Monday, August 18, 2008

Monday followup

Another nice turnout on a beautiful evening. There were 6 of us out playing uke in the park tonight. We ran through an assortment of music and it was nice that everyone brought some to share.

Sara, it was nice that you could join us for the first time and I hope you come back again. By the way, that B chord on the baritone came to me on the way home. It's what the rest of us call the dreaded E chord with a 4442 shape. (I just needed to visualize my accordian buttons to come up with it.) Check out the Sheep Entertainment chord finder, the link is off to the right and here it is too. http://www.sheep-entertainment.nl/ukulele/index.html

Our next meeting will be mid September and I think we'll move inside the cafe since we ran out of light by about 8:30 tonight. Pick some music for next time and watch this space for the next date.

Oh yeah, StrumMn t-shirts should be $15, there may be a slight extra charge for larger sizes. Let me know if you want one and I'll wait a bit before placing the order and try to deliver at the next meeting if possible.

Until then, keep StrumMn!
Brian

Saturday, August 09, 2008

Music for Monday 8/18

We're planning to meet from 7-9 near the pavillion again. We'll be outside if it's nice and in the Black Bear Crossing Cafe if otherwise.

I picked 3 songs from DrUke (I stole one from David), download/print/practice if you want.

If you have a song you want to cover please leave a link in a comment here so others can grab a copy.

http://www.doctoruke.com/songs.html
ZipADeeDooDah
I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter
Till There Was You

Hope to see you on the 18th!
Brian

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Windy City Uke Fest !!!

More pictures added on 8/10, take a look below... and again on 8/12! And 8/16.

I know some of you have been waiting to hear about this, the WCUF was a BLAST!

What do you want to know? Workshops daily from 9-12 and 1-4, concerts from 6-11, jamming and talking and shopping uke in between.

The lineup of performers: Kimo Hussey, Ali Lexa, Windy City Islanders, Seeso, Abe Lagrimas Jr., Gerald Ross, Tim Sweeney, Victoria Vox, Mark "Spanky" Guiterrez, Lil Rev, Barefoot Hawaiian, Jonathan Carreira, Lopaka, Keenan Kamae, Curt Sheller. Hope I didn't miss any!

If ukes can get mojo from osmosis I'm in good shape, MY uke was played by Kimo Hussey, Spanky, Gerald Ross, MGM, and others as they checked it out. It's not perfect but I think I got a few thumbs up, I even have video of Spanky playing it which I'll try to get on here somehow (I've never done that before).

Check back as I'll probably just update this blog rather than enter another one.

And remember, StrumMn will meet on Monday 8/18 down at Como.

Anyway, here's a pic of the stage at the Tiki Terrace to start things off.


And a pic of David and Paul, and Spanky playing MY uke!


And here's Mark "Spanky" Guiterrez playing MY uke... just 20 seconds worth.


I just received this next picture from Steve Matheson. He lives in Australia and attended the WCUF. Since my Sheoak wood is from Australia I thought he'd get a kick out of it, and he did!

Here Kimo Hussey teaches a class.

Part of the vendor area...

More vendor space... That's MGM (Music Guy Mike) in blue with his back to the camera and Curt Sheller walking away (his table is the one in the foreground...)

Lil' Rev performs along with Gerald Ross.

And Victoria Vox puts on a fun show.

Jamming in the hotel lobby, photo courtesy or UkuleleTonya

One more picture! I added a few t-shirts to my wardrobe. I had a couple StrumMn t-shirts embroidered for David and myself (I can get more for $15 if anyone is interested, now that the image is digitized. I'll probably change the text from "my ukulele" to "ukulele players" next time around). Then there is the official WCUF t-shirt. And David's wife surprised us by sending along the Ukulele Hero shirts for both of us; what a gal!
Can't wait until next year for the 2nd annual WCUF!