2012 here we come!

Aloha everyone,

We’ve begun 2012 on a big note, with the 200th member joining our mailing list! It’s unlikely we’d ever get everyone together as we have international and interstate members, but that’s a pretty nice achievement for a social music group. Please pat yourselves on the back.

Reminder: wanna see Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain at WOMADelaide in March? We’re organising a group booking, so let us know if you are keen. We won’t actually make the booking til late January, so no monies required; just expressions of interest.

Here’s what’s on in this Happy New Year:

Tuesday 3 January nothing official, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be other uke players at The Gov

Sunday 8 January Adelaide Showground Farmers Market. Meet 10am ish in the garden. All details below

Tuesday 10 January Beginners and novices session, and general drop in night, 7ish at The Gov

Tuesday 17 January Beginners and novices session, and general drop in night, 7ish at The Gov

Tuesday 24 January All Australian session and open mike night – bring a song! 7ish at The Gov

Event: Adelaide Showground Farmers Market, Leader St, Wayville
Time: Meet 10am, start playing 10.30 am, two x 45 minute sets
Place: Under the tree in the kitchen garden. Use the Leader St entrance. Parking is $3, but tell the attendant you’re performing
Dress: Bright summer!
Set list: all on Richard G’s Uke Song Book
First set
Flowers on the Wall
Eight Days A Week
I’m A Believer – melodica please Phil!
Folsom Prison Blues
Ring of Fire
You Ain’t Going Nowhere
Jamaica Farewell
Ukulele Baby (G)

Second set
Chains
Is this the way to Amarillo
Under the Boardwalk
Honolulu Rock a Rolla ?
Jackson ?
Bye Bye Love
Brand New Key
These Boots Are Made For Walking (D)

Diaries out everyone – it’s nearly December

20 November Community Christmas Picnic in Woodville

22 November Workshop night – some more Christmas tunes…

27 November Mega-uke day

Gig 1: 11am Semaphore Street Festival along Semaphore Road. Meet at 11am near Brock Harcourts, 87 Semaphore Rd (north side of road between Jagoe and Penny Streets) for 11.30am start to a 45 minute set. Music stands OK. Dress bright

Gig 2: 1.30 Community Alliance launch at St Clair Reserve on Woodville Road. Meet near stage by 1.30 for 30-40 minutes set (same songs as SSF).

Gig 3. 4pm Brian and Viv Tonkin invite all ukers to their annual Christmas party at 105 Childers St, North Adelaide. Not really a gig, but always a fabulous time with lots of music

29 November Limelight - Woohoo! We’re hosting this in the Venue this time, so you’ve no excuse not to bring friends and family and make a night of it!

3 December Saturday Afternoon Jam 2-5pm at the Gov, bring the kiddy winks

6 December Beginners and Novices, also Drop In Night

11 December Adelaide Showground Farmers Market 10am-12noon. Meet at the big pine tree in the garden

13 December Last ukulele night of the year – open mike, Chrissy drinks and end of year bon homie

So many things in November!

The year won’t end on a whimper, that’s for sure. And do keep sending your suggestions, requests and dreams for 2012.

All sessions are 7pm ish, at The Gov, unless otherwise noted.

1 November Beginners and Novices, also Drop In Night

5 November Saturday Afternoon Jam 2-5pm at the Gov - bring the kiddy winks

8 November Workshop night and Birthday Celebrations! Who? why us! AUAS is four years old!

13 November Adelaide Showground Farmers Market 10am-12noon – meet at the big pine tree in the garden. Song list below.

15 November Strummin’ and pickin’, also Drop In Night

20 November Possible gig in Woodville – more details as they come to hand

22 November Workshop night

29 November Limelight – woohoo! We’re hosting this in the Venue this time, so you’ve no excuse not to bring friends and family and make a night of it!

3 December Saturday Afternoon Jam 2-5pm at the Gov - bring the kiddy winks

Just in case you missed this…

Here we are on SA Life - check out the video!

Sema4 and more

Thank you everyone who helped make our day at Semaphore Music Festival a grand success! We’ve had terrific feedback from festival organisers and volunteers, audience members and workshop participants. And wasn’t the weather a dream!

There are some great photos of the day doing the rounds – take a look!

Coming up… Strumming and Picking on Tuesday 18 October and another workshop on 25 October.

And the popular Saturday Afternoon Jam returns 2-5pm on 5 November. Suggestions for workshop, and feed back from Semaphore most welcome.

The day we went to Semaphore

Didn’t we have a loverly day? The gig went well, the workshop  filled the RSL to capacity and we all enjoyed an afternoon of eating, imbibing and strumming. There are lots of photos - thanks Ian Fisk and all the other photographers!

AUAS @ Semaphore

We’ re practicing our set for the Semaphore Music Festival on Sunday 2 October 2011. We’d love as many members as possible to be part of this great day. If you haven’t played in public often (or maybe not at all), please don’t be shy or afraid.  It’s a great start, this gig: 50 or so of us on a long long truck in the park by the sea.  It’s where a lot of us made our public debuts!  And it really is a blast!

Our set list has been chosen to make it as easy as possible and still good for the audience. The first part has easiest songs for all of us and all in G; the middle has some small groups performing to add light and shade; the last part is familiar songs that we have done but maybe not recently.  It might get tweaked as we go along.

