April 11, 2024: Pink Floyd’s “Brain Damage / Eclipse”!

The April meeting of the Austin Ukulele Society was an extra special one, and we’re so glad you were part of it! We’re grateful to all of our regular participants as well as our numerous special visitors, like Jochen and Kersten from Germany, Peter and Donna Thomas from Santa Cruz, CA, Vicky from Florida, and many others.

To kick off our evening, we shared local ukulele news – including our own! We’re moving our meetings to St. John’s United Methodist Church, located at 2140 Allandale Rd, Austin, TX 78756. We’ll meet in the church’s Great Hall on the second floor, starting with our May 9th meeting. Please join our mailing list if you’re not already on it, to be kept up-to-date on all of the details!

After sharing the news, we warmed up our fingers and voices with Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.”

To celebrate Austin being in the Path of Totality for the recent eclipse, our featured song this month was the timeless Pink Floyd classic “Brain Damage / Eclipse.” Bob performed his arrangement for us, to give us a great example of what we’d be learning, before he launched into helpful exercises.

Bob taught us the chord progressions, the tab options, the strum styles, and some harmonizing opportunities, too. When we put the song together to play it through, we were feeling and sounding good!

We took a break to enjoy some terrific open mic performances. Jochen and Kerstin (Los Penúltimos Ukuleles), Peter Thomas, and Spence all gave enjoyable performances! We truly appreciate them for sharing their talent with us!

After the open mic session, we got back to work on our Pink Floyd tune and got better and better with some additional practice. We recorded our performance of “Brain Damage / Eclipse” for you to enjoy and play along with at home. Look for the video coming soon to our YouTube channel. We hope you’ll enjoy playing along with us! 🙂

To play along with us, you can download the lyrics, chords, and tab for Bob’s arrangement of “Brain Damage / Eclipse” or download a copy of the presentation and instruction guide (what we project on the screen for all to follow along, including exercises and drills).

We’re looking forward to our May 9 meeting at St. John’s Methodist Church – we’ll see you there! Be well and keep strumming! 🙂

For more downloadable music, visit our Ukulele Music Library. For more Austin Ukulele Society videos, check out our YouTube Channel.

We appreciate your support and interest. If you’d like to make a donation to the Austin Ukulele Society (a 501(c)(3) organization), visit our Square Donation site. If you would like to be added to our mailing list, please fill out our this short sign-up form. For any other inquiries, please contact us or shoot us an email if you have previous correspondence with us.

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Ukulele Society T-shirts!
We are proud to unveil our latest shirt, new for 2024: the “AUS Grackle Ukulele,” design, hot off the presses! All of our shirts are thoughtfully designed by the talented Lyda Guz!

The shirts are silk screened here in Austin at a fantastic locally-owned print shop and are available for purchase. The new “AUS Grackle Ukulele” design, “”Classic Ukulele” Ukulele Around the World,” “10th Anniversary,” Mermaid, Cowboy,” “Austin Lasso” and other shirts are $25. We also have vinyl decals with the AUS logo for $1 each. We can accept cash or a check made out to Austin Ukulele Society; you can also make payment via Venmo or PayPal. Please drop us a line if you’d like to purchase a shirt (or two or three). 🙂 At this time, we can only ship orders within the U.S.

March 14, 2024: What Was I Made For?

The Austin Ukulele Society had a truly great March meeting! It was made extra fabulous by 12 vibrant and energetic Galveston Ukulele Society (GUS) members joining us, as well as first timers from as far as Wisconsin and California, friends we hadn’t seen in a while, and so many wonderful regulars as well. To kick off the evening, we introduced ourselves and Bob shared some local ukulele news, including some exciting info: after more than a decade at Memorial United Methodist Church, we will be changing our meeting location to St. John’s United Methodist Church, effective our May 9th meeting. More details will be shared on this soon, so please join our mailing list if you’re not on it already!

At this meeting, we learned to strum and sing Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For?”, which she and her brother wrote for the film “Barbie.” It won Grammy Awards for Song of the Year and Best Song Written for Visual Media, as well as the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

Bob shared some details about our featured song and gave us a terrific performance of his arrangement. He then took us through his presentation, where he broke down each part of the song via short lessons, to help us get comfortable with the strum patterns, chord progressions, tab and more.

