Tuesday 23 December 2008

Music to watch girls go by, at our Xmas meet

thats one song we were playing, its a catchy little number. keep an eye out for it on the song page.

We had a great night at our Xmas meet, with mince pies, mulled wine and a few dates too...

I wish you all a very merry Xmas, and look forward to meeting up again in January, i'll post the date soon.

happy new year too!

Friday 12 December 2008

Our last Meeing of 2008

Our last meeting of 2008 will be on Thursday 18th December.

Lol has sent out a few Christmas tunes for us to try, some of you should already have these, I'll try and get them uploaded to our files section sometime during the weekend for those that did not receive them.

Remember the best way to be kept upto date is to be a member of our group by adding in your email address in the right hand side, you will then get a confirmation email.

Sunday 7 December 2008

Steven Sproat workshop - How was it?

Summed up in one word "Brilliant", everyone I spoke to was having a great day, some even commented that they had learned more from the workshop than they had done in the whole time they had been playing the uke. Although Stockton to Darlington hosted the day we had friends from a number of the North East clubs including Tune Army (No post in there yet but please register on the right hand box if you intend going) and the Ukulele Allstars ) apologies if I've missed any other clubs off, but feel free to leave a comment to advertise it :) )

Steven is a great teacher, his workshop is interspersed with songs showing off the techniques that we were learning about (some of which I managed to capture in video below), not only is he a good teacher he's a top chap, very friendly and more than happy to help out and give advice.

Thanks for a fantastic day Steven and we'll hopefully be able to arrange a follow up session sometime in the new year.

Special thanks to Simon for sorting out the room and putting on a lovely spread and to Ritchie for managing the troops at the Gateshead end.

Please Note you can double click on the video to take you to the proper youTube version where you can then select to watch it in higher quality.

Steven Sproat workshop
Steven Sproat playing Jeff's Martin.



Sweet Georgia Brown

Steven Sproat workshop

Steven Sproat workshop

Steven Sproat workshop


Robert Palmer's It Could Happen To You using Katya's ukulele (anyone know the make and model is?).

Photobucket

Steven Sproat workshop

Steven Sproat workshop


A little snippit of some technique.

Steven Sproat workshop

Steven Sproat workshop


12TH Street Rag

Once gain thanks to Steven and to everyone there making it a superb day.

Saturday 15 November 2008

Club News

There are now only a few places left on the workshop. so if you want to reserve your place get in touch.
Next meeting is on Thursday 27th November, to cover the cost of the room i am introducing a subs book, simply put your name down and your money. The idea is we can buy a projector for our song sheets, or a round of drinks! with any moneys left from the subs.

see you all soon

Saturday 8 November 2008

November's Meeting

Is Booked for the 27th of November from 7 PM, see you all there.

Thursday 30 October 2008

Steven Sproat workshop 6th Dec

Listen up folks, we have managed to secure a workshop with Steven Sproat. its going to be held on 6th Dec, from 11-5ish at the usual place, the Railway institute club.

we really want to offer places to anyone from our club who wants to attend before we offer spaces to other uke players in the North.

so please get in touch!

the cost for the workshop is £22 per head, that includes a teaching pack, sandwiches and tea & coffee. i might even make a cake!

if you would like to pay now to confirm your space get in touch

Sunday 26 October 2008

October Meeting and some Exciting News

Thursday's meeting went well, we're all still very much learning to play together, so we need to sort out our timings and play strums that compliment each other, this will all be fixed with time :)

This however leads me on to some exciting news, Steven Sproat has agreed to do one of his excellent Saturday workshops for us, check out Steven's website for further details or look for some of his videos on youtube. No matter what your ability this will certainly help move your uke playing up to the next level. We're still working on a suitable date but its likely to be in November or December so please if you want to attend I need for you to let me know as quickly as possible, either do this in our group forum link is on the right hand side.

I'm going to end with a little mp3 recorded from Thursday's meeting warts and all :) a little medley of some of the tunes we played http://www.box.net/shared/kb79zyhnrc

Saturday 4 October 2008

October's Meeting is on ....

The 23rd, 7 PM as usual. Hope to see you all there.

As a quick addition if anyone is struggling with their chord shapes, I've uploaded a couple of useful chord charts to the file section of our group.

Quick Tips - Replacing Strings
We all have to do it eventually, here a re a couple of links I found useful.
http://www.ukuleles.com/SetupnCare/stringtie.html

http://liveukulele.com/lessons/changing-strings/

http://www.ukeland.com/pages/articles/stuff/string.jpg

Friday 26 September 2008

Somewhat Quieter

After that rowdy lot from Gateshead invaded our club last month ;) it was always going to be a little quieter. But I'm please to say we had a few prospective new member come along to sit in and see what we get upto, they'll hopefully turn again at our next meeting with ukulele in hand.

