Thinking of trying to start a local ukulele club

Chris Tarman

Chris Tarman

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I'm thinking of trying to see if there is ANY interest in my area by ANYONE to have some sort of a local club. The problem is that I am the only ukulele player I know. I am sure there are at least a FEW people in my town of 15,000 that either play or would like to.
So does anyone have any advice for how to go about this?
I've thought of putting flyers up saying something to the effect of "Do you play ukulele? Would you LIKE to play ukulele?", and then giving a brief description of my idea/vision. I'd be willing to teach a little bit, but I don't know how qualified I am for that. I have enough ukuleles to loan them out at the gathering (not to take home, but to play there). I have a couple of ideas of where to meet, but that would depend on how much interest there was, as well as a couple of other factors. If it was just a few adults or kids with parents, I'd be willing to do it at my house, at least for starters. Afterwards, I was thinking that one of the local coffee shops might be willing to let us meet weekly or monthly. Or the meeting room at our public library (where my wife works), but that's often booked in advance.
Any thoughts or advice as to what works or doesn't work would be most appreciated. I've never done anything like this, but I would just really love to have some other people to play with.
 
I thought the same thing when I got to uni, "I'd love to have a little band but I doubt anyone there would play." To my surprise, in my course of 45 students alone there were three of us and two keen laerners, and then moving around campus during O week there were so many performing out and about.. I'm sure that if you put up flyers you'd get a lot of interest!

Local schools would be a great place to find people, teachers and students alike if you don't mind hanging around a younger crowd.
 
well do it guys, i was in the same position as you Chris, i did'nt know anyone who played the uke, i posted on here a few months ago about starting one in my city, never had a post for ages and was about to give up the ghost, then one or two came on board then i got talking to a guy roblat, we met up for a beer and we have between us organised our uke club it is starting up in the next few weeks, we have around 12 members so far our venue is more or less sorted, i opened a facebook page and that has drawn a couple in also advertised on gumtree, i am going to advertise in the local newspaper and on local radio once we have a solid start date, time and venue, ours is open to everyone from beginner to uke pluckin pro's
 
Take your uke to a local coffee shop a few nights and sit and play.
You will have a club going before you know it.
Flyers work too, but you playing will draw more attention.
Take a few loaner ukes and some easy chord sheets.
 
What I've seen from our club which theoretically I started <g> is that it's difficult to maintain continuity over a long period, new people keep dropping in and out, people show up for three months and then drop out, etc. You need a small core of regulars who will keep you going. We've been up to 13 and down to 2 and seem to be on the downward end after 10 months. But what the he!! you never know what will happen unless you try. Oh we used Sailors strategy and just played in a public place. You might also check around public schools (keep your trenchcoat closed please) because lots of schools are using ukes for music programs and there must be some teachers who would be interested. Good luck, g2
 
SailingUke said:
Take your uke to a local coffee shop a few nights and sit and play.
You will have a club going before you know it.
Flyers work too, but you playing will draw more attention.
Take a few loaner ukes and some easy chord sheets.
Click to expand...

Great idea!
 
The people who started the San Francisco Ukulele Rebellion used meetup.com. I was already registered at meetup.com for another interest I have, and a search for "ukulele" pulled up the SF Ukulele Rebellion. The club meets every other Sunday from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm at a cafe that seems to be happy to have us play there. A club-record 24 people showed up yesterday, and the club has more than 150 members. We may eventually have to find a bigger space. One possible resource is music stores. Some have performance rooms in the back or the attic or basement, and they benefit from ukulele players who buy stuff before or after meetings. (For example, Music Works in El Cerrito CA has hosted the Berkeley Ukulele Club, which recently moved its web presence from Mike DaSilva's website to meetup.com). Good luck!
 
mds725 said:
The people who started the San Francisco Ukulele Rebellion used meetup.com. I was already registered at meetup.com for another interest I have, and a search for "ukulele" pulled up the SF Ukulele Rebellion. The club meets every other Sunday from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm at a cafe that seems to be happy to have us play there. A club-record 24 people showed up yesterday, and the club has more than 150 members. We may eventually have to find a bigger space. One possible resource is music stores. Some have performance rooms in the back or the attic or basement, and they benefit from ukulele players who buy stuff before or after meetings. (For example, Music Works in El Cerrito CA has hosted the Berkeley Ukulele Club, which recently moved its web presence from Mike DaSilva's website to meetup.com). Good luck!
Click to expand...