We took a break for the open mic portion of the evening, where the Galveston Ukulele Society, Jana, Rodger, and Bruce treated us to terrific performances. We’re so grateful to them for sharing their talent with us!

After the open mic session, we got back to work on “What Was I Made For?” and got better and better with thoughtful instruction from Bob as well as practice. We recorded our performance for you to enjoy and play along with at home. Look for the video coming soon to our YouTube channel. We hope you’ll enjoy playing along with us! 🙂

To play along with us, you can download the lyrics, chords, and tab for Bob’s arrangement of “What Was I Made For?” or download a copy of the presentation and instruction guide (what we project on the screen for all to follow along, including exercises and drills).

Have a great start to spring, and we’ll look forward to seeing you at our April 11th meeting at Memorial United Methodist Church. Be well and keep strumming till then! 🙂

For more downloadable music, visit our Ukulele Music Library. For more Austin Ukulele Society videos, check out our YouTube Channel.

We appreciate your support and interest. If you’d like to make a donation to the Austin Ukulele Society (a 501(c)(3) organization), visit our Square Donation site. If you would like to be added to our mailing list, please fill out our this short sign-up form. For any other inquiries, please contact us or shoot us an email if you have previous correspondence with us.

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Ukulele Society T-shirts!
We are proud to unveil our latest shirt, new for 2024: the “AUS Grackle Ukulele,” design, hot off the presses! All of our shirts are thoughtfully designed by the talented Lyda Guz!

The shirts are silk screened here in Austin at a fantastic locally-owned print shop and are available for purchase. The new “AUS Grackle Ukulele” design, “”Classic Ukulele” Ukulele Around the World,” “10th Anniversary,” Mermaid, Cowboy,” “Austin Lasso” and other shirts are $25. We also have vinyl decals with the AUS logo for $1 each. We can accept cash or a check made out to Austin Ukulele Society; you can also make payment via Venmo or PayPal. Please drop us a line if you’d like to purchase a shirt (or two or three). 🙂 At this time, we can only ship orders within the U.S.

February 22, 2024: Fly Me To the Moon & LOVE!

The Austin Ukulele Society’s first virtual meeting of 2024 was a terrific success! We truly enjoyed having 170+ participants from all over the globe in attendance during the livestream, and we appreciate all of the kind sentiments from those who joined the livestream and/or watched the recording afterward.

During this event, we revisited TWO great songs from the our repertoire. Both are terrific American standards that you are likely to sing along with right away: “L-O-V-E” (made famous by Nat King Cole) and “Fly Me To the Moon” (as performed by Frank Sinatra). 💓

The evening started off with some local ukulele news, introductions of Jen and Lyda, and sharing the agenda for the evening. Then we played our tradition warm-up song, “Three Little Birds.”

Bob demonstrated “L-O-V-E” and took us through each part of the song, including the chords, strums and chord progressions. We had a lovely time putting it all together to play through a couple of times. Then Bob gave us his all with “Fly Me to the Moon,” including teaching us a little about chord melodies. Everyone loved playing and singing these two American standards together.

We then played Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again” and closed out the evening by sharing some of the Austin Ukulele Society videos (both collaborations produced by Marty Porter and Paul Butler) as well as the videos Bob has produced from the AUS meetings. It was nice to have a chance to ‘chat’ during theses videos and close out the evening in a lovely manner.

You can download the song sheet for “L-O-V-E” to play along, or download a copy of the presentation and instruction guide, including exercises and drills. Also download the song sheet for “Fly Me To the Moon” or a copy of the presentation and instruction guide, including all of its exercises and drills.

You can also watch a replay of the February 22 live stream. Watch the entire show or jump to the part you most want to see!

● Welcome and announcements
● “Three Little Birds” warm-up song
● Bob’s “L-O-V-E” tutorial
● Bob’s “Fly Me To the Moon” tutorial
● “On the Road Again” closing song.

