Unhappy with Ukulele Group

Jerryc41

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My local uke group isn't as much fun as it used to be. Some members will suggest - or bring in - a song with a dozen or more chords, many of which are new to us and not easy. Naturally, playing doesn't go very well, so there is a lot of discussion, and we wind up playing them three or more times.

In the old days, we would go through our songs one after the other. As time went on, we were able to play more chords. It seems to me that throwing too much at us and playing one bad-sounding tune after another is not the way to progress. A few weeks ago, I suggested that we play familiar songs, and play them just once. We more or less did that, but people kept making fun of the procedure.

In my other group, we have a leader who complied about fifty songs, and we play them at random, going from one to the other. If one isn't perfect, it will be after we play it for a few weeks. This group is farther away, but I never miss it, and it's lots of fun.

Any comments?
 
With my group it seems that members bring in not necessarily difficult songs, but songs other members are not familiar with. I am trying to get our leader to take these suggestions, and play them at the NEXT meeting. So members can become familiar with the new tunes. I don't want this to seem like "homework", but an opportunity to play the tune better at the next meeting and increase your songbook. We will see how it works. That may work for you Jerry, it will also increase your chord vocabulary. Good luck.
 
Our group meets each Saturday Morning. We generally have the pdf’s of the songs sent out about midweek. This seems to work fairly well. Generally, there is a mix of easy and harder songs. I think both are important as the easy songs let the beginners be successful and the harder songs challenge all of us to improve.
I don’t necessarily like all the songs, but I like enough of them to make me come each week. I am sure people don’t like all my suggestions as well
Right now we are doing themes. Last week was Elvis, this coming week will be 60’s. Members send in suggestions which get compiled and sent out. We typically have 6 to 8 songs we try each Sat.
 
I feel your pain. Gave up on my local group some time ago. Too many current top 40 songs (which I and most other members can't relate to) or 12 chord songs. There was constant turn-over of group members, and the organizers don't seem to get it. Uke is supposed to be fun.
 
Being relatively new to uke (I’ve played guitar for a while) I don’t belong to a uke group, but am sorry you’re unhappy with yours.

Without wishing to hijack your thread here by posing this question to our members, is belonging to a uke group recommended in order to progress and learn? Should I start looking for one to join?
 
It seems the norm that no two groups operate alike. I attend 3 groups. Two have their own repertoire in the form of songbooks. One regularly edits their books every year taking out songs that have fell by the wayside and adding those that members has suggested. The 3rd group, which meets only once per month, learns 4 new songs every month in the first half of the session and then has an open mike. I enjoy each for different reasons.
At the end of the day we each find our own tribe.
 
My local uke group isn't as much fun as it used to be. Some members will suggest - or bring in - a song with a dozen or more chords, many of which are new to us and not easy. Naturally, playing doesn't go very well, so there is a lot of discussion, and we wind up playing them three or more times.

In the old days, we would go through our songs one after the other. As time went on, we were able to play more chords. It seems to me that throwing too much at us and playing one bad-sounding tune after another is not the way to progress. A few weeks ago, I suggested that we play familiar songs, and play them just once. We more or less did that, but people kept making fun of the procedure.

In my other group, we have a leader who complied about fifty songs, and we play them at random, going from one to the other. If one isn't perfect, it will be after we play it for a few weeks. This group is farther away, but I never miss it, and it's lots of fun.

Any comments?

Your problem is a badly run group in which there is a wide diversity of skills, both will lead to frustrations and together they’re a poor combination. Bringing songs in and expecting others to play them really isn’t fair or productive use of time, folk need a chance to have a practice at home first. Expecting beginners to play twelve chord songs is unreasonable but so is expecting experts to be happy playing two chord songs all night, there has to be some give and take and appreciation of the needs of others.

The groups that I play in have song lists and only songs on those lists are played, if you want a different song then you can ask for it (Music to be played plus words, etc.) to be added to the list and the update to the list is circulated. I suggest that you ask your group leaders to implement that system and that the need to accommodate different skill levels is discussed - some members of my group just play the chords that they can on the more difficult music and in return the clever folk accommodate some really easy stuff. It’s all a matter of mutual respect and support of the weaker person really.


Without wishing to hijack your thread here by posing this question to our members, is belonging to a uke group recommended in order to progress and learn? Should I start looking for one to join?

Dave, I would definitely recommend going along to several clubs and picking the one(s) that work for you. You’ll have a lot of fun with the other Uke players and it will help you improve as a player too. Well that’s my experience and, whilst you are a far better player than me, I’d (still) be surprised if you found different.
 
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Dave, I would definitely recommend going along to several clubs and picking the one(s) that work for you. You’ll have a lot of fun with the other Uke players and it will help you improve as a player too. Well that’s my experience and, whilst you are a far better player than me, I’d (still) be surprised if you found different.

