Questions on starting a church Uke group

I would like to start a church Uke group. I have not spoken to the congregation as of yet. The purpose is to praise the Lord and have fun. Here is my plan:

I just downloaded "The Mighty Uke" and thought by showing the movie, I would see what kind of interest there might be. I belong to an mainly older congregation with half a dozen teenagers. I understand there was some uke popularity with the Greatest Generation and that might be a positive factor.

Ukulele Boot Camp and some easy songs will be printed out, both secular and non-secular songs. I would teach TAB. What do you think about meeting once a week say for 1 hr.?

Of course we will begin and end with prayer.

The BIG questions are: how does the plan sound? what size Ukes to get? Individual electronic tuners? Honer desk top music sheet stands? who should I order the Ukes from? Everything in the best bang for the buck range of course. I'll be working with fixed incomes, arthritis and walkers in some cases.

I appreciate the group input.

I have been running a monthly group ( www.NormalUkeJam.com ) for over a year now. It is not church related at all, so I don't have that perspective.
But what has been working for me is that people bring their own ukes. I would have some on hand for people to borrow, but really they need to have their own so they can practice while at home.
I would buy a mix of Kala KA-S (Soprano) and Lanikai concerts. You will want to have a couple tuners on had, Snark SN-6 are pretty good. Just make sure to tune the ukes you have.
Also keep in mind people can share stands, so don't buy one for each person, maybe one for every 2, but ask people to bring their own.
If you think once a week will work for you, go nuts. If you think that will work, I do a monthly since I have a lot of out of town people that come so Saturdays work best.
one thing you may want to do is either buy books like the Daily ukulele or compile a book yourself.

Good luck.

I second the nerd above ( ) in that people need to have their own ukes as much as possible. It doesn't hurt to keep a couple of inexpensive ones for people to borrow to see if they're really going to be interested but other than that I'd help people choose their own instruments.

I strongly recommend that you learn to do a simple setup (adjust the height of the nut slots and so on) because then you can set up any cheap instruments you decide to use as loaners, and you can help your group set up their instruments when needed (get practice on several of yours, first, for obvious reasons).

Depending on the size of your congregation it may be good to focus on a target age group, at least at first. I.e. "senior saints" or the youth department or maybe the older primary kids. There are three reasons for this: first, these different age groups are going to have both different motor skills and learning rates, second, their musical tastes are going to differ and, finally, they will probably be most comfortable socializing with others of their own demographic (the seniors might feel intimidated around a bunch of fast-learning teens, teens might not be comfortable "opening up" around the seniors or primaries, and any one of these demographics can be especially annoying to the others LOL).

I've thought of doing this at my church but I don't have the patience to deal with kids and I don't think there is much interest among my own age group - plus, I'm crazy busy as is.

John

I wanted to do one of those myself. I even purchased a few ukuleles to do this, but it was shot down .

Anyhow, I have no input for you for this, but I do hope you get to do this. My original plan was to set aside about 15-minutes at the start of Sunday School and teach a few songs that were appropriate for the church, and then play them for the congregation, whether it be for special music, or for congregational singing. Alas, I never could realize that. However, I have given two ukes away to two people at the church, and before Sunday School, I teach them how to play. I figure it's on my own time and theirs, and since it's not part of the church, they can perform as they see fit.

Anyhow, I hope it works out for you.

Dan

We tried this...not to burst your bubble, but the kids who play weren't the least bit intersted in playing with us old folks...probably for various reasons. We do have 7 ukers at our church, but a lot of age difference. The kids weren't even interested in having a middle aged uker lead them in thier "Joy" songs...sigh...

I hate to throw a sticky wicket into the mix, but churches are not exempt from compliance with copyright and performance laws.

- Downloading a movie (or even buying a DVD) does not give you the right to show it in a public venue, even if you don't charge admission.
- Buying books with copyrighted material (e.g., the "Daily" books) does not give you the right to perform that material.
- Photocopying anything copyrighted to give out is a huge no-no.
- etc., etc.

itsme said:

I hate to throw a sticky wicket into the mix, but churches are not exempt from compliance with copyright and performance laws.

- Downloading a movie (or even buying a DVD) does not give you the right to show it in a public venue, even if you don't charge admission.
- Buying books with copyrighted material (e.g., the "Daily" books) does not give you the right to perform that material.
- Photocopying anything copyrighted to give out is a huge no-no.
- etc., etc.

Click to expand...

