Last Ukulele Class

Last night was our final ukulele class in the series of six at McCabe's Guitar Shop in Santa Monica. I will miss the uke challenges that our teacher, Steve Rose gave us, urging us to stretch our little fingers to great lengths on the uke fretboard. The class started out with eleven people and ended with seven stalwarts. That's not such a bad drop-out rate. We all traded e-mail addresses and have promised to trade uke info and news about upcoming uke events. Hopefully, an intermediate class will be offered in the near future. My friend, Nancy came along for part of the class to take some photos of our final ukulele class.

Ellen, Tom and Don in back

photo by Nancy Del Favero

Donnae, Ann and Pamela

photo by Nancy Del Favero

photo by Nancy Del Favero

Steve showing us a particularly difficult chord

Photo by Nancy Del Favero

Shelby advises Pamela on uke technique (left)

Photo by Nancy Del Favero

I do know that Steve will be teaching another beginning ukulele class this October. Even if you've never played a musical instrument, this is a fun and rewarding class. I urge everyone to sign up and have some fun.

We learned all the basics in class, along with lots of popular songs ranging from folk tunes like This Little Light of Mine, to calypso songs Jamaica Farewell, pop songs King of the Road, You Send Me and classic American jazzy songs like Avalon, Up A Lazy River, 26 Miles. One of my favorites is the Hawaiian song, Goin' to the Hukilau. Now, I have to memorize all of those songs with the lyrics and chord changes along with learning new songs. I want to be more popular at parties, you know.

Larry bought me Jumpin' Jim's Ukulele Country songbook with some swingin' Patsy Cline and Hank Williams songs, among others. I purchased Jumpin' Jim's 60's Uke-In, which has some catchy pop tunes by the Beatles, the Monkees, Burt Bacharach, etc. There is lots of ukulele info online. It's amazing how many people live in Uke-land!

Wall of Fame, Upstairs at McCabe's