Thanks Graham, I’ll start searching. Sorry again for hijacking. X
 
My local uke group isn't as much fun as it used to be. Some members will suggest - or bring in - a song with a dozen or more chords, many of which are new to us and not easy. Naturally, playing doesn't go very well, so there is a lot of discussion, and we wind up playing them three or more times.

In the old days, we would go through our songs one after the other. As time went on, we were able to play more chords. It seems to me that throwing too much at us and playing one bad-sounding tune after another is not the way to progress. A few weeks ago, I suggested that we play familiar songs, and play them just once. We more or less did that, but people kept making fun of the procedure.

In my other group, we have a leader who complied about fifty songs, and we play them at random, going from one to the other. If one isn't perfect, it will be after we play it for a few weeks. This group is farther away, but I never miss it, and it's lots of fun.

Any comments?

It sounds like a portion of the group -- probably those who have been coming the longest? -- have advanced in skill and are growing bored. They may have forgotten what it was like when they were newer to ukulele, and what role the welcoming accessible environment played in getting to where they are today. If you keep it simple, the advanced folks will get bored and leave. But if you skew towards the advanced players, the newbies will never get a chance to get started. I suggest having two parts of each meeting, a "beginners hour" to start with and an "intermediate hour" that follows. Those not wishing to be bored can come late, and those not wishing to be frustrated can leave early.

The group I'm part of has a good mix of people as well, but they have built a very welcoming culture that encourages (1) patience for newer players skillsets, and (2) encouragement for them when a song comes along that is a little harder.
 
Jerryc41;2088542 Some members will suggest - or bring in - a song with a dozen or more chords said:
Uke groups in our area always circulate new songs a week or so in advance so we can work it out through practise (and check out a video if needed).

As a newer player I asked about those fancy chords used by vituoso musicians to strut their stuff, and heard they aren't essential to play songs well. I got tips on how to simplify by disregarding or swapping in basic chords.

Perhaps a club member or local musician can present a workshop or writeup for people who want to simplify those multiple chords? Or they might know web pages that explain it.

A bonus is that learning basic groupings lets me transpose on the fly when my buddies want to play a song in a different key ie she has the song marked in C (C, F, G, etc) and my copy is marked in G (G , C, D, etc). Yeah it's basic stuff but as a beginner I did not know it until shown.

Musicians are not shy about marking up their song sheets with notes and changes and we can do the same.

Cheers.
 
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Bringing songs in and expecting others to play them really isn’t fair or productive use of time, folk need a chance to have a practice at home first.

That's part of the problem. Someone will bring in a song he's been working on during the week, but we're seeing it for the first time.
 
That sort of thing drives me nuts! When someone brings in a song they've not even tried playing themselves yet too, or which is printed in 6pt text because they've just grabbed it straight from the Internet (or both).
 
"This is the PERFECT group for me"
< there's a pretty wide gap in-between >
"This group makes me MISERABLE"

I'm going to assume that you are stuck in the middle and you are a reasonably flexible person with realistic expectations. It sounds like your group has a common dilemma: some of you are happy to play at a beginner level (which is great) while others want to push the envelope. There are lots of ways to deal with this.

My club plays a mix of easy and challenging songs. Every few weeks we do a 3-chord song night but we have plenty of 17-chord songs, too. We distribute song sheets a few days early, so people who want to can learn songs they don't know. This allows for self-selection: if it's Elvis night and I hate Elvis, I can skip the meetup that week.

We have a safety valve that I highly recommend to any group: anyone is allowed to bring in a song and lead it (or get somebody else to lead it). Anybody who's unhappy with our song choices can step up and become the change they hope to see in the world.

Obviously, my group is PERFECT! And yet I know players who won't come. Some think it's too easy. And some think it's too hard! No group can please everybody. Even if your group seemed perfect a while ago, its members are growing at different rates in different directions. Periodically, you are going to have to make some adjustments and accept that not everybody will be coming along. That's why there are lots of groups. If your group isn't working for you, and isn't flexible enough to change with your suggestions, then find some like-minded players and form a spin-off group. Don't storm off in a huff, simply invite people who want to play easier songs to meet on a different night.

There are higher-drama options that I do not recommend. I am a grizzled veteran of The Great Ukulele Schism of 2008 not to mention the Glorious Peoples' Revolution of 2013. I believe there are lots of uke players and there's room for lots of clubs. The only problem is when people decide THEY are right and everyone else is wrong, which is a recipe for trouble in uke clubs and life generally.

A group can be a fun social outing even if it is not perfectly fulfilling to you as a musician. Go or don't go. Start a new group if you like. Encourage change if you can. But don't be a complainer.
 
The group I belong to for the last five years, The CC Strummers, started about eight years ago as classes out of the Culver City Senior Center lead by Cali Rose, her husband is Craig Brandau, both fairly well known in the uke world. The class meets twice a week for an hour, beginners Monday afternoon and intermediate Thursday morning. Cali picks the songs and provides her own arrangement lead sheets, excellently made, for a nominal fee of $3.00 a class. We do a great variety of music and she will also add songs that members of the group suggest. She's an great teacher. We perform often around town.

