Why?

Your ability to hear may not be a problem, but these uke gatherings tend to be senior-heavy—lots of folks with diminished hearing capacity;

That could be part of the problem, but when people around you are playing their ukes, hearing and concentrating on something else can be difficult. It's like kids fooling around in class.
 
I don’t play with any groups. In part it’s to do with previously mentioned hearing problem. If people around me were playing while someone was talking I wouldn’t be able to hear well enough. The group leader or whoever is talking should be the one to try and deal with it.

I’d either bring up that point myself or ask the leader to do it. I think most people could comply if the point was raised
a few times but some people can’t stop or even acknowledge it’s a problem.

If there wasn’t some overriding benefit a don’t think I’d last more than two meetings and would likely walk out during the second session. I’d make my intention known to the leader at the start of the second session.
 
This is a common problem in jam sessions and in workshops.
I think noodling during a persenter's talk is rude, and selfish.
I'm like Del Ray. I never heard her do it, but I'm the first to tell people not to noodle while a leader is speaking, whether I am the leader, or the assistant.
Maybe I'm getting crotchety in my old age, but I don't much care what people think.
I don't tolerate it. They can leave if they don't like it.
In my workshops, if you want to noodle while I'm talking, you can go home.
A good idea is to have a "social time" first, so people can mingle, show off new noodling skills, yak, or whatever they want, and get it out of their system.
 
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Nickie, is it possible you're getting crotchety in your old age...? Just kidding! Actually, I like your "tough love" approach!
 
Oh, is my group of about 35 people guilty of that. I make a point when anyone is addressing the group, to curtail my talking or playing, but a good number of people do it incessantly. The other day I brought it up to our leader, who says nothing about at all, and realized as I was talking to her, she was noodling on her amplified uke. I pointed it out to her and she replied that her husband, who plays himself, always complains to her about it, but she says she can't break herself of the habit.

I've been tempted to stand up and make a formal announcement for the group to stop doing it, but our leader tends to be very passive. During meetings, if someone is saying something important, I'll wave my hand to the person that is being the most intrusive, which usually stops them.


This is Michael Kohan in Los Angeles, Beverly West near the Beverly Center
9 tenor cutaway ukes, 5 acoustic bass ukes, 11 solid body bass ukes, 9 mini electric bass guitars (Total: 34)

• Donate to The Ukulele Kids Club, they provide ukuleles to children in hospital music therapy programs. www.theukc.org
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I was thinking of trying to find a group.... but the notion of having to sit silently with a ukulele in my hands while somebody speaks, or between songs, is definitely making me think it’s not for me. My wife can hardly even get me to stop playing while she’s talking to me :D

We have a permanent campsite in a public campground... a home away from home in summer. On Saturday nights there’s typically an informal campfire jam at a friend’s site. Pretty much the entire time, between songs, I’ll be very quietly playing something else to myself on my guitar or, more often lately, my ukulele.

When somebody comes up with a song to share, I drop my quiet noodling and play along. Part of this habit is the sheer pleasure of playing, part of it is caused by my introverted nature, and the soft playing calms me in social situations which are always somewhat taxing for me. Anyways... if people griped about it, I’d sooner go home and noodle to my heart’s content than I would stop doing it. :rolleyes:
 
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This is a great thread. I’m in 3 groups, and the noodling seems to wax and wane. It’s not always super bad or noticeable, but at times it does get annoying. We usually have at least 15 minutes at the start of a session for people to chat, set up their music stands, organize their music, and tune. I fully admit to noodling at times. I’m not exactly sure why I do it. Fidgety mostly. I will definitely pay attention to it going forward. Putting the uke down while paying attention is a great idea. Take away the temptation.

Next month, the leader of my main group will be gone on vacation. She has asked me and another person to lead the group. The turn-out is usually small in July, so we are going to break into two groups to teach something. I’ll pay attention to any noodling. I’ll also try hard to “cut to the chase” when teaching so people’s attention doesn’t wander into the noodling zone.
 
I just joined a couple of strum-a-long groups and I have enjoyed playing with them more than I thought that I would. I know that this is going to come off as complaining and will probably go sideways on me quickly, but I got to ask it. Why is it that when you get a bunch of ukulele players together for a strum-along, while others are talking about upcoming gigs, doing announcements, introducing songs, whatever business needs to be addressed, people are picking at their ukuleles like they can not sit still for a second without making some noise? I find it a lot in workshops as well. The presenter is up there trying to talk or show how to do something, and a half dozen people in the peanut gallery are rudely plucking away. So I'm just curious, why do people do that? Do they want attention? Do they think that they are making a good impression and others will admire their pluckability? Are they nervous and they just have fidgety fingers? Are they bored and mentally drifting off in their own plucky world, oblivious to the rest trying to listen? I just want to know why they can't stop long enough to listen. It happens at every group activity I go to. I don't want this to turn into a bitch session, I would really like some incessant pluckers to chime in and explain what they are doing. I'm curious. I think that if I knew why it would not be so annoying.

I suspect that to a greater or lesser degree we are all guilty of playing with or on our Ukes at times that might not be appropriate. Between songs I tend to practice, quietly I believe, chords ready for the next song and tricky bits in the last; I think of it as good use of time. Similarly if I were in a group learning activity I’d be looking to maximise the learning process and if that involved touching strings then it might happen, but only if I believed that it won’t intrude on others. There, perhaps, is the key to the situation in that those around you don’t believe that their actions are causing nuisance.
 
