Ukulele
Place: | United Reformed Church, Sutton Coldfield, B73 6AA |
Day: | Every Monday |
Time: | 2 pm |
Cost: | £2 |
Definitive meeting dates are displayed in the Monthly Programme.
The ukulele group was formed in April 2018 as a group for beginner players. The aim is to have fun through playing the ukulele and singing a variety of folk and pop songs. In the process, we are learning the technical side of the instrument- tuning, strumming, finger picking, different accompaniments, and also how to read tablature and standard musical notation, with some musical theory.
Since April we have gone from strength to strength and in November 2018 took part in our first performance as part of the U3A in the Afternoon show. One of the most enjoyable aspects of taking part in this was the collaboration with other U3A groups, in our case the Singing, Recorder and 60s Dance groups. Everyone enjoyed being part of a live music performance. Also in November, some of us went to see the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain and came away wondering if we could ever be that good!
Several of our members had either no musical experience, or somewhat negative memories of music in their younger days, so joined the group with some trepidation. It has been wonderful to see everyone develop confidence in their playing and singing. Chords which were incredibly difficult at the start now trip off the fingers with ease! (Of course, new, more difficult chords are now challenging us).
Future thoughts: further skills development, thinking of better ways to incorporate new beginner members, further collaboration with other U3A groups.
Playing the ukulele is a wonderful way to have fun and make new friends, while giving your brain a jolly good workout!
If you would like to learn more about this group, please send our organiser a message via the 'flying bird' icon at the top right hand side of this page (or at the foot of the page if viewing on a mobile device) or come along to a meeting.