As always, we love to give to a shout out to AUS co-founder Jen Richardson, who moderated the chat with finesse through the evening and to Lyda Guz, who skillfully managed the presentation slides.

Thank you for joining us, sending in your selfies, and staying connected!

We look forward to seeing many of you at our next in-person meeting, on Thursday, March 14. We look forward to visiting with you all at our next virtual meeting, on Thursday, May 23. Be well and keep strumming till then.  🙂

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For more downloadable music, visit our Ukulele Music Library. For more Austin Ukulele Society videos, check out our YouTube Channel.

We appreciate your support and interest. If you’d like to make a donation to the Austin Ukulele Society (a 501(c)(3) organization), visit our Square Donation site. If you would like to be added to our mailing list, please fill out our this short sign-up form. For any other inquiries, please contact us or shoot us an email if you have previous correspondence with us.

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February 8, 2024: You’re Still the One!

On a springlike February evening, around 100 members of the Austin Ukulele Society met up to sing and strum. We enjoyed some social time, introductions and sharing local ukulele news, before we jumped into doing what we do best: making music together, with our terrific maestro, Bob! First, we warmed up by playing Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.”

Since our February meeting occurs near (even occasionally on!) Valentine’s Day, we always choose a love song for the month. In keeping with our Valentine’s-themed tradition, we learned a great crossover pop/country hit about enduring love: Shania Twain’s “You’re Still the One.” This 1997 release was hugely successful, topping charts around the globe and winning Ms. Twain much acclaim. We loved learning to croon and strum this catchy love song!

By way of performance, Bob demonstrated his terrific arrangement of “You’re Still the One.” He taught us each component of the song, including some picking and harmonizing options, and we had fun enjoying and practicing each part before putting it all together!

We took a break and were delighted by the talents of Kaia, Jay, Mia, and Helen. They all did creative covers of great tunes, and we truly appreciate them for being there!

After the open mic interlude, we got back to working on “You’re Still the One.” We recorded our performance for you to enjoy and play along with at home. Look for the video coming soon to our YouTube channel. We hope you’ll have as much fun with it as we did! 🙂

To play along with us, you can download the lyrics and chords for Bob’s arrangement of “You’re Still the One” or download a copy of the presentation and instruction guide (what we project on the screen for all to follow along, including exercises and drills).

We look forward to ‘seeing’ you at our virtual meeting on February 22 and seeing our local friends and visitors at the March 14 in-person meeting. Be well and keep strumming till then! 🙂

For more downloadable music, visit our Ukulele Music Library. For more Austin Ukulele Society videos, check out our YouTube Channel.

We appreciate your support and interest. If you’d like to make a donation to the Austin Ukulele Society (a 501(c)(3) organization), visit our Square Donation site. If you would like to be added to our mailing list, please fill out our this short sign-up form. For any other inquiries, please contact us or shoot us an email if you have previous correspondence with us.

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Ukulele Society T-shirts!
We are proud to unveil our latest shirt, new for 2024: the “AUS Grackle Ukulele,” design, hot off the presses! All of our shirts are thoughtfully designed by the talented Lyda Guz!

The shirts are silk screened here in Austin at a fantastic locally-owned print shop and are available for purchase. The new “AUS Grackle Ukulele” design, “”Classic Ukulele” Ukulele Around the World,” “10th Anniversary,” Mermaid, Cowboy,” “Austin Lasso” and other shirts are $25. We also have vinyl decals with the AUS logo for $1 each. We can accept cash or a check made out to Austin Ukulele Society; you can also make payment via Venmo or PayPal. Please drop us a line if you’d like to purchase a shirt (or two or three). 🙂 At this time, we can only ship orders within the U.S.

January 11, 2024: I’m Still Standing!

The Austin Ukulele Society was delighted to celebrate its 13th anniversary and kick off its 14th year of monthly meetings with an amazing gathering of musicians. We’re so grateful to the wonderful members who join us month in and month out, year in and year out, for the fiftieth or the first time, from near and from far – we could not do this without you!

We kicked off the meeting with introductions and information about local ukulele news, including live music events and meetups. Then we warmed up our voices and fingers by playing Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.”