One of my pet peeves as it comes to jams is when there is extended discussion about songs rather than playing.

That's why I seldom go to my local group anymore. They select a song with a dozen or more chords, struggle through it, talk about it, play it again, talk about it, and play it again. Then they find another song with lots of chords. No fun at all.
 
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I think it depends on the situation - the group I play with is a social group of varying abilities and the intention is for everyone to enjoy themselves and to get new people to come along and start enjoying themselves too. I often have a quiet strum at the back between songs, unless I'm having a quiet chat with someone, while we wait for the next song to be chosen, and if people started telling me to stop doing so, I wouldn't bother going back. I don't need to be told off for doing the very thing I'm there to do.

If I struggle with a song that we've just played, then I'm going to (quietly) go over the tricky chord change, or the new chord or whatever, having watched someone better than me do it successfully, absolutely. Lots of people do it, and if this wasn't allowed then how is anyone going to get better? It's all very well practicing at home but why not do so with warmed up hands, and with people to ask?

If I went to a workshop or a lesson, then it would of course be different, but a strumalong is by its very nature a relaxed, informal affair. If it's not relaxed and informal, it's not a strumalong, it's a workshop.
 
It seems like it's human nature. I was chastised by a girlfriend I was breaking up with because I was also plucking my guitar at the same time.

I know it was impolite and since then I've tried to work on it.

But with other people, it helps them concentrate. Stevie Ray Vaughan's wife would tell him to play guitar when she had important stuff to talk about or he wouldn't be able to focus.

Plucking your guitar while breaking up with your girlfriend is generally considered not the greatest form, Russ, but I guess it doesn't matter too much, if you're breaking up with her anyway... :) (You know I'm only kidding!)
 
Plucking your guitar while breaking up with your girlfriend is generally considered not the greatest form, Russ, but I guess it doesn't matter too much, if you're breaking up with her anyway... :) (You know I'm only kidding!)

Right! Breaking up is one thing, but proposing to her would be quite another. You don't have to make a good impression when you're breaking up. : )
 
I don't know... get a bunch of players in a room, put ukes in their hands and set new songsheets in front of them. What could happen? It's our natural tendency to start playing. Sadly not everybody has the presence of mind to realize when they're being inconsiderate.

The purpose of a uke club is to socialize... but it's also to play the ukulele. Presumably all together. You can noodle at home by your lonesome. The time you spend noodling at the club is time you're wasting -- and you're wasting it for everybody, not just yourself.
Sorry to be a curmudgeon. But I get tired of repeating "Page 5!" seven or eight times until everybody hears what song we're playing next.

Every uke club needs to reach its own balance between chit-chat and playing. Instruction and playing. Anecdotes and playing. Announcements about upcoming events and... playing. It'll never be the perfect balance for everybody all of the time. But we can be kind and enjoy each others' company. A little additional patience wouldn't kill any of us.

The Ideal Uke Club Inside My Brain has a lounge for chatting and a room for playing -- maybe several rooms for players with different interests and skill levels. Then we all meet together to play "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" and then we adjourn to go bar-hopping past midnight. YMMV :cool:
 
Right! Breaking up is one thing, but proposing to her would be quite another. You don't have to make a good impression when you're breaking up. : )

Indeed, the appropriate thing to do when proposing is to play an accordion. Lederhosen optional... but to really make an impression...
 
I think it has less to do with specific ukulele groups and more to do with group of musicians in general. I was a front man of a "fairly known in the small community" band. As a result I attended a lot of rehearsals. In almost every band there is a musician (could be a drummer or a lead guitar, doesn't matter) who doesn't pay attention and keeps noodling no matter what other people do. You have to address him personally to stop and listen. Sometimes several times during the same rehearsal. Perhaps there is a psychiatrist on the forum that can explain this phenomena! Is there a doctor in the house?! :p
 
I just joined a couple of strum-a-long groups and I have enjoyed playing with them more than I thought that I would. I know that this is going to come off as complaining and will probably go sideways on me quickly, but I got to ask it. Why is it that when you get a bunch of ukulele players together for a strum-along, while others are talking about upcoming gigs, doing announcements, introducing songs, whatever business needs to be addressed, people are picking at their ukuleles like they can not sit still for a second without making some noise? I find it a lot in workshops as well. The presenter is up there trying to talk or show how to do something, and a half dozen people in the peanut gallery are rudely plucking away. So I'm just curious, why do people do that? Do they want attention? Do they think that they are making a good impression and others will admire their pluckability? Are they nervous and they just have fidgety fingers? Are they bored and mentally drifting off in their own plucky world, oblivious to the rest trying to listen? I just want to know why they can't stop long enough to listen. It happens at every group activity I go to. I don't want this to turn into a bitch session, I would really like some incessant pluckers to chime in and explain what they are doing. I'm curious. I think that if I knew why it would not be so annoying.

It is rude. When I catch myself doing it, it is because I’m bored. I do it unconsciously, but typically I knock it off pretty quickly.

Tom
 
It is rude. When I catch myself doing it, it is because I’m bored. I do it unconsciously, but typically I knock it off pretty quickly.

Tom

I think folks often do it unconsciously, without realizing it. I've been in a few classes and workshops with "No Noodling" signs prominently posted, and that seems to help a great deal.
 
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