Simon didn't bring along his promised cake, next time he says ;)

We're hoping to have some new song printouts for the next meeting. You'll find the nine songs in our file section of our google group, link here ==> http://groups.google.co.uk/group/ukulele-express

While I'm on the subject of the group, please make sure you sign up to it, by doing so you will receive an email every time a post is added in there, it will keep you upto date regarding meeting etc.

Couple of Quick tips
Do yourself a favour and download APTuner its a briliant tuner for the PC all you need is a microphone plugged into your computer, its better than any clip on tuner.
Link here ==> http://www.aptuner.com/cgi-bin/aptuner/apmain.html

Tip number 2 - If you're not familiar with a song we might be doing, simply search for it on youtube, it will almost certainly be on there, here an example of a song thats becoming a favourite of ours http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x241pZhtLDY.

Sunday 7 September 2008

Next Meeting in September

The Stockton to Darling Ukulele Express has its next meeting on the 25th September 2008, all welcome.

Also wanted to quickly mention AP Tuner, this is a shareware unlimited chromatic tuner that simply uses a microphone plugged into your PC, its a brilliant program and will help anyone trying to tune up their ukulele's. Link is here AP Tuner. Most of us in the club use C tuning that means the strings are tuned GCEA.

Friday 22 August 2008

Night of a Thousand Ukes

Ok maybe not quite a thousand but I wanted to use the title ;)

Thursday the 21st was the second meeting of the club and saw the numbers swell from 5 to I think I counted 18. Now admittedly more than a sizable chunk was brought along by Ritchie from the Gateshead area, no doubt lured by the cheap beer from the bar below and the promise of cake also brought along by Ritchie (I think we need a club rule that states he brings cake to every meeting). Its a 35 minute trek from Gateshead to Darlington, I know because I do it myself, so we're very grateful they came along to give us some support and to show us how it should be done, you're more than welcome to come along any time guys :)

Besides the Gateshead crew we also had a couple of others turn up after seeing the site and adverts in the Northern Echo, again we're really pleased you turned up :)

There are a few photos to come, I'll post those separately. Don't forget to keep an eye on our Google group for the date of the next meeting http://groups.google.co.uk/group/ukulele-express.

Monday 4 August 2008

Club Information

The Stockton to Darlington Ukulele Express is a Ukulele club in the North East of England for Ukulele players of all abilities.

The venue is the Foresters Arms, Darlington. Situated just off of the A1, follow the A167 toward Darlington, Link to Google Map Here. Post code for Sat Navs is DL1 3LU.

The meetings are currently held the second Thursday and the Last Thursday of every month. Check our Google group for the date of the next meeting http://groups.google.co.uk/group/ukulele-express.

Contact Simon Brown for further details.

Top 50 Ukulele Sites

Saturday 26 July 2008

Club Songs

At our first meeting the following songs were chosen as a good base to start from, this list will be added to over time.

I'll See You In My Dreams in F - from Ukeland
Five Foot Two - song 74, Doctor Uke
When You're Smiling - song 274, Doctor Uke
Down Town - song 67, Doctor Uke
She Loves You - This version is in our Google Group, direct link here
I Wanna Be Like You - In our Google Group, Direct Link

Forum / Group Page

Using Google tools I've setup a Forum/Group for discussing club topics and uploading files. At the moment its restricted to members only, please send an email to either Simon or myself for invite to the group.

The groups address is found at http://groups.google.co.uk/group/ukulele-express

Please note : By default if you are a member of the group every time a post is made you will also receive an email to your regular email address, you can turn this feature off.

If you get the following message and your membership has been approved it just means you need to Sign in to Google Groups.


You cannot view the group's content or participate in the group because you are not currently a member.
Members must be approved before joining.

You must be signed in and a member of this group to view its content.

Sign in to Google Groups

Sign in and apply for membership or contact the owner.

Friday 25 July 2008

The First Meeting

On the 24th July 2008 the Stockton to Darlington Ukulele Express had their first meeting at the Darlington Railway Institute Club. Special thanks to Simon Brown for organising and finding a venue.

Five turned up in total and though not a huge amount it was a great start which will hopefully see the numbers grow in the future.


Left to right Simon, Janet, Ken, Ritchie and Keith

The plan is initially to meet every three to four weeks, with members to bring along and showcase to the rest of the club (if they feel confident enough to do so) something that that they have been working on, some of these songs could end up the club song book.




Six songs have been chosen initially for members to practice and then play together in a group at the meetings, I'll post separately with links to the songs.