February 1 Ukulele Jam

Greetings, Kingston ukulele fans!

It's time again to let the music ring out! Bring your ukes along to our regular ukulele jam. Next jam is this Wednesday, February 1, 7pm at the Kingston Community House.

We'll start with a workshop, continuing to practice the song we started last time. This time, we'll look at the strumming pattern and speed up the pace.

The workshop follows with our usual song circle. Bring along your favorite songs to share with the group. Please do that. If you don't, others will choose what we play. You can find my choice of songs here. It's a selection of largely three-chord songs, mostly songs we've done before, but with one new song.

Remember, we jam at the Kingston Community House, 99 York Street in downtown Kingston, on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of the month (excluding holidays). 7pm. The cost is $2 per jam to cover the cost of room rental. If you haven't yet printed off your own copy of our favorites document, you can download it here.

Cheers! Hans

January 18 Ukulele Jam

Greetings!

For the second jam of the new year, I propose a 3 or 4 chord jam. That is, let's do songs with no more than 3 or 4 chords. You can find my choice of songs here. Feel free to bring along your 3 or 4 chord favorites too. Or if you just want to sit back and strum along, that's okay too.

But first, let's begin the jam with a workshop. I've found one particular song that should be good for a workshop. Beginners can learn from this song, but it also should be interesting for more intermediate players. This week, we can practice the chords and chord changes. In future weeks, we can work on other aspects of the song, such as tempo and strum patterns. 

If you haven't already done so, please respond to the survey I put out a few days ago. There has already been a good response, but I'd like more before I report on the results. The survey can be found by clicking here.

But based on discussions so far, I am making changes to the jam, starting with this week's jam. For example, every now and then, we should have a jam where we limit ourselves to 3 or 4 chord songs. Also, people have made it clear that we should have a workshop. This may be problematical since we don't have any music teachers in our group. But I welcome any suggestions for future workshop topics.

Also based on discussions on our mailing list, I welcome any suggestions for a new venue. Remember, we should have a venue available on Wednesday evenings, roomy, with good lighting, and with convenient parking. I'll be checking out some possibilities when I have a chance later this week.

Remember, we jam at the Kingston Community House, 99 York Street in downtown Kingston, on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of the month (excluding holidays). 7pm. The cost is $2 per jam to cover the cost of room rental. If you haven't yet printed off your own copy of our favorites document, you can download it here.

Cheers! Hans

January 4 Ukulele Jam

Greetings, Kingston ukulele fans!

Let's welcome in the New Year with our regular ukulele jam, this Wednesday, January 4, 7pm at the Kingston Community House. Bring along your favorite songs to share. Or just sit back and strum along. As Manitoba Hal said, music demands participation, not perfection.

Remember, we jam at the Kingston Community House, 99 York Street in downtown Kingston, on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of the month (excluding holidays). 7pm. The cost is $1 per jam to cover the cost of room rental. If you haven't yet printed off your own copy of our favorites document, you can download it here.

Cheers! Hans