Naomi, Caroline and I have been practicing for the last 3 Wednesdays, toughening up our fingers and learning new chords. On Saturday we have our first combined rehearsal. So far, we've got Ukulele Mike, a school teacher, Trevor, who works with Harley Davidson, Lionel who works at Total, plus Caroline, Naomi, me and Michael is even going to give it a bash.
Naomi and I have also decided to start a kids ukulele group, and we are going to buy a bunch of the cheap and nasty 9KD (about $32 AUD) ukuleles we found on one of our reccies.
Lenny and I are going back to Australia for a few weeks, leaving here on the 16th December, and going via Singapore, where I am thrilled that Canadian ukulele player/teacher extraordinaire, James Hill, will be giving a workshop in big band ukulele styles. I had to beg for a ticket from Glyn, at the Ukulele Movement in Singapore, because it was sold out. Ukulele is going off in Singapore! Every second person must be playing these days, and these guys have opened two shops on the tiny island.
We're going home to help my parents move house - they have finally bought a place in Byron Bay - which is heaven on earth, if you don't know already. And we will also meet up with my beautiful daughter, Yilpi, in Singapore. She's been working there for a few weeks and will still be there when we arrive, then she'll come with us to Byron for Christmas. Can't wait to see her!
Hi Janet
Great that you are coming back to Australia, even if only for a short time!
On the ukelele front last week I went to a rather, well eclectic, might be too mild, poetry reading as one of the guest poets and there was an open mic. One participant hitched up his cords, make a dive for a battered uke, strode out front and wailed something not recogisable as English, or any other language I've ever heard but the really strange thing was all the strings seemed to play the same note, another friend said exactly the same thing so it wasnt just my cloth ears. This must be very strange.
Posted by: Carol | Thursday, 01 December 2011 at 11:22 AM