We typically pick an upbeat, well-known and infectious song to kick the year off right. This year we had a blast learning legendary rocker Elton John’s 1983 mega-hit “I’m Still Standing.” This song topped charts in the UK, Canada, the US, and more. It’s a timeless pop-rock tune and we had a fantastic time strumming, picking and singing it!

Bob shared some details about his arrangement of “I’m Still Standing” and performed it, with accompaniment from Sho Humphries on the solo and Aaron Lewis on U-bass. It was great to hear their performance before we learned to play it. Bob taught us each component of “I’m Still Standing,” breaking down the chord progressions, picking, strum styles and harmonizing options. As we practiced each component of the song, we got better and better and we sounded great when we put it all together!

We took a break to enjoy the open mic portion of our evening. Alan, Walter, Jack and Sho all did excellent performances and we’re so glad they shared their talent with us!

We then practiced “I’m Still Standing” and recorded our performance for you to enjoy and play along with at home. Look for the video coming soon to our YouTube channel. We hope you’ll have as much fun with it as we did! 🙂

To play along with us, you can download the lyrics and chords for Bob’s arrangement of “I’m Still Standing” or download a copy of the presentation and instruction guide (what we project on the screen for all to follow along, including exercises and drills).

We’re looking forward to our next in-person meeting on Thursday, February 8th as well as our next virtual meeting on Thursday, February 22nd! See you there! 🙂

For more downloadable music, visit our Ukulele Music Library. For more Austin Ukulele Society videos, check out our YouTube Channel.

We appreciate your support and interest. If you’d like to make a donation to the Austin Ukulele Society (a 501(c)(3) organization), visit our Square Donation site. If you would like to be added to our mailing list, please fill out our this short sign-up form. For any other inquiries, please contact us or shoot us an email if you have previous correspondence with us.

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Ukulele Society T-shirts!
We are proud to unveil our latest shirt, new for 2024: the “AUS Grackle Ukulele,” design, hot off the presses! All of our shirts are thoughtfully designed by the talented Lyda Guz!

The shirts are silk screened here in Austin at a fantastic locally-owned print shop and are available for purchase. The new “AUS Grackle Ukulele” design, “”Classic Ukulele” Ukulele Around the World,” “10th Anniversary,” Mermaid, Cowboy,” “Austin Lasso” and other shirts are $25. We also have vinyl decals with the AUS logo for $1 each. We can accept cash or a check made out to Austin Ukulele Society; you can also make payment via Venmo or PayPal. Please drop us a line if you’d like to purchase a shirt (or two or three). 🙂 At this time, we can only ship orders within the U.S.

December 14, 2023: Holiday Potluck & Strum-a-Long!

The Austin Ukulele Society enjoyed a lovely evening of holiday spirit, by socializing, making music, and sharing the joy of holiday potluck deliciousness! 🎁 🎄

We kicked off the evening by mingling and munching. Bob then introduced the evening’s format, and we warmed up our hands and voices with Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.” Then Bob lead us through holiday music favorites from the Austin Ukulele Society’s thirteen-year repertoire of holiday songs and medleys.

★ Download the Austin Ukulele Society’s 2023 Holiday Songbook!

We took a break to enjoy an extended holiday edition of our open mic portion of the evening. We owe a huge thanks to Kevin, Kaia, the Southside Ukes, Rodger, Paul, Kathy Murray and Bill Jones, TUG, Mary Jane, Jay, and Walter for sharing their talent with beautiful, holiday/winter-themed songs.

After the open mic performances, the whole group got back together to play a few more AUS repertoire songs!

As always, we owe Jen, Lyda, Lori, Jana and Jodi a big thanks for supporting all of the backend business of the AUS. Thanks also to Barry for his tireless set up and break down efforts at each meeting. We’re all grateful to Bob for his patient and thoughtful teaching and leading. Last, but not least, we owe a big thanks to Aaron for keeping us on the beat with his U-bass!

