New Songs Galore!

Wishing all those who have succumbed to various nasty bugs doing the rounds just now, a speedy recovery! Despite our diminished numbers at the class yesterday we forged ahead with a variety of songs. We practised the following songs which are fairly new to us:

Blowin’ in the Wind

Dundee Songs – Thanks to those who helped out with the tune at the start! (We just about managed to get it right Pat!)

Save the Last Dance for Me

You Are My Sunshine

We tackled no less than five new songs, listed below:

Newport Braes – this is a lovely song, especially for those who remember the “Fifies”. Thanks go to Sheena Wellington who has given us permission to sing her song. 🙂

Dance the Night Away – This song has only 2 chords so is easy to play, but there were some issues with speed and tune. The You Tube video of the Mavericks singing this song is on our website and is worth having a little listen to.

Bad Moon Rising in Key D – there is another version of this song on our website in Key G if that suits anyone better.

Ye Banks and Braes – no problems with this one.

Flower of Scotland – This could become our national anthem!

Thanks again to everyone for making it a fun class and happily having a go at so many new songs in one sitting!

I did get a comment from someone in the office that it was good to hear some new songs! Didn’t realise we were being listened to every week!

Enjoy the next two weeks without me! Hopefully Pat will be well enough to take over. If not, I have every faith that you will all carry on regardless. Keep strumming!

🙂

Website Updates

Just letting you know that I have added the following videos to the ‘You Tube Videos of Our Songs’ tab:

Dance the Night Away

Bad Moon Rising

Ye Banks and Braes

Flower of Scotland

Wild Rover

All I Have to Do Is Dream

The above songs are new and are all available to download from our song sheets tab. ( Note version in Key D for Bad Moon Rising and version Key D for Flower of Scotland). I will also have copies available for use tomorrow as well as the two weeks I am unavailable. Just a reminder that Newport Braes is now version 1.1. There is no available video for this one.

I have also added videos of the following songs which were recently introduced:

You Are My Sunshine

Save the Last Dance for Me

Blowin’ in the Wind

Bye Bye Love

I am looking forward to catching up with everyone tomorrow. See you all soon hopefully.

🙂

Well Done!

Having had very positive feedback from several people, I have to say a massive thank you to all of you who turned up at Oaklands Day Centre and entertained the clients. From what I hear everyone had a great time. I am also indebted to Pat who not only took the class on Tuesday, but led the way admirably at the concert. Thanks Pat! 🙂

You can see everyone in action in the following photos.  Very impressive! Thanks again Pat for organising that. I am so proud of you all and am looking forward to seeing everyone next Tuesday. 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good Luck for Tomorrow

I hope everyone enjoys the class tomorrow (20th Jan.) from 12 noon  – 1pm. Good luck to all who are participating in the concert at Oaklands.

I have added a few songs to our website for future consideration, mainly based on requests. They are:

Wild Rover

Dance the Night Away

Flower of Scotland in D

Flower of Scotland in G

Ye Banks and Braes

All I have To Do Is Dream

I have also updated Waltzing Matilda to version 1.1.

Looking forward to seeing you all next week. (27th Jan. )

🙂

Let it Snow. Let it Snow. Let it Snow! – Lesson 17

Hope everyone is coping well with the snowy conditions at the moment. Our numbers were slightly down yesterday due to the weather with some areas being more badly affected than others. However, 19 hardy souls ventured out and about with ukuleles in hand! Many thanks to them.

The earlier start of 12.30 meant we had a full hour to practice all the songs we needed for our next concert. We finalised details of the playlist which will be used at Oaklands Day Centre on Tuesday 20th January. Just a reminder for that day only, our class will be from 12 noon until 1.00pm to allow participating members to get to Morven Terrace for around 1.30pm. There is a map on the Events tab showing where Morven Terrace is – off Tullideph Road which is off Ancrum Road. For those who wish to download the playlist click Oaklands Day Centre 20 Jan 2015 For those who are unable to download the order of play is:

1. He’s Got the Whole World
2. Jambalaya
3. Down in the Valley
4. Down by the Riverside
5. I have a Dream
6. She’ll be Comin’ Round the Mountain (verses 1-3 only)
7. Dundee Songs
8. Waltzing Matilda
9. Bye Bye Love
10. Banks of the Ohio
11. You Are My sunshine
12. Save the Last Dance
13. Bonnie Dundee

I am delighted that around 20 members have volunteered to play at the concert. Fantastic response! Unfortunately, due to a family bereavement, I am unable to attend either the lunchtime class or the concert. However, Pat Cunningham has very kindly agreed to help out and will keep you all in order next week! I know that you will all do a wonderful job. Good luck. Enjoy it. I will hear all about it on 27th January. 🙂

Class Still On

Just a quick message to say this morning’s class is still going ahead.The snow is not too bad at Broughty Ferry end. Hopefully you can all still make it, but I realise weather conditions may make it too tricky for some people. 🙂

Earlier Start Reminder

I hope everyone can make it tomorrow for the earlier start time of 12.30pm. We have the room booked from 12 noon until 2pm. We will be finalising the playlist for our next concert on 20th January.

