As we awake this morning on Wirral we find ourselves in Tier 2 and celebrating all the hard work put in to achieve this. Odd then I feel that Tier 2 is a rebranded old Tier 3? Without the mass testing carried out in Liverpool our rates have dropped dramatically, I give up trying to rationalise what is going on but just know that a large dose of common sense that comes with age goes a long way to doing the right things. I just hope the good work is not now undone by those selfish people who cannot sacrifice for the greater good and for those loved ones who find themselves cruelly isolated from the contact that is so vital to their wellbeing.
Hugukuleletv123, it has been a very busy week or so working on the Christmas Live Stream.
All those who "volunteered" to help create the content for the concert have been absolute stars. Fair to say that there has been a big learning curve in discovering the intricacies of collaborating on videos whilst doing so remotely. People have done so willingly and thrown themselves in to the recordings. I know it is not easy and I am sure there were many tries at getting it right. We hit on a formula of firstly laying down a source Audio track and videoing performing to this. The beauty of this as you will see is that it is easy to send Audio to each other and it allows people to video themselves singing along all perfectly in time. Also, for the person making the original audio miming to the audio whilst videoing themselves means they can perform to camera rather than just being static and trying to sing and play whilst being videoed! All in all we have learned a lot of skills and I hope everyone involved has had fun doing it, it seems that way on the videos!
There is a lot going on in the background in pulling together the event, thanks go to Claud who has been working hard pulling together video material for other contributions. I am certain you will be impressed.
On this theme thank you to those who have contributed festive poems we will be featuring them throughout the stream. Claud has done you proud in visually bringing to life your poems in a way they deserve.
As we stand, 9 Christmas songs are completed with a tenth almost. That leaves us 2 outstanding that I am hoping will be in the bag at the end of the week.
I have been anxious to get on top of the videoed songs so that we can ensure that any difficulties are overcome in good time.
Live Stream on the 21st December, this is going to be the area of greatest focus for us in the next two weeks. My concern is that there is a wide degree of computer competence within the U3a and whilst it is really not that hard to join our channel hugukuleletv123 through Twitch it is likely to be a challenge for some and needs to be addressed in good time. I have not heard from the leaders of Heswall U3a for a few weeks and I hope my concerns re getting people ready for the stream are not founded. I had hoped that after demonstrating what we were doing to some on the committee that our site would be publicised and we would get more followers, not to play but to tune in to watch us. Sadly, we have had no further publicity nor anyone join us from the U3a. I am struggling to get the message over that what we do is not like Zoom but rather is an on line streamed TV Channel that anyone in the World can tune in to once they are signed up to Twitch. Twitch is like the programme listing, select our channel and you go straight to hugukuleletv123.
Your mission should you choose to accept it, is to spread the message to other U3a members about us and encourage them to get signed up ready for our concert.
Getting U3a members ready to view us is now where I will focus my energies as I want you all to get the recognition you deserve. Its such a pity that people in ignorance are missing out on just either watching us or singing along.
Blues Course, we held our second session last Sunday and were able to feel more comfortable in the on line teaching format. As I say it is all new to me so thanks to the participants for their patience. After our initial week of laying down the basics we are starting to build on the structure of the Blues and how versatile it can be. One key thing is that people are starting to embrace the secret of playing in multiple keys. Onwards and upwards!
Quick Lessons, although I called a halt to the Lessons, I hope at the minimum each of you will build in to your playing some of the techniques we covered. At the very least the basic finger lift should become a stock way you play rather than hanging on to the ukulele for dear life! Remember the ukulele is best played with fingers constantly on the move and strums varied to stress parts of the song. I stopped to allow each of you to embrace at least one of the techniques depending upon your level, in to your playing rather than just keep adding more techniques that are interesting for 15 minutes but don't get incorporated by practice. The Youtube videos are there as reminders.
Hug Social, we continue to socialise on a Tuesday night and try things out, as well as features we have come to know and love!
Last night I updated the Hugukuleletv top 10 of most viewed videos on our Youtube Channel. I will be adding this to our website and keep reviewing it to update the climbers and fallers. So if you have a favourite that you want to see in the top 10 Chart then get busy encouraging views of the video, every view is tallied and will decide the top 10 ranking. Currently Lockdown Blues by Geoff is sitting at number 1.
Hug Lottery, I have an idea to launch the Hug Lottery soon. I have the outline based upon our spin the wheel but will need to address and resolve the issues particularly around collecting monies. In my experience this is the most fraught area and might preclude us from doing it! The aim is to split the total pot equally between winner and a charity of our choosing. I would in any case be looking for someone to manage it as I do not want to get involved with the money side. It would of course be voluntary if it happens. We have all been in the position of not having to pay fees for all of the current time and have a little money in our kitty that we had built up ready for social activities but the lottery would be a gentle and fun way to get us in to the habit once again of paying subs. As I say this is very much early days so please let me know your views.
Dave