Sad News

Most of you will already have been notified by Anne and Joan of the sad news that Roberta Fullerton died suddenly just before Christmas. Roberta had been with Dee Ukes since we started in September and was very enthusiastic about learning and playing her ukulele. Her contribution to the group was greatly valued and she will be sadly missed. Our thoughts are with her family and friends at this difficult time.

Having recently spoken to Roberta’s sister Dorothy, she extended an invitation to anyone from Dee Ukes who would wish to attend the funeral. The service will be held at Dundee Crematorium on Tuesday, January 6, at 2.45pm. My intention is to attend the service directly after our first Dee Ukes meeting of the New Year.

Opportunities for 2015

Ed Link, who runs the Perth U3A ukulele group, has been in touch with me.  He has suggested that at some point next year we could have a joint concert with his group. This sounds like a great idea and I will keep you up to date with any further developments.

Ed also brought to my attention an exciting opportunity to improve our ukulele skills by attending a ukulele workshops weekend in Glasgow, from Saturday 31st January – Sunday 1st February 2015. This is organised by Celtic Connections and you can click on the link to find out more. I will discuss this further when we meet again on 6th January. Unfortunately I cannot attend myself as I am going on holiday at that time, but I hope some of you will be able to take advantage of such a wonderful opportunity.

We have also been invited to play at Oaklands Day Centre, Morven Terrace, Dundee DD2 2JU on Tuesday 20th January 2015 from 1.45pm for around 30-40 minutes. As the clients are just there for a couple of hours in the afternoon, timing means we would not be able to have our Tuesday class at the normal time. However, there is a possibilty we could have our Dee Ukes class earlier so that those who cannot attend the concert will still have their practice! Again, I will discuss this with everyone on 6th January.

The above events are also listed on the Events tab.

Hope the Christmas preparations are all completed in time for you all to sit back and enjoy the festivities!

🙂

Party Time!

Dee Ukes Christmas singalong certainly had a great party feel, entirely due to the ever enthusiastic members who entered into the spirit of things with great gusto – and a few props! There was no shortage of volunteers to do their party pieces. The line up was:

• Pat kicked off proceedings with his brilliant rendition of King of the Road.
• Barbara had us all beating our ukulele/drums to accompany her beautiful performance of Huron Carol.
• George entertained us on his banjo with Waltzing Matilda.
• Maggie made her debut singing a great Irish song called Belfast Mill – brought a tear to my eye.
• Our newly formed group Four Plus Two (aka Alice, Denis, Ann P, Ken, Barbara and Moira), complete with wigs, props and choreography, had us in hysterics with their rendition of Sitting in the Back Seat Kissing and a Hugging with Fred. 
• Our Christmas song quiz was fun and resulted in a lot of chocolate being distributed to the most competitive mebers!
• Our second group of the afternoon called the OMGs (aka Mr Pat and his backing group, Mrs Pat, Catherine, Marge and Sandra) gave a very polished performance of The Wonder of You. At least I think that’s what waving cloths was all about! ( I may consider a small prize for the best translation of the OMGs! Please send in your suggestions by midnight on Sunday 21st December.
• Denis chose to sing and play a John Denver song entitled This Old Guitar – brought another tear to my eye.
• Jim performed an amusing little ditty from Yorkshire On Ilkley Moor Baht’ at. Grant played a supporting role and we all joined in with the choruses.
• Liz and George, on guitar and banjo respectively, sang a unique version of Come All ye Fair and Tender Ladies.
• Ann P, despite not really volunteering to do so, rose admirably to the occasion singing & playing The Coat She Wore.
• Maggie rounded off the party pieces with 500 Miles (If You Miss the Train I’m On version). Well done again!

We had time for everyone to sing a couple of our Christmas songs at the start and finish of our party. There was plenty to eat and drink. Thanks to those who brought extras.

 

 

 

A huge thanks to everyone who came along and joined in with the fun and entertainment. What a great time we had!

I must also thank everyone very much for the card, voucher and bottle! Greatly appreciated. I’ll say again that it is such a privilege to be with you all on a weekly basis and share in the fun that we have.

I hope you all have a fantastic time at Christmas and wish you all the best for the New Year. We will be starting again on Tuesday 6th January 2015.

