Back to Midlin!

Dee Ukes returned to Midlin Day Care today. It seems like no time since we were last there. There were a a number of ‘weel kent’ faces in the audience as well as a few new faces. We got off to an early start and as always Midlin visitors soon got into the swing of things. We had additional people appearing from time to time from the office and from the kitchen! I’m sure they didn’t want to miss out on all the fun. There were a couple of young students from Germany doing work experience. I made it my mission to get one of them, Simon, to join in with the singing and dancing before the afternoon was over. Unfortunately, I didn’t realise until the end that he was in fact from Germany. Despite a few language issues, he was a great sport and joined in with the dancing. He even took our group photo. Thanks Simon! 🙂

Dee Ukes @ Midlin Day Care, 24th April 2017

25/05/17 Round Up:

• Next gig: Thursday 4th May 2-3pm @ Beech Hill House, Lour Road, Forfar. There is a map on the Events tab.
• New gig (just arranged today): Wednesday 7th February 2018, 2-3pm – Lochee Parish Church Ladies Group – 191 High Street DD2 3HG
• Reminder that Sunday Sessions will be on this Sunday 30th April, starting at 7pm. Dee Ukes will sing our Al Jolson Medley, You Made Me Love You / Baby Face.  Our special guests will be Jim and Susie Malcolm. It should be a great evening.
• Memory Songs: Rockin’ All Over the World & Rock Around the Clock.
• We’re Not Going To Take It – version 1.5. This song continues to get better every week. Keep practising the ‘tricky’ bits!
• One Way Or Another – We decided the key was too low for this song, so I have transposed it to the key of D. We will try this next week. You can print it from here. One Way or Another v2 in D
• Playground Songs – We played the shorter version and it is much better.
• Country Roads – Sounding good.
• Home Medley – We hadn’t played this for a while and it was lovely!
• When You Walk in the Room – Sounding good.
• New Song – House of Gold by Twenty one Pilots – Our first attempt at this was pretty good. This song has quite a catchy tune. We will try again next week.
• We finished off a busy session with Leaving On A Jet Plane.

Many thanks again to all for coming along and working hard.

Our thoughts are with those who are still feeling under the weather. Hope to see you soon. 🙂

Menzieshill Gig + 18/04/17 Round Up

Today we had our first visit to Servite House, Dickson Avenue. What a lovely venue with stunning views from where we were sitting! We were greeted by Jack, who at the grand age of 102, was able to give us a full account of his father’s and grandfather’s businesses in the ship building industry. What an amazing memory he has! Jack also gave a vote of thanks at the end. Well done Jack. Others in the audience were great as well, singing along, smiling cheerily throughout and we even got the occasional cheer! Brilliant! The feedback at the end from a number of people was very positive and there is already talk of us being invited back. In fact we were invited to have our weekly practices there! That would be a first! We were also treated to a lovely cup of tea with cakes and biscuits. Many thanks to Servite House for their hospitality.

Dee Ukes @ Servite House, Dickson Avenue, Menzieshill – 19/04/17

18/04/17 Round Up

• We started off proceedings by wishing our Jim a very happy 80th Birthday for next week. He received a special card along with a money gift for him to treat himself. Can’t believe he is 80! ( Don’t tell anyone!) Denis wrote a brilliant special song for Jim and presented him with a scroll of the words. Jim assures me he will try to sing it to his family for his birthday. Have a great time next week Jim. 🙂