We’re incredibly grateful to you all — thank you so much for 13 years of music, fun, and friendship! We can’t wait to make more music with you in 2024! Please come kick off our 14th year with us, on Thursday, January 11! 🙂

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For more downloadable music, visit our Ukulele Music Library. For more Austin Ukulele Society videos, check out our YouTube Channel.

We appreciate your support and interest. If you’d like to make a donation to the Austin Ukulele Society (a 501(c)(3) organization), visit our Square Donation site. If you would like to be added to our mailing list, please fill out our this short sign-up form. For any other inquiries, please contact us or shoot us an email if you have previous correspondence with us.

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December 7, 2023: Online Holiday Strum-a-Long!

On a festive December evening, nearly 200 ukulele players gathered from all over the globe to strum and sing holiday tunes together. We enjoyed visiting with friends from at least four continents (North America, Europe, Asia and Australia) and numerous time zones. Thank you all for arranging your schedules to join us live on YouTube!

Bob kicked off the evening with some local ukulele news, making sure everyone from near and far knows they are welcome to join us at monthly in-person meetings in the new year, if at all possible.

We warmed up our fingers and voices with Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds” before launching into some of our holiday repertoire. Each November, we learn a new holiday song (or medley,) so we have a lot of terrific tunes to choose from. Bob took us through mini-tutorials that included helpful hints on some trickier chords or progressions, before each song. The holiday spirit was strong throughout the evening. Before we ended, we played Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again.”  💓

★ Download the Austin Ukulele Society’s 2023 Holiday Songbook!

You can download the Austin Ukulele Society’s 2023 Holiday Songbook. You can also watch a replay of the December 7 live stream. Watch the entire show or jump to the part you most want to see — a table of contents with timestamps can be found in the video’s description.

As we wrapped up the meeting, we watched some of the terrific collaborative videos that Marty Porter and Paul Butler produced as well as some great videos that Bob Guz made of our live meeting performances. Check out our most recent group video, “Up On the Roof“:

As always, we owe many thanks to Bob, Jen Richardson, Lyda Guz, and the rest of our amazing volunteers who help run the Austin Ukulele Society!

Thank you for joining us, sending in your selfies, and staying connected! We look forward to seeing you in person, if you can join us in Austin.

We’ll be back on YouTube on February 22, 2024, for our next livestream. Until then, we wish you peace and joy throughout the holiday season and into the new year!  🙂

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For more downloadable music, visit our Ukulele Music Library. For more Austin Ukulele Society videos, check out our YouTube Channel.

We appreciate your support and interest. If you’d like to make a donation to the Austin Ukulele Society (a 501(c)(3) organization), visit our Square Donation site. If you would like to be added to our mailing list, please fill out our this short sign-up form. For any other inquiries, please contact us or shoot us an email if you have previous correspondence with us.

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November 9, 2023: Little Saint Nick! 🎁 🎄

On a rainy November evening, Austin Ukulele Society meeting attendees brought out their Christmas sweaters and accessories – and their ukes! – to kick off the holiday season’s merriment in style. After getting settled in with introductions and local ukulele news, Bob led us through our warm-up song: Bob Marley’s ever-optimistic “Three Little Birds.”

We hadn’t yet done a Beach Boys tune at an in-person meeting together, and with our generally mild holiday season in Austin, the Beach Boys + Christmas seemed like a perfect mix! Bob taught us to strum and sing their 1963 classic ‘hot rod rock’ Christmas hit “Little Saint Nick.” This catchy tune gets regular airplay throughout the holiday season, and we had a blast strumming, picking and singing it!

Bob performed his arrangement to get us familiar with the style and tempo. We then dove into the arrangement, with Bob taking us through helpful exercises to learn the chords, chord progressions, strum style, picking options and harmonizing opportunities. Once we got comfortable with the song’s components, we played it through a couple of times and sounded good!

We took a break and enjoyed two terrific open mic performances from Barry and Mia. We’re always so grateful for our participants who share their talents with us!

We then returned to “Little Saint Nick” and after practicing it a bit more, we recorded ourselves playing it. Look for the video coming soon to our YouTube channel. We hope you have as much fun with it as we did! 🙂

To play along with us, you can download the lyrics and chords for Bob’s arrangement of “Little Saint Nick” or download a copy of the presentation and instruction guide (what we project on the screen for all to follow along, including exercises and drills).