I have put a playlist of  video clips on the website for your entertainment! Have a look at Dee Ukes in Action! Very Impressive!

🙂

Lesson/Meeting 15

Lesson/Meeting 9th December:

Discussed arrangements for next week’s Dee Ukes Christmas Sing-a-long on 16th December. This will be the last get together this year and will start at 12.15pm. Hope everyone can make it for the earlier than normal start. If not, just come along when you can.

I am delighted that no less than nine party pieces have been volunteered, involving at least fourteen people! Should be fun 🙂

Alice mentioned that we have been invited to do a ‘gig’ ( 🙂 ) at Oaklands Day Centre, Morven Terrace, Dundee DD2 2JU, in January 2015, possibly on Tuesday 20th January. Date and time are to be confirmed.

Our class time was spent going over all of our Christmas songs and finishing with a practice of Blowin’ in the Wind which we will add to our playlist for next year.

Some of us went on to Anne’s Christmas Party where we performed Away in a Manger and Deck the Halls. Well done to all who took part. The entire afternoon was great fun with lots of entertainment, fun games and food! Thanks Anne!

🙂

Dee Ukes in Action!

Just a quick message to say that I have added a video of Dee Ukes singing in the Overgate at the end of November. Have a look at Videos/Dee Ukes in Action! tab.

Thanks to Hamid Rasheed for taking and agreeing to share the video. Thanks also to Denis and his brother for assisting with the technicalities!

Just a reminder that next week (16th December) we will be having our Dee Ukes Christmas Sing-a-long. I am delighted that so many people have agreed to do a little party piece. The fun starts at 12.15pm if you can make it for the earlier time. See you all then.

🙂

 

Festive Fun at Fintry

 

A huge thank you to all who played and sang at the Finmill Christmas Show last week. I think everyone did very well and we sounded really good. I think we even got a bit of a cheer at the end! It was great fun to be part of a community show. I think you will agree we all look very festive.

🙂

Lesson 14 / Information Update

For those who are attending the Finmill Christmas Concert on Friday 5th December, the arrangements are as follows:

• Meet at the Finmill Centre by 6pm if possible. We will be allocated a room to gather.
• Wear something festive if possible. I will bring along extra Santa hats!
• The concert starts at 6.30pm and we are the third act – not sure how long the first two will be.
• We will be singing Silent Night, Deck the Halls, Away in a Manger and Jingle Bells, in that order.
• For those who are also in Anne’s singing group, she has informed her members that we will be singing in the second half. Selected songs are The Little Drummer Boy, Little Donkey, Mary Had a Baby and The Virgin Mary Had a Baby Boy.

The folk-singing party is on 9th December at the usual time of 2pm. The ukulele players will be singing/playing Silent Night and Jingle Bells as our little party piece.

The U3A Christmas lunch is on Monday 15th December at 12 for 12.30pm @ Woodlands Hotel. For those attending, we will be playing/singing Silent Night and Jingle Bells. Members from Anne’s singing group will join us and hopefully all the other U3A members will sing along.

Dee Ukes Christmas sing-a-long will be on 16th December which will be our last meeting this year. (We will resume on Tuesday 6th January) I am hoping that some Dee Ukers will do a little party piece, either as a solo or in groups. I will take names next week, so that I can put together a little programme. We will be going through our entire book of Christmas songs. Can’t believe we have covered ten songs and learned all those chords! Brilliant progress! Don’t worry if you haven’t quite mastered everything. We will have fun!

For those who couldn’t make it today, we practiced the seven Christmas songs that we played in the Overgate and had a go at the following new songs:

• I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas (new chord Cm)
• Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree (new chord Bm / simplified version using bottom 3 strings only)
• We Wish You a Merry Christmas (new chord E7) If you are struggling with E7 then (for the time being only!) you can play chord C instead and it will sound ok.

I was very impressed with our first attempts at all three new songs. We will practice them all again next week.

🙂

 

Festive Fun in the Overgate

I have added a video of the festive fun we had in the Overgate on Saturday 29th November. Hope you enjoy it! (Videos/Dee Ukes in Action!)

I have also added a photo taken at the Overgate.

🙂