Ukuleleblues
Well-known member
Anyone every have this problem. We started a uke club a couple of years a go and it fizzled. The format was just to sit around and "Jam". Well last year I restarted the uke club. At the advice of others at various forums I started giving beginning classes. Attendance really picked up. Now I have some of the members who are experienced performers expressing unhappiness with the new format, they just want to sit around an jam. They even asked me to move the class to a different time so they wouldn't be tortured by it.
Last meeting the experienced ones kind of took over and we just sat around and jammed and the "pros" critiqued the beginners. Also it's supposed to be fun and the pros hardly ever smile, too serious. I had to hurry throught he class I prepared. The hell of it is the only reason the pros come now is because attendance is up. In the past they quit coming because there was no one there to "JAM" with. Now I am seeing the format ran the beginners off.
The other new members (vast majority) are beginners and were kind of upset about the whole thing. I'm getting calls and folks want to have a class, don't/can't play advanced songs and like some structure. I had one person that used to love the meetings say they felt like they had to "endure until 8:30". Other said they felt intimidated.
Now I would like to come up with some tactful way to deal with this. How do you other folks that organize groups deal with the mix of pro vs beginner?
Last meeting the experienced ones kind of took over and we just sat around and jammed and the "pros" critiqued the beginners. Also it's supposed to be fun and the pros hardly ever smile, too serious. I had to hurry throught he class I prepared. The hell of it is the only reason the pros come now is because attendance is up. In the past they quit coming because there was no one there to "JAM" with. Now I am seeing the format ran the beginners off.
The other new members (vast majority) are beginners and were kind of upset about the whole thing. I'm getting calls and folks want to have a class, don't/can't play advanced songs and like some structure. I had one person that used to love the meetings say they felt like they had to "endure until 8:30". Other said they felt intimidated.
Now I would like to come up with some tactful way to deal with this. How do you other folks that organize groups deal with the mix of pro vs beginner?