Calling all ukulele players

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LOL Jim, nobody accused me of being quiet  ;D

[quote author=Tom]Not me. I'm able to belt it out with no audio support.[/quote]

When I was first asked (at zero notice) to sing God Bless America at a retired guy's club I'd applied to join, I almost blew their audio system out. After that episode, I don't use a mic for 150 or so people in the audience.

As an aside, my friend is the choral director for a local chorus. We were sitting on our boat anchored somewhere on the CA Delta last year, when I turned on a favorite Welsh song and said " this would sound good with 4-part harmony in your chorus". Sure enough, he's included it in the chorus' upcoming performance, albeit sung in English. Last Monday I was invited to attend a choral practice and was introduced as "my buddy Tom who came up with the idea for this song: He's here to audit you singing, and will be back in a couple of weeks to sing the song to you in Welsh".

Oh crap! I don't want to sing to this august group. But, Ernie being the creative guy he is, told me privately "You're going to belt it out in Welsh, and the chorus will be humming behind you and it's going to sound great".
 
Which one Jim? God Bless America, or Ar hyd y nos (aka All through the night).
 
Jim Dick said:
Tom,

Trust me, he doesn't need a PA!
He woke up the next day without a voice. Being loud and singing properly are two totally different things. This is why PAs were invented.
 
He actually was voiceless the morning before he was scheduled to sing.  If he lost his voice after, it was probably due to the sinus infection.  Believe me, I've heard him.  Most people have forgotten more than Tom knows about projecting his beautiful Welsh voice.  In a contest with the "real" Tom Jones, I would take our Tom every time.

Margi
 
Thanks Margi.

He actually was voiceless the morning before he was scheduled to sing.

That's correct, and was due to a sinus infection. I could barely talk when I woke up, and was convinced I wouldn't be able to sing. But, by performance time, I was feeling much better and decided to give it a shot, although I nursed my voice a bit until the last number. Not a 'professional' performance, but we're billed as an amateur group.

I must admit that I had to re-learn how to sing when I joined a barbershop chorus some years ago; Singing in harmony with 80 or so others was quite different from my freestyle solo singing. Their vocal coaches sure taught us to "sing properly".

I'm now having to learn all over again, this time to sing with a "band", and I must admit it's a bit of a challenge for me; I came in on the wrong beat on a couple of songs/verses yesterday, but the players quickly caught it and adjusted accordingly. I mentioned it when I talked with the leader last evening, and her response was "unlike most of our singers, we can hear you, and are therefore able to adjust and keep in step with you".
 
Well great, I hope I get to hear him at Quartzsite next year.
 
You might be waiting a long time  ;)

Quartzsite is one of the worst places for my sinuses; Chris and I both get very bad infections in the desert, and end up having to visit the nearest doc, clinic, or ER.
 
The wife of one of the players took some pictures with her PAS camera. Her husband just stopped by our house to let me grab pictures from her camera.

We were a bit pinched for space yesterday, so she has some audience heads in the pic. Half the audience was off to one side, which was why I was facing that direction in this shot.
 

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That hat cost me all of $3.99 at a CVS Pharmacy.
 
You're on Jim. OTOH you said it perfectly, so maybe we could sign a duet  ;D

FWIW one of the other guys sang a beautiful Mauri song yesterday. I haven't been able to get it out of my head since I first heard it some weeks ago. He sang the first two verses in the Mauri language, and we all sang the last two verses in English.

We have another performance at a different assisted living place in a few weeks - not the same song list. In August we perform all Hawaiian songs at a luau at a third assisted living facility. That's going to be much tougher, because some of those Hawaiian songs are almost impossible to sing and quite tough to play - unless you were born on the islands. Fortunately, we have a couple of Hawaiian ladies coming to our practices, and I'm hoping they'll join us in the performance. We'll also have a couple of Hawaiian-born dancers in the show. Hope they keep some food for us!
 
I'm thinking we could have an interesting jamming session at one of rallies; Tom S playing his guitar, Jim D alternating between his bagpipes and his ukin, and me trying to keep up playing my ukulele  ;D
 
Tom said:
I'm thinking we could have an interesting jamming session at one of rallies; Tom S playing his guitar, Jim D alternating between his bagpipes and his ukin, and me trying to keep up playing my ukulele  ;D

That's what I was thinking. Pancake Bill plays a mean dobro. But your sinuses won't let you come to Q. That is the only rally I will be at in the next year.
 
[quote author=seilerbird]Pancake Bill plays a mean dobro.[/quote]

Didn't realize that Bill plays the dobro. I believe we have another member who plays that instrument and gave us a performance at Moab. Maybe I have to join via Skype  :(
 
Jim,

Ukulele strings are really cheap, even "good" nylgut ones by Aquila.
 
Tom,

Yes, they are cheap and someday I need to get some. ;D That's the easy part. The hard part is learning how to play!!!
 
Jim, there are lots of (free) online resources, including lessons, such as this one and this one (scroll down the page to see links to individual lessons). Too bad you're not close to us; Our new music director is an excellent teacher, and would get you playing in no time.

BTW this might help if/when you decide to re-string.
 
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