SeilerBird's ukulele baptism

[SeilerBird]

Sounds like fun. Will you be a strumming/singing Santa?

I have not decided on what I will wear yet.

How many folks will play? Just curious, will you be amp'd? Every time we've tried to play &/or sing outdoors with a couple of dozen ukes or more without an amp, the sound doesn't project. As a result, the first question I ask venues that call and ask us to play is "will this event be indoors or outdoors?". The next question is "will the audience be eating &/or drinking?". Our bankoukers might have a chance of projecting, but we don't play banjoukes on Christmas or Hawaiian songs  ;D

I think we have about a dozen. There is a flat bed truck involved that will haul the older and more invalid of the group. I may get myself a small battery powered amp to use. I don't know if they will be drinking. This group did this last year and they had a blast.

Meanwhile, I'd be afraid to have our band march while playing & singing; Many are in their 70's, 80's and even 90's, and we'd end up with some accidents or health issues.

We do have a lot of younger people in the group and they will be the marchers, the rest of us will be on the truck.

 

[SeilerBird]

Had a practice tonight for the Christmas parade on Saturday. We picked out three songs and dumbed them down so they are all in the key of C so they flow together nicely. We will just keep on repeating them till we run out of parade route. We have another practice on Wednesday. Three single women there tonight, things are looking up. The three songs are Frosty the Snowman, Deck the Halls and Rocking Around the Christmas Tree. Then we made a recording with our cell phones so we can practice without the group. And Friday night I get to go see the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain in Gainesville, their only east coast performance. It is uke week for me. ;D

 

[Tom]

You're making me envious. We're in the MidWest for Thanksgiving through new year, and I miss our weekly ukulele practices. I'll also miss our two December performances by the Delta Strummers. OTOH I've played the uke since being here, and played with a couple of guitarists at the Thanksgiving get together at our place. Time to re-engage with the Buckeye Ukulele Society.

 

[SeilerBird]

I have decided I like my current like up of ukuleles so I decided to take some photographs of the collection for insurance purposes.

I really love my four ukes and I am not planning on changing any of them or adding to the collection. So hopefully I am set for a while.

 

[SeilerBird]

https://youtu.be/BBTYA7-0byU

I had an interesting weekend. Friday night I drove up to Gainesville (three hours) and watched the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain do a show and then drove home. I got to bed at two am and set the alarm for six. I had to get up and drive for an hour to be ready for the Winter Park Christmas Parade. I am on the far left in the flag hat playing bass. We had a great time but I wish the parade would have lasted about an hour longer.

 

[SeilerBird]

Well I am madly in love with my bass uke. The strings only felt strange and rubbery to me for about the first five minutes, then it just became normal and easy to play. At the parade last Saturday that we marched in I volunteered to play bass and everyone approved. After the parade the cute Japanese lady that I have a crush on came up to me to tell me that my bass playing really helped her. She said every time she got lost she just listened for the bass and was able to find out where we were. This group is planning on meeting this Saturday morning at a catering truck that is parked in downtown Winter Park for a jam session. There are actually two catering trucks parked there. One is a coffee truck and one is a pastrami truck. So I am going to take sheet music for Hot Pastrami this week. The song was originally a hit by the Dartells whom went to the same high school as me. They used to play at all the school dances. It was strange looking back at the fact that there were rock and roll artists walking around my high school. I did not appreciate it at the time, it just seemed normal to me.

 

[Tom]

The bass always sets the beat for the uke strumming.