When a friend recently told me he had joined the new Guelph ukulele group, it made me somewhat envious. After all, having a local support-performance-practice-chat-socialize group for any hobby is always great. When your hobby is a passion that requires an audience to realize itself fully, a local group is de rigeur. You simply need others people to practice with to get better and share the joy.
Uke groups have been springing up all over. The ukulele is currently the most popular musical instrument in the world.
The Corktown Ukulele Jam is a weekly group get-together in Toronto that I’ve attended a couple of times. It’s amazing, fun and always packed (click the photo on the left). Ukuleles and beer… a terrific combination!
But are there enough local ukulele players to form a viable group? I’m not sure. I only know of four, perhaps six, of us (adults anyway). There may be others, of course. Maybe this post will bring a few more out.
A local group could do several other things: help new players learn, share information and tips on playing and buying, compare models and brands, encourage local music stores to stock better product, share music, buy strings in bulk, and build interest in the ukulele for others who may not have discovered it yet.
We could build a songbook everyone could share, too. I have hundreds of vintage song sheets and books already scanned we could build from. Plus there is a lot of music already posted on forums like the Ukulele Underground, personal sites (like mine) and then there are generic song sites like Chordie.com that offer arrangements for the uke.
Not sure yet where we’d meet, but space can always be found. The pub idea works well for me…
Any thoughts? Any players who’d like to gather?
Friends of the Ukulele? Really – another damned ratepayers group? First it was Friends of Central Park, then Friends of the Harbour, and Friends of Hume Street… it’s time to stop kowtowing to these special interests!
I think we can excuse creative groups as being too busy perfecting their art to become political… hey… you used to play bass… still interested in it? Want to learn the uke?… notice insidious pinko commie talk trying to seduce unsuspecting editor… conspiracy theorists take flight…