I always said it would end in tiers! Here we are now in Tier 3.
Certain air of inevitability, given the evidence of how complacent certain groups of people had become. We are frustrated that through circumstances we cannot meet together yet we have found ways for the majority of us to stay connected. Not only that but we have found the time to be creative perhaps doing things we never dreamed of doing, whether it's writing and performing original songs, poems or getting to grips with technology that the young see as their domain. That can do spirit is sadly missing in some of the younger age groups.
Hugukuleletv123, the channel is now settling down and becoming easier to manage for me.
I did notice that more of you are streaming through to Tvs or at least larger screens. This is definitely the way to go to get the best out of the stream. All of the time I am aware that the equipment individuals are using varies wildly in make type and age. This coupled with quality of Broadband will always dictate what is possible. I experimented with a live feed into the stream by Geoff and Sheila acting as guinea pigs. Fair to say it was of limited success, not I hasten to add as a result of Geoff and Sheila. We had trialled it the day before and it worked fine. Sods law the Sound was not as it should have been because the set up was not recognising the audio interface and so the external microphone!
This has not put me off trying to get it right because it would open up possibilities for others to remotely stream from their own home for our entertainment.
Don't forget a selfie of you playing along for our picture gallery.
HUG SOCIAL for those tuning in to our very first members meeting thank you so much I hope you enjoyed yourselves, I certainly did, putting it together and running the evening. If you didn't tune in you are missing a fun evening and it would be good to grow the numbers participating. The evening is deliberately not a re run of a strum along rather it is intended to be a mixture of features and activities that can involve us all. Playing the uke is of course a feature. whilst there will be some standard features I will try to be creative and mix things up. it was good to start to feature the original poems from the group and I will feature a couple each week but will also reprise them on the Fridays session to give them the deserved audience. As those of you tuning in last night saw I will start to feature possible new songs for us to add to our repertoire. Fortunatey there is a lot of material with chords and lyrics for us to tap into. This will emphasise our learning and stop us getting stale playing the same songs. You never know, you may even want to put in to practice some of the QUICK LEARNING techniques we have been covering! The spin the wheel selector was a lot of fun and this is something I will use sometimes on Fridays.
Open Mike, it is time for us to resurrect this feature. So get being creative, remember there are no limitations on instrument. This is a good way for us to identify possible future songs.
you will need to video record your contribution. If you are comfortable editing video then please do, otherwise I will edit it for you. It will be basic edit to set starts and finishes rather than anything flash.
Now sending video files is not easy to do because of file sizes. They are likely too big to be sent as attachments to email. Rather, it will require sending via File sharing. I recommend Dropbox which is what I use. The only thing at the moment is I have filled up my Dropbox free limit and so will have to upgrade to get more storage. Dropbox is a cloud resource allowing everything to be stored and retrieved. it is ideal for file sharing as there is not limit on file size. At the moment I do not have email set up on the PC and so cannot yet upgrade Dropbox. I don't want to pay a subscription on the Mac and then have to cancel it and take one on the PC so until I am setup properly please do make your video contributions but hold on to them for now.
QUICK LESSONS, thank you again for your interest. We have focussed on playing up the neck so as to expand our chords any from what is 1st position chords. All of these techniques are relatively easy but as you get comfortable using the things we have covered you will find yourself just naturally applying them within songs.
Other topics. Shortly I want to offer the chance for a few of you to explore with me playing The Blues. This is a fascinating topic and expands your playing and interpretation of songs through, strumming, scales and accompaniment. The ideal is for perhaps 4 or 5 to participate so that we can cover things in a manageable way. This would be very much an introduction to the Blues, so the limitation is only whatever you place on yourself. Let me know if there is interest. It will be a learning experience for me also!
If you are reading this Blog then its very likely you are an active participant in the Friday stream and or our Tuesday night socials, in short what I think of as Virtual HUG. Thank you so much for your support. We have been live streaming now for over 6 months and it is probable that people who are no longer participating will not join us in the future. I do not want to keep sending emails to those who do not wish to participate. The only way I can judge the active membership though is by asking those who of you who are participating to drop me an email. I don't have peoples emails as I communicate via the U3a mailing list that I don't have specific access to.
A simple email just saying "Yes" is all that is required. If this can be done by the end of October that will help me. Logically, only those who are interested and read this Blog will respond. Please inform me if you know people who ordinarily do participate but for whatever reason cannot at the moment.
NOW I KNOW THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO FOR VARIOUS REASONS CANNOT PARTICIPATE, this exercise is not about excluding people from being members of HUG.
Rather I need a list of emails for those who are part of Virtual HUG for future initiatives. I would not want to miss anyone! Just drop an email to me at dave@thewus.co.uk. saying Yes.
Thanks again to all for your support it is not taken for granted.
Stay safe and keep strumming!
Dave