Many thanks to the great team that makes our meetings possible: Bob, Jen, Lyda, Lori, Jodi, and Jana – and helpers like Barry and Jay! As always, we owe a shout out to Aaron Lewis for keeping us on the beat with his u-bass!

We look forward to “seeing” our global uke community at the virtual holiday strum-along on Thursday, December 7th and the annual in-person holiday potluck and strum-along on Thursday, December 14th! 🙂

For more downloadable music, visit our Ukulele Music Library. For more Austin Ukulele Society videos, check out our YouTube Channel.

We appreciate your support and interest. If you’d like to make a donation to the Austin Ukulele Society (a 501(c)(3) organization), visit our Square Donation site. If you would like to be added to our mailing list, please fill out our this short sign-up form. For any other inquiries, please contact us or shoot us an email if you have previous correspondence with us.

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Ukulele Society T-shirts!
We are proud to unveil our latest shirt, new for 2023: the “AUS Classic Ukulele,” design, hot off the presses! All of our shirts are thoughtfully designed by the talented Lyda Guz!

The shirts are silk screened here in Austin at a fantastic locally-owned print shop and are available for purchase. The new “AUS Classic Ukulele” design, “Ukulele Around the World,” “10th Anniversary,” Mermaid, Cowboy,” “Austin Lasso” and other shirts are $25. We also have vinyl decals with the AUS logo for $1 each. We can accept cash or a check made out to Austin Ukulele Society; you can also make payment via Venmo or PayPal. Please drop us a line if you’d like to purchase a shirt (or two or three). 🙂 At this time, we can only ship orders within the U.S.

October 12, 2023: Fastball’s The Way! 🎃

On a perfect and only slightly spooky October evening, members of the Austin Ukulele Society from near and far got together for our in-person monthly meeting. We so appreciate everyone making time for our evening of music and the extra effort to share the spirit of the season with so many great Halloween accessories and costumes. Our evening started out with shout-outs from visitors from afar, introductions by all, and some local ukulele news. Then we warmed up our voices and hands with Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds” before diving into our new song.

Bob shared some information about the inspiration behind Austin-based band Fastball’s terrific 1998 hit “The Way,” and how we landed on it as an eerie pick for our Halloween month tune. (This hugely popular song was inspired by the haunting, true story of a local couple’s disappearance in 1997.)

Bob performed the song for us, to demonstrate his great arrangement. Next, he took us through helpful exercises to learn each component of the song, before we put it all together. When we played and sang “The Way” through a couple of times, we sounded terrific!

We took a break to enjoy our talented open mic participants. Karen shared a lovely medley of classic hymnals, Bill and Kathy rocked out on a terrific take of Buck Owens’ “Monster’s Holiday,” and Rich serenaded our favorite newly married couple – Aaron and Sana – with the timeless love song “Always and Forever.”

After this lovely interlude, we got back to practicing “The Way” and recorded ourselves for you to enjoy and play along with from home. Look for the video coming soon to our YouTube channel. We hope you have as much fun with it as we did! 🙂

To play along with us, you can download the lyrics and chords for Bob’s arrangement of “The Way” or download a copy of the presentation and instruction guide (what we project on the screen for all to follow along, including exercises and drills).

As always, a big thanks to Jen Richardson for all of the behind-the-scenes coordinating, to Lyda for her impeccable slide progression, to Aaron for keeping us on beat with his U-bass, and to our other amazing supporters who always help the in-person meetings go smoothly!

We look forward to seeing you all at our November 9, 2023 in-person meeting, as we dive into the holiday season with a holiday song to be announced! Keep strumming and be well until then! 🙂

For more downloadable music, visit our Ukulele Music Library. For more Austin Ukulele Society videos, check out our YouTube Channel.

We appreciate your support and interest. If you’d like to make a donation to the Austin Ukulele Society (a 501(c)(3) organization), visit our Square Donation site. If you would like to be added to our mailing list, please fill out our this short sign-up form. For any other inquiries, please contact us or shoot us an email if you have previous correspondence with us.