• New Gigs / Performances:
  • Monday 5th June, Celebration Evening to recognise volunteers in North east of Dundee communities, @ Ballumbie Primary School. Further details to follow.
  • Wednesday 27th September, Longforgan Church Women’s Guild. Further details to follow.
  • Thursday 28th September – Dee Ukes gig @ Tarriebank House, Marywell, Arbroath DD11 5RH, 2-3.30pm.
  • Tuesday 27th March 2018 – Broughty Ferry New Kirk. Further details to follow.
• Memory Songs: Rockin’ All Over the World / Rock Around the Clock. 
• We’re Not Going To Take It – Coming along well. Keep practising.
• One Way Or Another – We played it initially along with One Direction, then played it on our own, a little bit slower. The C5 and A5 chords can be replaced by chords C and A if preferred. We will try again next week
• Jim Carey’s Songbook is an amazing resource which is also on the website tab Links/Others Songbooks. You can have a look here if you haven’t already seen it.
• We’ll Meet Again / White Cliffs of Dover – We will try this for the first time at our gig this week.
• New York New York – Hopefully Jack will be at Midlin next week to hear our efforts with this one!
• We listened to House of Gold by Twenty One Pilots and will try this one out next week. The song is on the website in Current Songsheets as well as here. House of Gold.

Many thanks again to everyone for another fun Dee Ukes week. Wishing all suffering from nasty bugs a speedy recovery! Missing you all!

Busy Week for Dee Ukes

Our entertaining this week started on Tuesday afternoon when we sang a couple of songs at the end of the U3A AGM in the Queens Hotel. This was a special celebration AGM as it is 25 years since the Dundee U3A began. The Victoria Suite was a lovely venue and there were lots of very interesting table displays from various U3A groups. There were around 130 members in attendance and what a great audience they proved to be, singing along and practically dancing in the isles at Rockin’ All Over the World. Well done everybody. It was great fun to do. 🙂

There were three members who were presented with honorary membership and a lovely scroll as they have been members of the Dundee U3A since it started. Here is our Mame with her scroll.

 

Dee Ukes were entertaining at another 25th Anniversary party when we went along to Glebe Court in Kirriemuir on Wednesday. We have been there a number of times now and we always get a fantastic positive response from them. There was a lovely cake there which Jack and another lady cut before it was added to the brilliant buffet which had been prepared for everyone, including us! Yet another fun afternoon.

Dee Ukes @ Glebe Court 25th Anniversary Party, 12th April 2017

 

The next day, Dee Ukes headed for Forfar where we were entertaining at Andrew Smythe Gardens Sheltered Housing. The lovely ladies in our audience really enjoyed singing along and joining in with the fun. Again, we were invited to join them for a cup of tea along with lots of sandwiches, cakes and nibbles. We have certainly been well fed this week!

Dee Ukes @ Andrew Smythe Gardens Sheltered Housing, 13th April 2017

 

11/04/17 Round Up

• New gigs:
  • Thursday 20th July 2-3pm, St Mary’s Care Home, 39 Panmure Street, Monifieth
  • Wednesday 13th December, Brander HA, High Street, Forfar
• I have arranged for Iain to come to Finmill Centre at 11am next Tuesday (18th) to help set up our new sound system. It would be good if some of you can come along just after 11am next week, we could try things out prior to our class.
• We started off the lesson with basic stretching exercises and moved on to one of the intermediate stretching exercises –
  • Using index finger and middle finger, start of the G string fretting at the first fret with index finger. Either keep it there then stretch middle finger to the third fret or lift each finger as you pluck string with right thumb.  Repeat on C, E and A Strings.
• We practised Rockin’ All Over the World and Blame It On the Ukulele for the AGM in the afternoon.
• Rock Around the Clock – we will try to memorise this one and add it on to Rockin’ All Over the World as together they will be a good encore.
• We’re Not Going To Take It – After practising various sections of this one we played it through twice and it is coming together nicely. Every week there is an improvement, but we still need to practise the tricky chords and rhythms. If you are still not sure of the tune, you can listen to it on You Tube.
• We had another attempt at Lava, this time jazzing it up a bit. We have come to the conclusion that it is better sung by one or two individuals.
• New song – One Way or Another – We listened to this first and concentrated initially on just singing. Then we played it again and tried to strum along as it is in the same key. Here it is if you missed it or would like to have another go.

Many thanks to all who contributed to such a fun week.

Hope you all have a lovely Easter weekend.

