December recap and January meeting announcement

Hi all,

Well we had a light turnout but the room worked well and we had use of the projector again courtesy of Alternative Video Solutions. I also want to thank David for bringing the great refreshments again! We ran through a bunch of songs and corrupted a few with a little hawaiian twist for the endings, it was a lot of fun.

I reserved the room before I left, our next meeting will be Saturday January 6th from 10am-1pm at the Northtown library in Blaine.

What kind of music do you want to work on after Christmas?
Tracie was interested in the 20s-30s stuff David has been playing with, we can go that route for a while if people want. Of course, I know that I'm going to continue the Xmas tunes through the month so maybe just bring ideas to the January meeting and we can figure out how to provide music to everyone to work on until the Feb meeting where we can run through it together.

Remember, put Jan 6th on your calendars, play some carols, and have a joyous Christmas season. I wish you all the best and hope to see many of you in January or at future StrumMn meetings.

Aloha and keep StrumMn!
Brian

StrumMn this Saturday, Dec 9th!

Everyone ready for some ukulele playing?

If anyone is looking for more Christmas music you should check out the 4th Peg collection, its 25 pages in one pdf file, just follow the 4th Peg link to the right.

If you have time on Saturday there are several stores nearby that sell ukuleles and the Jumpin' Jim uke music books, etc. Check them out if you can.

Print out a few copies of any music you wish to share and lets have some fun.
See you at the Northtown library, 10am-1pm.
Brian

Next Meeting is Dec 9th!

We have the meeting room reserved at the Northtown library in Blaine for our next meeting, December 9th from 10am-1pm. It looks like this meeting room is usually wide open schedule-wise and would be easy to use in the future if it works for everyone. I'd love to get more centralized so let me know if you have ideas.
http://www.anoka.lib.mn.us/aboutTheLibrary/branches/northtown.htm

I'm sure we'll concentrate on Christmas music but anything is fair game. Got something you're working on or want help with, bring it along. Think you've got a song down and want to try it out on us, bring it along. Got questions about the meeting just drop me an email or leave a comment here on the blog.

Keep StrumMn!
Brian

11/4 Get Together

While there were just a few of us there on Saturday, we had a good time.
We went through a bunch of Christmas songs and played along with a Willie Nelson CD too.
I'll try to get something together for early December and give you all more notice.
Keep StrumMn and let me know if you have ideas for the group.
And thank you, David, for hosting the meeting in your home.
Brian

Short Notice!

If you're on our email list then you may already know that David R. has offered to host a StrumMn meeting at his home this Saturday, Nov 4th, from 2-4pm. Contact him direct (or if you email me I can put you in contact with him).

I'll try to get another meeting set up for early/mid December. I hope you're working on those Christmas songs!

Keep StrumMn!
Brian

CRISIS!

Well folks,
I can't get us back into the library any time soon. The meeting room is pretty much booked solid through the end of November so we need to find an alternate location.

I've been over to, and called, the Fairview Community Center just about 1 mile straight west of the library but the person I need to talk to hasn't been available. I'm hoping to get us a room there but there may be some cost involved. Maybe if I push us as a community ed group then we can get in free since the center is run by the school district.

If anyone knows of another space we can use please let me know. I'd prefer public spaces where newcomers will be comfortable, libraries, community centers, churches, etc.

In the mean time I've started working through some of the Christmas songs. If any of you have any questions on these or others songs, need help figuring something out, etc, just leave a comment and we'll try to help you out.

Keep StrumMn!
Brian

Uke Christmas music?

The last couple nights I've been playing the tunes from the Jumpin Jim Christmas book. I don't know how many of you have the book but I like it. If I can get a projector for next time then I'll take the time to scan songs into my laptop. Anybody know if it's legal to photocopy and pass them out in case I can't project them?
I also put a link over on the right to the Ukulele Boogaloo Xmas tabs. Ok they aren't really tabs, more like just words and chords, but they're free.
If you have links to more Christmas song collections online please leave a comment here with a link and I'll edit it into this message for everyone, or send an email if you prefer.
Brian

P.S. Here are a couple additions from DavidR, thanks!
Betty Lou's Christmas songs
http://www.tufts.edu/~gdallal/ChristmasCarols.pdf

Sept 23 recap

I had a blast!
It went way too quick and I wish I had time to just talk to more of you and try out a couple instruments.

I want to thank Alternative Video Solutions for the free use of a video projector for the meeting.
I think it really helped things run smooth and kept us all on the same page, literally!
Maybe I can borrow it again... we'll see.

I don't have a date for the next meeting just yet, hopefully before the end of the week. How do people feel about working on some Christmas music for the next couple meetings? There was some interest expressed for this at the meeting. Of course, if you want to share anything else you're working on then bring it along to share as well!

For those who were there, what can we do to improve? For those who missed the meeting I hope to see you next time!

Keep StrumMn!
Brian

Any uke instructors out there?

