Hi DUGs,
There’s plenty to look forward to this week: a chance to build on Sarah’s excellent workshop, make some decisions about our Strumday songs, dip into a bit of blues with the beginners, and start shaping up our set for a welcome return to Dunblane Dementia. In short, bring your ukes, bring your voices, and be ready for a lively evening.
Workshop with Ukulele Saz
Last week’s workshop with Sarah was excellent — energetic, encouraging, and just the right amount of challenging. I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did. She certainly knows how to put us through our paces!
Sarah kindly sent over a few follow-up notes after the workshop, so here are the main things to keep in mind as we practise:
Summary Points
- Try and do this one without the sheets (apart from the bridge of course)
- Practise each section over and over as separate parts (verse, and chorus and bridge)
- SIngle Strums on the F and Fm for dramatic effect
- Sing EXTRA loud during the G# chord as it doesn't sound great. Remember to mute the G string or it'll sound awful!
- dudududu strumming works nicely for the rest of the song
Youtube Link >> https://youtu.be/biPuLoKRPGs?si=uFwzR6bFGkBu_3MuNext Time
- Run through all songs OFF BOOK
- Recap Sweet Child of Mine
Unless, you'd like me to do something totally different?
That final point is worth a proper chat. Do we want Sarah to take us in a completely different direction next time, or would we rather consolidate what we’ve started? Have a think before the session and we’ll decide together.
Ukulele Saz YouTube Channel: A Brilliant Practice Resource
Many of you will already know Sarah’s YouTube channel, but it is well worth another mention. It is packed with helpful tips, tutorials and play-throughs for players at all stages, whether you’re still finding your feet or looking for something more polished to work on.
Sarah updates the channel regularly with new song tutorials — by which I mean newly added tutorials, not necessarily ‘new’ songs!
A few of our members also subscribe to her Buy Me a Coffee page, which works a little like YouTube Patreon: it gives supporters access to extra material while helping Sarah continue to create useful resources for the ukulele community.
This week, Sarah has added a tutorial for The Kinks’ You Really Got Me, which should be great fun for us to tackle.
The main video tutorial is superb, and the subscriber extra notes and video are excellent too — clear, practical and full of ideas we can bring into our own playing.
I’ve added the basic play-through to this week’s playlist. We’ll look at Sarah’s recommended strumming patterns and riffs over the next few weeks, so this is a good chance to get the song under your fingers first.
Beginners' Sessions
Last week our beginners added the D minor chord to their toolkit and put it straight to good use with Jamaica Farewell.
This week we’re moving into 12-bar blues and the huge range of songs it opens up. The beginners have already played Hound Dog, so they’ve had a first taste of the pattern without necessarily realising it.
The beginners’ session will start again at 6.45pm and finish before the main meeting begins at 7.30pm.
Loch Lomond Strumday
A couple of weeks ago we played through five or six possible songs for the Loch Lomond Strumday, and there were some strong contenders in the mix.
We’ve now narrowed the selection down to Teach Your Children, plus either Friday I’m in Love or Teenage Kicks.
We’ll play them through again this week and make a final decision. It should be a good opportunity to settle on songs that feel strong, confident and fun to perform.
Dunblane Dementia
We haven’t played at Dunblane Dementia since October last year, so it will be lovely to return. They have asked us to can join them on Friday, 9 October, between 1.30pm and 3.00pm.
With that in mind, much of this week’s playlist is drawn from the possible set list for that performance, so it will be a useful run-through as well as an enjoyable sing and strum.
This Week’s Playlist
It is a fairly long playlist this week, but most of the songs are old favourites, so we should be able to keep things moving. Expect a busy, varied session with plenty of chances to sing out.
Hound Dog
Rock 'n' Roll Medley
Teach Your Children
Friday, I'm in Love
Teenage Kicks
Somewhere in my heart
You Really Got Me
I'm A Ukulele Player
Feelin' Groovy
Bring Me Sunshine
Top Of The World
Jambalaya
Country Roads
I’m Leaning on a Lamppost
Wild Mountain Thyme
Loch Lomond
Mairi's Wedding
Skye Boat Song
Dedicated Follower of Fashion
Hi Ho Silver Lining
I'm A Believer
I Wanna Be Like You
Rockin' All Over The World
500 Miles
DUG Song Sheets
Now that we are no longer using printed song sheets at our meetings, all new songs will be put on the website, rather than attached to these emails. If you want to practice any of our songs, you can view/download all our songs here: Our Songs