I was also a member of a once a week Meetup group, but the leader didn't know how to lead, the songs he brought in were just copy/pasted from internet that in most cases were difficult to follow. Although Meetup listed it as "beginners welcome," he didn't take into consideration the beginners and blew through songs. I consider myself an advanced intermediate and I often had trouble keeping up.

I played guitar for almost 50 years, but when I started playing uke and joined the group, I played and sang better than I ever did before.


8 tenor cutaway ukes, 3 acoustic bass ukes, 8 solid body bass ukes, 7 mini electric bass guitars

• Donate to The Ukulele Kids Club, they provide ukuleles to children's hospital music therapy programs. http://www.theukc.org
• Member The CC Strummers: https://www.youtube.com/user/CCStrummers/videos
 
Our group meets twice a month. All levels and ages of players are welcome in the group.
We use the “Daily Ukulele “ books. An email is sent with a song list. The first part of our gathering is all group sing alongs. After a break we have folks do solos and/or lead a song.
 
I belong to three groups. Two that I attend regularly and one that I attend sporadically. All of them meet once a month. My two main groups have very good leaders who are also excellent teachers. The leaders pick the songs and send them out a few weeks ahead of time. The songs often have a theme. The leaders start the session with the easier songs and progress to the harder ones. My main group leader mixes in teaching moments with playing. Sometimes a member will have a solo prepared to perform. These two groups combined to bring Kimo Hussey in for a 2 day workshop that was spectacular. My main group leader also teaches a weekly workshop in the fall & winter. I think next fall she is dividing her workshops into a beginner & intermediate group every other week to focus better on the learning needs of each level of players.

My third group that I attend occasionally is more of a jam group. We’re in a circle & we go around the circle leading a song. We use the Daily Ukulele book or people bring in song sheets for the group. Not much teaching going on, but I get more experience in singing & leading songs.

Playing with all of these groups has improved my ukulele playing by leaps & bounds. Plus I just love playing my uke.......any time, any where, with anybody.
 
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I go to three uke groups, locally. Two are directed, with words/chords available prior to the group meeting. The third is mostly a circle - bring a few songs, pass them around, lead it when it is your turn, and take it from there. All three have people from beginner to very experienced, and everything in between.

One of the directed groups has basic lessons about strumming, chords, and some super basic music theory. The songs are usually projected, and we play them through a few times. Sometimes, one or more of use wil bring something, and we work on it as a group. A pleasant environment, and occasionally we hit something that leads us all off somewhere. For example, last month one of the songs ended with a chord triad of Bb-B-C. That triggered a memory, I mentioned it, played the triad, and sang"Jeremiah was a bullfrog", and off we went, getting Hoyt Axton's "Joy To The World" on screen and everyone playing it. (Of course, we are all over 40...)

Group number 2 is directed, and we are also invited to bring our own songs. (I try to send mine out in advance, but sometimes fail to do so.) We use the handouts,and do the songs - most of which I have heard of, but not all. Last month, I ended up doing a lesson on chord transitions, because the progression lent itself to that, IF you played one of the chords as a barre chord. I'm probably more advance than most of the group members, but it is fun, and I haven't been yelled at yet...

Group 3 is the oldest of them all. The organizer teaches uke, guitar, banjo and mandolin lessons both privately, at the local community college, and at local music establishments. This one is the song circle. Most of what we play is straight-forward, but sometimes we do a lot of circle-of-fifths stuff, and other progressions. I try to bring at least 3 songs with me to this group, and I may be challenging
the other players more than I should. But I also try out new songs with this group, things I haven't played in front of others, and keys I wouldn't usually spring on the average beginner. This week, I had a Neil Sedaka song from the mid-70s in the key of Eb, and a 20-year old song that used F#m, Bm, C#7, and F#7 for the verse, with E, A, and D in the chorus. I show short cuts I've learned, and point out "cheats" on making chords. Sometimes it works, sometimes, not so much.

Then there is the other problem, and it is my fault alone: I tend to noodle, especially if either 1) I know the song really well, of b) I don't know the song, and I'm trying to get the melody down. I'm sure that it is annoying to some people, but it is how I learn the music.
 
Group dynamics are usually complicated. My experience with 3 different groups and a couple of ones I drop into from time to time. from my experiance the easiest is one that plays from a self published song book of 150+ songs, emphasis on Hawaiian. It also has a strong and dedicated leader. Others use combinations of published song books to downloads and such.
From my limited experience I think that leading a group is only for ones that are absolutely committed to rejecting songs or altering them for voice and play, still have fun and good cat herding skills.
Appreciate those who can and those who can't but are willing.
 
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I’d be curious on your thoughts Jerry about the Uke group I attended.
 
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