couple of photos from our first concerts; the first a Christmas concert and the second in support of Comic Relief - though thankfully not a red nose in sight. Just to complement the photos of me in my "red" get-up for the red-nose day theme.

They do say that "X" marks the spot but in this case the black arrow is pointing at me on the back row trying to be inconspicuous. Well actually, I am one of the tallest members of the group.

I have to admit that I picked up one of my guitars last week - the first time in ages. During which time we have been spending a lot of time developing a repertoire of songs for the ukulele group. IAt first I was baffled by the number of strings, it just didn't seem right. I am going to have to make sure that I play the six-string more regularly just to stay in touch.

Well, off for more practice (with the uke) our next concert is only three weeks away.

PS I have been asked to repeat my solo spot on that occasion. I ought to let you know that I am not the only soloist during the evening. AND I am told we are getting paid for the gig. The money will be going towards a club PA system. At the moment we rely heavily on one of our members for this facility.

My First Public Performance Playing The Uke.

Did I mention in the last post that the ukulele group I have just joined is giving a christmas concert in a couple of weeks time - and we only practice every other week. So after 4 meetings the whole group will be performing in public. It is a very mixed ability group, so the better players will hopefully carry the rest of us through the ordeal.

I have been busy, of course, practising the songs on our playlist. I find that one way of quickly identifying where the major problems are is to record and listen to my own playing. However some of the videos, etc, are worth sharing. At least I hope that some of my friends will think so. So in the name of friendship I am doing just that.

The concert will be based on Christmas songs released through the past few decades, however I am learning a few other songs to give myself the occasional break. The biggest problem in learning to play songs which are to be performed by the group is pitching the song so that everybody can join in. On many of the songs, my vocal range is such that I have issues with the keys in which I am playing those songs. For instance, in the first example, I am singing far too low to be able to do a good job of the vocal. Won't matter in the group setting (there are two dozen of us) but on my own it sounds, very strained.

This means that the other songs allow me to sing in my own key, as in the following:-

If you haven't seen any of my self-recorded videos yet, then let me explain that I make a feature of wearing different hats.

Quite honestly I am looking forward to the concert. I think I shall be enjoying it and it will be a chance to meet more of the group members, since the few meetings I have attended so far have been quite hurried things with little time to get around the large membership and chat to many of the other strummers. 

Let you know how it goes later.

BTW, if you are in the South Birmingham / Solihull area, the group meets on a wednesday twice each month. Room for more Strummers. We meet in the Rover Group social club and the only cost is membership of the club, a nominal annual charge.