If you know of anyone teaching uke, or would consider teaching uke yourself, please contact me. I've called all over town with no results yet other than a baritone instructor at the Pickin Parlor in Richfield. I've had several people ask me about instructors in the Twin Cities and I would be happy to steer them your way. Either leave a comment with contact info or email me at the address in my profile.
Brian

Check out the new StrumMn flyer!

I've created a flyer for the Fall Kick-off Meeting and put a link to it in pdf form over in the links to the right. Print out and post a copy at your favorite uke hangout or music store if you want and we'll see if we get more people involved. Dave said he had a couple items for a door prize give-away and hopefully we can come up with some refreshments.
Keep StrumMn!
Brian

StrumMn in September!

We're going to try a fall kick-off meeting at the Roseville Public Library meeting room on:

Saturday, Sept 23rd, 10am-1pm

David and I are working on posters that we hope to get out to music stores around town, I'll post a link later where you can download and print them if you want to post some in your part of town.

I'll post more details as we work them out but this is your group too so let us know what you'd like to do on the 23rd! We're hoping to do some refreshments (How about a nice Hawaiian punch?), do a group play-a-long, save some time for "open mic" if you want to share or lead a tune, have a wide variety of instruments for any newbies to gawk at, learn a new chord/tune or two!

Put it on your calendars now and maybe we can get a record attendance (not too tough to do...)
Check back here for updates, maybe music to practice, etc. and leave comments please with any ideas or email me if you prefer. If you want to help out just let me know what you'd like to do.

Keep StrumMn!
Brian

P.S. If any of you want to set up a meeting between now and 9/23 to do some planning/playing just leave a comment with the time/place or email the group. I know I'd try to make it.

A couple new links, comments, instruction methods, planning notes, etc.

Hi all,
I added new links that were requested or mentioned at the last meeting.
These are to pictures of the blue uke I built summer of 2005 and to the plans I used to build it.

I also added links to the UkeCat uke method and Chord Magic uke method. These are from web sites someone else built and I can't take credit for them. But the websites they come from have you going link to link, page to page, which I felt was a pain. I grabbed all the pages for each method and put them each into a word doc file which makes them easy to print. I like both of these and think they compare favorably to the Calvin Chin uke method book. If you're looking to move off 1st position chords then I think these are both worth a look.

I don't know if anyone is reading the comments on the previous blog but if so then you know we had a light turnout on July 16. A new StrumMn attendee, Tom, who is still learning some basic chords but who seems to have a good grasp on chord theory and the fretboard, left me amazed as he picked a harmony accompaniment to Daves strumming and singing, right off the cuff. I'll have to ask him to slow down and show me how he does it sometime in the future, it might make a good lesson for all of us this fall (hint, hint) !

Dave thought that with the summer and a light turnout in June and July we should see about planning a big September kick-off meeting; refreshments, flyers in stores, a real agenda we stick to, etc. We thought maybe we could do a uke "show and tell" of sorts and a round-robin either playing for the group or introducing us to the song of your choice which everyone can join in playing.
Help give us some ideas and lets all have some fun together in September!

Until then, just keep StrumMn!
Brian

StrumMn, play or take a break this summer?

Please leave comments here or email me, thanks! Brian

StrumMn in July!

Hi,

I hope this blog method of getting the StrumMn news out works for everyone, it may be easier than email. At the last meeting since we had such a light turnout Dave suggested we just do the Beatles stuff again next time.

We were using the March 2005 Beatles stuff from this url:
http://www.brookadams.com/jumping-flea/ukulaneys.html

Of course if any of you bring something else fun and interesting to try then I'm sure we'll all be right there with you trying it out. Bring music to share or post a link here if you can.

I've reserved the Roseville Library meeting room again for:

When: Sunday July 16th, 2-5pm
Where: Cty Rd B and Hamline

If any of you are interested in playing in a (park, coffee house, home) let us know, maybe a weeknight someplace instead of a Sunday? I'm game but I'll let one of you set it up!

In the meantime, Keep StrumMn!
Brian

StrumMn Group Photo Op

Here are some of the StrumMn group from back in December 2005.
We have a lot of fun, hope you can make it some time!

June 4th StrumMn meeting

I guess summer is here, we had a pretty light turnout on Sunday the 4th for our latest StrumMn meeting. We had a good time playing through a few of the Beatles tunes we had passed out and just talking uke.

We think we'll keep things pretty low key for the summer. I hope to get a date reserved for the group sometime in July and will let you know here and via E-mail when it's set up. Personally, I'd like to get together a few extra times, maybe just small groups at a park or someone's home. Let me know if you're interested or want to host, just set a date and let everyone know and we'll see who shows up!

I've got a couple more new (old) ukulele music books that have some good tunes. One is all Irving Berlin songs arranged by Roy Smeck, I'm having a lot of fun with it.

Until next time, keep StrumMn!