Following our contribution to Saturday’s concert at the West Church, John received the following email from the organiser:

Thank you for coming to the concert today.  It meant a lot to all the people who were involved.  In fact I cannot tell you how much it meant to some of them.

Please do thank your colleagues who came with you.  Talking with others tonight they were commenting that it really set the mood for the rest of the concert; relaxed and informal.

The amount raised was £233.88.

Thank you for your generosity.

May God be pleased to bless you as you have blessed His people.

🙂

Janet

 

It’s great to get such positive feedback! Hope to see you all tomorrow. 🙂

Raring to go!

It was really good to see everyone again for our first Dee Ukes meeting of 2015. As always we had lots to talk about before we got our ukuleles warmed up. The main points are listed below:

• We have booked a gig for Tuesday 20th January at Oaklands Day Centre, Morven Terrace, starting at 1.45pm and lasting 30/40 minutes. Details of this are also on the Events Tab. I will put round a sheet next week to establish who is able to attend. For that day only our normal class will be from 12 noon – 1pm to allow time to get to Morven Terrace for around 1.30pm if possible. Our room will be set up and ready from 11.30am so if you can arrive before 12, then we should still get a complete hour of practice.
• John McCann has been asked to provide entertainment at West Church, 132 Perth Road on Saturday 10th January and has asked for a few volunteers to join him. For those who agreed, the time will be approximately 2.30pm for a 10 minute slot. (arrive around 2.15 if possible) John suggested playing Bonnie Dundee and I Have a Dream. The preferred entrance to the church is off Roseangle (opposite Laings)
• A new Folk Club is starting up on Sunday 25th January from 7pm – 9pm at Monifieth Bowling Club and will be held there on the last Sunday of every month. The club is called Sunday Sessions and will be an exciting opportunity for lovers of music to come along and have a fun night. Bring your instruments or just your enthusiasm!
• Brief discussion re Celtic Connections ukulele workshops in Glasgow during the weekend 31st Jan./1st Feb. Click here for further information from their website. Details of venue are on our website Events Tab.
• As you can see from above items, we need some time to discuss various issues. In order to maximise playing time, we have agreed to make the official start time of the class from 12.30pm, finishing at 1.45pm. This will still allow time prior to the class to meet, ask questions, get extra help, chat, set up, discuss ideas etc. from 12.00 – 12.30. If that’s too early for you, just come along when you can.

We managed to start practicing songs from our previous playlist in preparation for Oaklands Day Centre.

• So far we are including Jambalaya, Down in the Valley (I will be posting version 1.1 of this on website as there have been a few changes), He’s got the Whole World, Down by the Riverside, I Have a Dream.
•  We played our new Dundee Songs medley which was great fun to do. Pat has suggested a few fun verses to be added at the start. I have posted the ‘extra’ verses as a stand alone sheet since the original version had already been copied/printed out by some. However, the new complete version is also now available on the website.
• Other new songs handed out were: Save the Last Dance for Me, You Are My Sunshine and Bad Moon Rising. We will look at them next week, time permitting, along with the remaining songs from our playlist.

Looking forward to seeing everyone next week prior to the earlier start time of 12.30pm 🙂

Looking Ahead!

Whilst being mindful of our absent friend, I hope everyone has enjoyed the festive period and is ready to look ahead to more fun challenges!

Many thanks to Pat (Mr) for providing a copy of  a medley of Dundee Songs as well as a copy of Newport Braes, written by our local Sheena Wellington.  I have added both songs to our website and intend having a look at Dundee Songs on Tuesday 6th. I will need Pat’s assistance with Newport Braes as I am not too sure of the tune, although I have heard it, so will leave that one until later.

I am hoping to add a few songs to our playlist and will be trying out Save The Last Dance For Me, You Are My Sunshine and Bad Moon Rising over the next week or so. These are already on the website.

I have also discovered a songbook put together by Jim Carey with a wealth of songs selected for the ukulele. Most of them are well known, although I haven’t heard of some of them. If you wish to have a look (there are literally hundreds!) click here. Jims_songbook_2013 I will also add the link to out Links tab. Please let me know if you have any favourites you would like us to try out at some point in the future.

I have also been thinking about introducing tablature (TAB for short) as an additional skill! With this in mind I have put together a booklet of songs downloaded from http://www.capotastomusic.com. Click here for the Ukulele Tab Booklet Don’t worry, I will take things very slowly as I am just learning it myself. We will start off with Happy Birthday as it will be useful to be able to play that one. I won’t be starting this straight away and do not intend learning all of the songs! Please remember it is not compulsory to learn this, but I know some of you like an additional challenge!