---

Ukulele Society T-shirts!
We are proud to unveil our latest shirt, new for 2022: the “AUS Classic Ukulele,” design, hot off the presses! All of our shirts are thoughtfully designed by the talented Lyda Guz!

The shirts are silk screened here in Austin at a fantastic locally-owned print shop and are available for purchase. The new “AUS Classic Ukulele” design, “Ukulele Around the World,” “10th Anniversary,” Mermaid, Cowboy,” “Austin Lasso” and other shirts are $25. We also have vinyl decals with the AUS logo for $1 each. We can accept cash or a check made out to Austin Ukulele Society; you can also make payment via Venmo or PayPal. Please drop us a line if you’d like to purchase a shirt (or two or three). 🙂 At this time, we can only ship orders within the U.S.

September 14, 2023: Enjoy the Silence!

On a beautiful, delightfully rainy September evening in Austin, 100+ musicians got together to play ukuleles at the Austin Ukulele Society (AUS) monthly meeting. We started off by welcoming new members, introducing ourselves and sharing local ukulele news, including the upcoming Lorenzo “Ukulollo” Vignando workshop that the AUS is hosting on Saturday, October 7 (email Jen to register ASAP, as spots are limited). Afterward, we warmed up our voices and fingers with Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.”

This month we learned to strum and sing “Enjoy the Silence,” by British electronic music band Depeche Mode. This terrific and catchy tune was a huge success in many countries and 33 (!) years later still gets a ton of airplay.

Bob shared a little background on Depeche Mode’s “Enjoy the Silence” and played through his terrific arrangement. Next, he took us through the helpful exercises he had prepared, to help us learn the chord progressions, strumming technique, picking and harmonizing options, and more. After working hard and having fun, too, we put the song together and played it through a couple of times – and sounded great!

We paused to enjoy the fantastic open mic portion of the eve, where Jay paid tribute to Jimmy Buffet with an excellent cover and Kaia and Mia blew us away with a terrific duet.

Then we got back to practicing and perfecting “Enjoy the Silence” and recorded ourselves for you to enjoy and play along with from home. Look for the video coming soon to our YouTube channel. We hope you have as much fun with it as we did! 🙂

To play along with us, you can download the lyrics and chords for our arrangement of “Enjoy the Silence” or download a copy of the presentation and instruction guide (what we project on the screen for all to follow along, including exercises and drills).

As always, a big thanks to Jen Richardson for all of the behind-the-scenes coordinating, to Lyda for her impeccable slide progression, to Aaron for keeping us on beat with his u-bass, and to our other amazing supporters who always help the in-person meetings go smoothly!

We look forward to seeing you at Ukulollo’s workshop on October 7 – and, of course, at our Thursday, October 12 in-person meeting; get ready for a Halloween theme! 🎃 Until then, keep strummin’! 🙂

For more downloadable music, visit our Ukulele Music Library. For more Austin Ukulele Society videos, check out our YouTube Channel.

We appreciate your support and interest. If you’d like to make a donation to the Austin Ukulele Society (a 501(c)(3) organization), visit our Square Donation site. If you would like to be added to our mailing list, please fill out our this short sign-up form. For any other inquiries, please contact us or shoot us an email if you have previous correspondence with us.

---

Ukulele Society T-shirts!
We are proud to unveil our latest shirt, new for 2022: the “AUS Classic Ukulele,” design, hot off the presses! All of our shirts are thoughtfully designed by the talented Lyda Guz!

The shirts are silk screened here in Austin at a fantastic locally-owned print shop and are available for purchase. The new “AUS Classic Ukulele” design, “Ukulele Around the World,” “10th Anniversary,” Mermaid, Cowboy,” “Austin Lasso” and other shirts are $25. We also have vinyl decals with the AUS logo for $1 each. We can accept cash or a check made out to Austin Ukulele Society; you can also make payment via Venmo or PayPal. Please drop us a line if you’d like to purchase a shirt (or two or three). 🙂 At this time, we can only ship orders within the U.S.