See you soon. 🙂

The Cabin + 04/04/17 Round Up

Dee Ukes have just enjoyed a wonderful evening at The Cabin, Monifieth where they were entertaining the Women’s Association. What a great group of ladies they proved to be, joining in the singing with such enthusiasm. At one point every single member of the audience was singing along with us. At the interval we were treated to the most amazing spread of food, as each member had brought in something. Many thanks to Lilian for inviting us. Lilian was presented with flowers at the end as she was stepping down from her role as chairperson which she had done for many years. I was informed that Lilian is in her 90s. She certainly doesn’t look it. It was lovely to hear so many positive comments from at least five individuals at the end. Here is a photo of some of those present tonight tucking in to plates of goodies. 🙂

Some of the Dee Ukes members tucking in at The Cabin, Monifieth. 06/04/17

 

04/04/17 Round Up:

• New gigs – all are listed on the Events tab along with full addresses and maps:
  • Tuesday 17th October 7.30 – 9.15pm, Royal British Legion, Forfar
  • Wednesday 31st May 1.30-3pm, Midlin Day Care Centre
  • Thursday 22nd May 1.30 – 3pm, Midlin Day Care Centre
  • Monday 26th June 1.30pm – 2.45pm approx. , Balnacarron Home, 116 Hepburn Gardens, St Andrews KY16 9LT
• Reminder that next week’s class (11th April) will start early at 11am prompt and finish at 12.45pm. This will allow time for those who wish to attend the U3A AGM to get there for a 2pm start. There will be displays of work by other U3A groups.
• Dee Ukes will be singing two songs at the AGM:
  • Rockin’ All Over the World
  • Blame It On the Ukulele

• We started off with some very basic stretching exercises. You can have another look here. Finger Stretching Exercises We tried out the non-ukulele exercises followed by basic fretting exercises. When practised regularly, they will help to strengthen the finger muscles. It only needs a few minutes every day. 🙂 Next week we will try out the Intermediate Exercises.
• Memory song – We tried playing all of our Dundee Songs from memory. Most people know all of the words because we have played it so often. Try playing it on your own and you will know whether you are playing the correct chords or not.
• New York New York / Fly Me to the Moon – we tried this one a couple of times and it is not far away from being perfect!
• We’re Not Going To Take It – We sang along  to the You Tube video a couple of times to familiarise ourselves with the tune. The second time was much more confident. Then we broke down the song into sections and played the chords, some of which are tricky, but just need practice. I feel we made significant progress with this one today, although there is still along way to go, but we do have until October!
• We then looked at the list of possible songs for the Scottish Parliament and have homed in on a few for a closer look at. Next week we will try out One Direction’s One Way or Another. One Way Or Another  (Word Doc.)      One Way Or Another (pdf) I will have a closer look at a few others which were suggested.
• Leaning On A Lamp Post – Alan’s new banjolele made a debut performance for this one and it worked well.
• We ran out of time to try out our new song Lava, which was requested by a member of staff at Ward Road. We listened to it on You Tube. Some ‘lava’ it but others are not so keen. Already it has been suggested we ‘jazz it up’ a bit. We will try playing it next week and take it from there. Meanwhile Ke-ee-eep strumming! 🙂

Fun at Fintry Park

Dee Ukes started off the entertainment at Fintry Park Official Opening Ceremony today. We were inside the marquee along with Wave 102 presenters and all the food! Many thanks to all who managed to get their cars parked and find the park. I am assured we could be heard outside the marquee and it sounded good! Thanks also to Linda Robertson for joining us with the playing and singing.

It was a lovely sunny day and soon there were lots of children trying out all the new equipment in the park. There was also a bouncy castle, a climbing wall, a fire-engine and organised games for the children.

After our slot was over, we stayed to either be part of the Strings Entwined group or cheer them on with clapping. Our Bette managed to get a few of the children dancing along to the tunes. Well done Bette. Some of us then stayed to cheer on the guitar group. So all in all it was a fun way to spend an afternoon in Fintry.

Well done Ron Neave for all the hard work that must go into organising such an event. 🙂

Dee Ukes @ Fintry Park 02/04/17  What were we singing at this point?