Author: kjolly

Austin Ukulele Society hosted an open mic at Kick Butt Coffee on Saturday Feb 22 – and it was great! We played two songs – Istanbul (not Constantinople) and Swingin’ on a Star. Here’s a couple of videos (you’ll probably need to turn up the volume to hear them well).

We all had a great time. Thanks to Michelle for the percussion, Walter on the Kazoo, and Bill on Bass – we sounded like a band! TUG is looking forward to the time (somewhere in the mysterious future) we’ll all be able to get together and participate in an open mic again!

The Senior Uke group at Lamar Senior Activity Center and the group at the Baca Senior Activity center in Round Rock joined forces to perform at the Austin Ukulele Society Open Mic at Kick Butt Coffee. They performed the Guy Clark tune – Homegrown Tomatoes. Here’s a video (turn up your audio volume for best results).

This was the very first time the two groups had played together! Hopefully it won’t be the last.

We had a great time making ukulele music at our January 2020 UkeAlong at the Central Market on North Lamar. We had a great group of folks – and we had the back porch pretty much all to ourselves. Thanks to everyone who came out to make music!

If you’d like a copy of the songbook – grab it here.

Our next UkeAlong is scheduled for Tuesday, April 7 at the Brewtorium. Watch this space for more info.

Start the New Year right with some Uke madness. We’ll be meeting at the Central Market on North Lamar on Tuesday, January 7 from 7:00-9:00 – for ukes and fun. We’ll have loaners, and song books – and hopefully a projector and screen. The songbook has a a dozen songs carefully selected by the Tugsters (coming soon!). Bring your uke-curious friends and neighbors. It’s always a good time.

• Tuesday Uke Group January UkeAlong
• Tuesday, January 7 7:00pm – 9:00 pm
• Central Market North Lamar
• 4001 North Lamar

We had a great time playing and singing at the Brewtorium on Tuesday, Oct 1. ! Check us out playing ChooChoo Ch’Boogie

October UkeAlong Songbook

The Austin Ukulele Society hosted another great open mic at Kick Butt Coffee on Saturday, August 17 – and TUG was there! Here’s our group performing Everybody Loves My Baby (Spencer Williams, Jack Palmer – 1924).

And to close out our TUG set we did Blitzkrieg Bop (Tommy Ramone, Dee Dee Ramone – 1976).

But TUG wasn’t through – here’s Walter – – –

And Mary Jane —

Rich played 2 songs –

And Ode to Billy Joe —

It was a ton of ukulele fun – thanks to Bob and Jen and Lida – and the Austin Ukulele Society for putting it together!

TUG will be hosting two Uke Camps in September. This is a 4-week program for Seniors (50+) new to the uke or wondering if the uke is something for them (the answer is yes!). We cover the basics:

• Parts of the ukulele
• How to hold the ukulele
• Fingering chords
• How to learn new chords
• Simple strumming
• How to make more complex strums
• How to learn a song on the uke
• Strumming and singing
• Reading TABS

And we play songs – but the end of the camp you’ll be playing two and three chord songs confidently in a group.

We’ll have 10 loaner ukes available for the classes, and TUG has donated 5 ukuleles to each location so there will be ukuleles available outside of class for folks to practice and play. So no uke – no problem!

If you’d like to see what we’ll cover in camp you can download our Uke Camp Book. All class participants will get a printed copy at the first camp meeting.

Our first camp will be at the Lamar Senior Activity Center, meeting Thursday mornings from 10:00 am-11:oo am – September 12 – October 3. Participants will need to be a member of (or join) the Lamar Senior Activity Center ($5.00/year). Contact the Lamar Senior Activity Center for more information on registering for the Uke Camp.

• Lamar Senior Activity Center
• 2874 Shoal Crest Avenue, Austin, TX 78705
• 512-978-2480
• Thursday September 12 – Thursday, October 3 10am – 11am

Our second camp will be at the Allen R. Baca Center in Round Rock. We’ll be meeting Wednesday evenings from 7:00pm – 8:00pm – September 25 – October 16. Participants will need to be a member of (or join) the Allen R. Baca center ($25/year). Contact the Allen R. Baca Center for more information on registering for the Uke Camp.

• Allen R. Baca Center
• 301 W. Bagdad Ave., Building 2, Round Rock, TX 78664
• (512) 218-5499
• Wednesday, September 25 – Wednesday, October 16
• 7:00pm – 8:00pm

Come camp with TUG!

We’ve reorganized the song files a little. You can get to them using the Tug Song Sheets link in the sidebar. There is a new folder called – COMPILATIONS. This should be where you will find the Quarterly Song books – and other compilations of songs. These will be PDF format files with multiple songs. We’ve renamed the Archives folder to ONSONG ACHIVES – and this folder will only contain archive files for the OnSong application. (This allows folks with OnSong on an iPad to load songs and sets). We haven’t updated the individual song files yet – but should have those up-to-date in the next few weeks.

We had a great time at our July UkeAlong. We had about twenty ukesters – and a bunch of innocent bystanders got infected and played and sang along. The weather was great! Here’s the song sheet we used. Unfortunately – once again – I was having too much fun to remember to take pictures – so you’ll just have to imagine the awesome spectacle that is a Tuesday UkeAlong. (Next time I’ll draft someone more reliable to shoot some pics). Our next UkeAlong is scheduled for Tuesday October 1 at the Brewtorium. Watch this space for more info.

We had a great time at the Brewtorium on April 2. We had more than 30 folks playing and singing – and in addition to the ukes we had some great percussion, Kazoo, and harmonica playing. Thanks to the Brewtorium and everyone who came out. Our next Tuesday Ukealong will be July 2 at the Central Market on North Lamar. See you there!