The Ukulele Performance at the EXPO.

This was the Performing Pavillion at the "Living" section. Gurmit was very sporting indeed. When I asked him to join us in the introductory medley of songs, he said.. " Sure...why not? " .
As I had mentioned in my earlier post, I had planned on performing as a duo as I had invited a friend Richard C ,to join me.

Then when we were there, Richard Lim from the Scout Hq requested to join us. He was slated to be on his own initially.

I have never met him before, so wasn't quite sure if he knew the songs I had in mind or how to play them well on the Ukulele or even how to "manage" a crowd before us.
So, with no such pre-information..I gently told him to follow my lead and tips..as we started to entertain.
He was generally an affable chap.
Gurmit was really terrific! But stage presence and performing in public is nothing to him. He was so relaxed. I suppose if something disastrous happens while playing, he could always turn it into a comical act!

The Ukulele performance
I turned around and double checked that both Richard L and Richard C...their Ukuleles are synchronised to both of mine. It was fortunate I did that as R C had tuned his differently from ours. He was thinking if he played on say the Key of G, then I could play something else and still be in tune!

Without sufficient experience, knowledge and greater understanding of chords and tablature, anyone can fall into such a potential disaster...esp when performing in public.

So, RC had to retune his uke to standard tuning as ours.

Then, I would say the key we would play in and after that we started out with local, familiar songs which is always a good thing as the crowd can join in either singing or clapping.

It is also a good thing to play a continuous medley of songs with about similar beat and rhythm and tempo...to avoid breaking up into staccato parts.

I could see the crowd really warming up. Soon, dancers from the Line Dance area adjacent to us, were drawn to the sweet sounds coming from us. They came as small groups and joined by many others...the crowd swelled. Gurmit was not putting on an act. He was really enjoying singing and playing along with us to entertain the crowd. There was a moment when he thought he had to go as he was down to perform elsewhere. But his agent signalled back that he still had some time..and he was so happy that he could continue.

When finally he had to go, I went to the Mic and asked the crowd to give him a " Big Hand". He even had time to have snapshots with some of us at his suggestion.

We continued with our songs and ukulele doing a couple of oldies, evergreens and a few more country numbers. There were requests which were made verbally by bold people as well as shy persons. We accomodated those that fit in with the atmosphere.