Meetup is a good idea, possibly. I joined for something else, so I'll see what's involved. I really want to cover all avenues. We have one music store in town, but it pretty much sucks, and doesn't even carry ukulele STRINGS! So that won't be much help, other than hanging a flyer in there (if the guy will even let me do that...).
 
mds725 said:
One possible resource is music stores. Some have performance rooms in the back or the attic or basement, and they benefit from ukulele players who buy stuff before or after meetings.
Click to expand...

That's an interesting idea; it didn't work for my group since the music store in question already uses all of their rooms for instruction. Finding a location for the ukulele group I'm trying to get going has been the biggest challenge. Some of the options we've explored include:

cafes and restaurants
churches/temples
empty community college classrooms
parks and rec community rooms
library community rooms

Most of these places have offered rooms for anywhere from $50 to $200 and up for two hours! Needless to say that has ruled out most of the spaces available to us; additionally, a lot of places require groups to provide insurance.

As for getting the group together in the first place, it kind of formed itself via UU and word of mouth. But now that we seem to have secured a location, maybe I'll look into meetup.com - I would love to see 24 people show up one night :)
 
we have 3 venues but all of them charge to use them, wouldn't it be nice to charge people to hear your group play, our group will be doing a lot of charity work for the local community
 
Wow some great ideas...I heard of a uker who had the uke club over the house and someone fell and hurt themself.....went to take Cat scan and was expensive...I guess home insurance
covered that.. still...
 
advertise on CL and the local music stores as well as coffee shops. Then just take two or three ukes with you and go hang out somewhere. I have gained more interest in the uke by playing quietly in public than anything else. Also, don't know what your schedule is like but I recommend volunteering your time at a local school with a club.
 
ricdoug said:
You can also e-mail some local ukulele players:

http://www.fleamarketmusic.com/directory/state.asp?ID=6
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's kind of a problem... there are only ukulele players on that list (besides me) who live anywhere near me. Both are over 60 miles away. One is an E.R. doctor. I've emailed him, but never met him in person (although I know people who do know him professionally). As an E.R. doctor, you can imagine that he doesn't have much spare time! Everyone else listed for Colorado is on the other side of the mountains, at least 5 hours away.
 
Ok, I just noticed that there are THREE listings (apart from me) in Western Colorado, and one of them is in a town about 25 miles from me. But that is ALSO the E.R. doctor. He's listed twice. His main residence is about an hour away. But I would assume that in a town of 15,000 (more or less) such as the one I live in, there must be SOMEONE else who plays or wants to.
 
I just read the whole thread. Lots of good ideas. Lots. one thing to take into consideration is the costs. We (SEUkers) meet all over ATL. It can be hard to find a local location. You live in a small town, is there a larger town/city close by? Also we were meeting every week then every other week but in two different locations. Travel became difficult for me with a new baby but when I can I go. We've never payed (unless uncle Wally did) on this side of town. Key is just meet up with locations that don't mind music. and keep it respectful no one likes loud music in public places. We had a guy that was very loud. After he came, we were asked to find a new location.
 
haolejohn said:
I just read the whole thread. Lots of good ideas. Lots. one thing to take into consideration is the costs. We (SEUkers) meet all over ATL. It can be hard to find a local location. You live in a small town, is there a larger town/city close by? Also we were meeting every week then every other week but in two different locations. Travel became difficult for me with a new baby but when I can I go. We've never payed (unless uncle Wally did) on this side of town. Key is just meet up with locations that don't mind music. and keep it respectful no one likes loud music in public places. We had a guy that was very loud. After he came, we were asked to find a new location.
Click to expand...

The closest "large" city (about 40,000, I think) is about an hour from me. In the 60 miles between my town and the "big city", there are exactly 2 other towns. This ain't the heavily-populated side of Colorado! Another reason to move to the Front Range when I retire!
 
Chris Tarman said:
The closest "large" city (about 40,000, I think) is about an hour from me. In the 60 miles between my town and the "big city", there are exactly 2 other towns. This ain't the heavily-populated side of Colorado! Another reason to move to the Front Range when I retire!
Click to expand...
so you are east of continental divide?
 
haolejohn said:
so you are east of continental divide?
Click to expand...

No, West. I'm about 250 driving miles from Denver. Specifically, Montrose. Grand Junction is the nearby "big city". The east side of the divide is "The Front Range", or as people from over here on the Western Slope refer to it: "The Eastern Slope". No one from that side of the state calls it that.. they call it the Front Range. At any rate... I'm on the Western Slope!
 
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