Hi all, it was great to get back into the swing of playing on Friday. Holidays are great but very tiring. Why is it that when you mention that you play Ukulele for fun everyone does a George Formby impersonation?
A massive thank you to Geoff for stepping in and leading in my absence. it was great to play our choices on Friday and really encouraging that our newer songs were requested and performed really well.I thought the singing and playing was excellent you should be proud of what you have achieved. (I even enjoyed playing Ye Canna Shove Yer Granny!
Friday proved that we are ready to now play gigs and hopefully this is something we want to do and can do soon.
Learning session next Friday, I would like to spend a few minutes on learning about Inversions, sounds painful but in fact is just about playing chords we are familiar with but in different positions. In our members section on the website I have posted a section called Playing Up The Neck, it covers Inversions (its the second part of the article, just ignore the first part),if you want to have a look at what Inversions are. I will cover perhaps one or two chords to get us started. Inversions are a way of enhancing the overall sound of a group of ukuleles playing together so that we get a fuller more interesting sound.
Gigging On this subject as announced, we will play at the next Heswall U3A Meeting. Please note the date is the 14th October and not the 7th as we thought. I hope as many of us as is possible will be able to play. Just an update, this event is for various groups within the U3A to showcase what they do. We have now been told that we will be on the stage at Heswall Hall and can play 3 songs! We will confirm on Friday how many of us are able to play on the 14th.
Activities Procedures I Have now received guidance notes from the Business Secretary and Trustee of our U3A. They are quite extensive and set out what is required of me as Facilitator of our group. Apologies in advance if I appear a little prescriptive but it is important that I safeguard our constitution as a U3A as agreed with the Charity Commission.
It is important that all who attend our group are members of the U3A. One key emphasis that we are on track with is that our group puts a heavy emphasis on learning through sharing our knowledge skills and experience, this is the overriding objective of U3A together with the resulting social and leisure activities that arise from our getting together. I can make a copy of the Procedures available to anyone who wishes to see them.
Thoughts of Christmas It is around this time that thoughts turn to Christmas songs (seems to come around faster each year!) We will start to play a selection of Christmas songs over the coming weeks. There are a selection of Christmas songs on our Music page ready for us to try out. We are down to play at the Heswall U3A Christmas Meeting so we have an incentive to learn a dozen or so Christmassy songs.
Social As announced, Dot and Sheila are organising our first , hopefully of many, social events for group members. I hope as many of us as possible will be able to attend the Christmas Meal at the Fox and Hounds, this will be great opportunity for us to enjoy each others company and get to know each other.
Finally I wanted to say a huge and humble thank you to each of you for your birthday wishes and gift. Also the best rendition of Happy Birthday I have heard! I am not usually stuck for words but your lovely gesture was overwhelming, thank you to each of you.
Some will know that the beginning of the year was not exactly the best for me but you have restored my faith in all that is good in people. I am humbled to be a part of such a great group of people.
Thanks
Dave