We will be teaching and practicing these songs at the Tuesday sessions throughout September. If you can’t make it along to every session, that’s fine.  If you can’t make it on 2 October, don’t abandon the Tuesdays! They will still be fun, and have small groups and a bit of open mike at the end.  On 27 September, we hope we can run through the whole 40 minute set on the stage in the Venue. And then go and have fun in the front bar. And on the day, please invite family and friends to join us for breakfast and/or the lunch afterwards.  AUAS picks up the tab for food, and we love sharing the day with all our members and our members’ best fans!

Here’s the list, with links to the song sheet.

1. Folsom Prison Blues - ALL, energetic, with whistle blowing    in G
2. You Ain’t Going Nowhere  – ALL, gorgeous harmonies  in G
3. I’m a Believer - ALL     uptempo crowd pleaser in G
4. Ukulele Baby  – Girls vs Boys – some stage shuffling      A signature song     NOW IN G we’ll have copies in Tuesday night
5. Ukelyptus – Angel or Opportunity
6. Hey Soul Sister – RG on lead vocal
7. I See Red -  KJM and co
8. Just Can’t Get Enough - ALL play, but women’s voices only  in G
9. Under the Boardwalk - ALL  lovely rhythm and beachy. Roger solo.  in C
10. Chains - ALL  – up tempo and good harmony  in A
11. Is this the way to Amarillo?   in A
12. These Boots - ALL  -  our signature tune  in D

Spring is here – the ukuleles are swarming!

Tuesday 23 August 7pm – workshop night. Phil is the host and will also be teaching you Just Can’t Get Enough, with some enthusiastic assistance from everyone who remembers the 80s. And probably Leaving On Jet Plane. In Show and Play, Roger will share his stories of Hawaii, and show and play his gorgeous KoAloha. And then it’s small groups and Limelight practice.

Saturday 27 August 27 5.30pm on Channel 7 – see our most recent Saturday Ukulele Jam on SA Life!

Tuesday 30 August 7pm - Limelight. Chase away the winter blues and get the sap rising at our irregular open mic night. Rob is the MC for the night. The formal part is basically two sets, and one song per performer-or-group at a time (so we can fit all parties on the board). Bring your party piece, throw on some colour and come along, even if you don’t want to perform. And if you can’t stop performing, the stage is even more open from 930.

Saturday 3 September 2pm-5pm - Saturday Afternoon Uke Jam and Family Sesh. This is very informal: find or make a group to jam with for an hour, then get up and show off. Then do it all again. Kid’s group in the first half: let us know if you or they need a loan uke. Banjoleles welcome: they’ll find some dedicated like-minds of all ages!

Tuesday 6 September 7pm - Beginners and Novices Night. Richard T leads a session for L and P plates, but everyone is welcome to drop in and jam, and then perform on stage.

Tuesday 13 September 7pm – workshop night

Tuesday 20 September 7pm - Strumming and Picking Night

Richard T leads a session on playing rather than singing. And again, everyone is welcome to drop in and jam and perform.

Tuesday 27 September – workshop night

Saturday 1 October – maybe or maybe not the Saturday Uke Jam… standby by for updates.

Sunday 2 October - Semaphore Music Festival. This is a great day out for ukers and family and friends – please put it in your diary now! We begin with breakfast at Largs Bay, then our Foreshore gig at 11 – we have the honour of being the opening act. We catch our breath, and at 1pm give a uke workshop (it’s a great session to bring unbelieving friends to) and then we retire for lunch (AUAS’s shout) and some bevvies at the Palais. This is AUAS’s annual social day, given Christmas time is tooooo mad, so please plan to come along, with friends and family. Set list soon.

And a bonus extra - music workshop with Kavisha Mazzella on 24 September. If you’d like a taste of Kavisha’s work visit www.kavisha.com. Ukes as well as voices most welcome.

Ukulele swarm by etcher67

Playing Up The Neck

Click the link for the notes from Richard G’s workshop on barre chords and inversions.

AUAS on tour

In case you haven’t heard, a group of AUAS members attended the Port Lincoln Uke Muster on the weekend 23-24 July 2011. Our Port Lincoln comrades invited us over to run some classes and workshops and build on the work that they have been doing at the Cellar Folk Club. This is what we did:

Saturday morning - workshops at Trinity Haven Camp Site, near Tumby Bay, covering different strum patterns; blues; introduction to finger picking.

Saturday afternoon – workshops open to all at the Arteyrea hall in Port Lincoln, including a beginners workshop; ukulele speed dating to learn 4 easy songs in 1 hour; playing chords up the neck. It was great to have participants ranging in age from 5 to 75, with a mixture of absolute beginners, guitar converts and experienced ukulele players.

On Saturday evening we all went to the Ukulele Extravaganza at the Port Lincoln Race Course where we were treated to some wonderful performances from the musicians from the House of Creative Learning and the Port Lincoln ukulele group. AUAS members also played a set and had a lot of fun.

Thanks to all our Port Lincoln, Whyalla, Port Augusta and Eyre Peninsula friends who came along and made it a great experience for everyone!