I am sure everything you say is correct. Still, I'm not going to worry about it very much.

rreffner said:

I am sure everything you say is correct. Still, I'm not going to worry about it very much.

Click to expand...

Does your church have an administrator or at least a choir director who may be versed in use of copyrighted materials? Might be worth running by them before you get too far into planning something out.

itsme said:

I hate to throw a sticky wicket into the mix, but churches are not exempt from compliance with copyright and performance laws.

- Downloading a movie (or even buying a DVD) does not give you the right to show it in a public venue, even if you don't charge admission.
- Buying books with copyrighted material (e.g., the "Daily" books) does not give you the right to perform that material.
- Photocopying anything copyrighted to give out is a huge no-no.
- etc., etc.

Click to expand...

Actually, churches pay dues to the music publishers based on average attendance, etc. for the music they use. We have to keep records of which songs we used in services because periodically they will ask random churches to fill out a survey with the songs used in the last month (this is how they divvy up the dues to the copyright holders). We got hit up with the survey a couple of years ago, which is why I know how the system works (our church treasurer was running around with his hair on fire wondering where he was going to pull the data from when we pointed out that the bulletins for the last several years are on the office computer...).

Also, as for printed sheet music and the like - most of that purchased electronically from the publishers explicitly includes permission for a certain number of copies (usually ten by default but it varies by publisher) to be printed and used by the band or choir, etc.

Obviously, if someone is going to be using music outside the "official" business of the church they should handle copyrights appropriately.

John

You can start out by creating a simple flyer stating that you are going to start a ukulele group for beginner/intermediate players. Put your contact info on there and say that the first date is under discussion.

If no one or everyone replies, you will know where you stand.

I have recently started teaching a ukulele beginner's class for seniors as part of the Shepard Center's educational programs for seniors in Florida. They are conducted in area churches. It's not a religious function but could be if there were enough ukers interested in playing worship songs. Lots of material out there not subject to copyright laws. I am using Uncle Rod's Ukulele Boot Camp and have assembled my own lesson plan from bits and peices I've collected on the internet, including song sheets similar to the ones uke clubs all over the world download and use with permission. I do have trouble getting in a lot of instruction in an hour, but it seems that more time is needed in the beginning. This Thursday will be my third class and I expect to get a lot more playing than we did in the first two classes where there was a lot of introductory instruction. I required them all to have their own ukes, but if I do another class, I will consider getting with thecraftedcow and get some Eddie Finn minnows at an awesome price for lots of 6.
I use the internet also, forwarding to them YouTube videos and tutorials, instructional sites and how to's re: fingering, holding the uke, etc. to compliment the material I covered and provided handouts for. I sent them links to UU, HMS,
and in our case, the local uke club. Good luck and let me know if I can help in any way. PM me for email if you need me to forward anything.

We have a small uke club and we meet once a month on the week night that the most people can come. We started showing the Mighty Uke and some youtubes. Folks brought music to share-all old stuff. Now we are going to use the Daily Ukulele book and just play for most of the meeting. I think people lost interest by not playing as much. Everyone brings their own ukes, but they are too lazy to bring stands. Luckily we have a few since we bought some cheapos initially and have upgraded now. We would never be able to do once a week due to people's schedules. Some clubs have done really well and others have fizzled out. This is our 2nd go at it. I think during the summer we will meet at the park by the river. There's tons of stuff on youtube that can really help beginners.

Shastastan said:

... There's tons of stuff on youtube that can really help beginners.

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Also look at Scorpex: http://www.scorpexuke.com/songs.html

They have a lot of arrangements (in pdf format) for ukulele as well as links to YouTube vids to illustrate the tune.

itsme said:

I hate to throw a sticky wicket into the mix, but churches are not exempt from compliance with copyright and performance laws.

- Downloading a movie (or even buying a DVD) does not give you the right to show it in a public venue, even if you don't charge admission.
- Buying books with copyrighted material (e.g., the "Daily" books) does not give you the right to perform that material.
- Photocopying anything copyrighted to give out is a huge no-no.
- etc., etc.

Click to expand...

so basically every uke club in America is in violation of this.

lots of great advise here. If there is an interest go with it. SOme have expressed concerns with the age difference and I agree with that, but depending on your church family it may not be as issue. There are copyright laws, but I do know if you have a worship team that does modern worship you should be covered from playing all the cclc or whatever it is called songs. Most churches pay a fee for this right.

Just go with it.

I also recommend everyone having their own ukes. Talk to leadership to see if they can do a fundraiser to raise the funds for the group. To buy each member a uke that can't get their own.