Three Ukuleles...Active Ageing Carnival June 2009

About 10 minutes or so after we started there was a request which came from the rear of the crowd. I peered closely to see some familiar faces of Gongshang Primary School parents with their kids. Wonderful!
Their children are in the open scout troop of the school which is entirely run by the parents themselves, one of the only few such units managed in such a successful manner.
The song requested for was a very old local scout campfire song titled " Ah Chong Sok"...about a chee cheong fun seller.
Then I spotted Darren Goh who is a present cub-scout and who was also in my Ukulele class in 2007 and 2008. Click here to read about those uke classes. Darren has been one of my most avid ukulele fan among many others. His ukulele has my signature on it. I signalled for him to come forward on stage and introduced him to one and all.

Between Richard and I, we had 4 ukuleles there. So, we passed him one and told him to join us...as a trio.
I had taught Darren quite a few more chords than the others as he showed a genuine passion for the ukulele.

So, he was able to follow and strum along with us without much problem.

Ah Chong Sok is a really cute and funny song and the crowd enjoyed it.

Another really good one is the old English sea shanty " Drunken Sailor".

Those who have heard my rendition of this whether on guitar or ukulele never fail to request for it. So, that was requested for and played and sung the way it should be sung...with some cockney accent when singing the word " early" ( pronounced in cockney as er-lie ).

I could see it went down very well with the crowd.

We had much fun doing all the songs and entertaining the many requests. There were people watching us from the upper floors as you can see in the background.

For 11 year old Darren, this must have been a first of sorts for him. How many kids in Singapore get this kind of exposure to appear impromptu and play the ukulele in public at an official event?

Well done Darren. Well done parents.

I hope this will spur you to continue on your ukulele learning journey.

Strumming in Rhythm...Active Ageing Carnival 2009

About midway through our performance, I paused to ask the audience if they have any request to just tell us verbally. Usually, someone will write the song title or the name of a singer on a piece of paper and hand it over to us. But this time there was no interval or breaks. So to save time , I encouraged them to simply call out the song they requested for.

There were quite a number of requests we entertained. A gentle voice from a lady called for that ever popular John Denver song....

"Country Road".

Another one was the evergreen

Indonesian song " Bengawan Solo".

This is a song that goes very well with the Ukulele. You can play it in a number of different styles. I prefer the "keroncong" beat for this particular song.

It's often useful to switch to different rhythm and beat. From slow. to normal and then to faster beats and back to slow again.

This way the audience get to see and hear the full range of creative sounds that can be produced and appreciate how versatile the ukulele as a musical instrument can be.

As a matter of fact, after our gig ended... a senior lady approached me and inquired if she can learn to play the ukulele under my coaching. She gave me her contact details for future lessons.

How long does it take to be able to play, strum and sing?

The kids whom I have taught ukulele to can play at the end of the very 1st session...simple songs using 2 chords.

Understandably, the more coaching and practice time a learner has will see a significant improvement in results.

Ukulele Performance..Active Ageing Carnival June 2009

Just when we were about to go on stage...I was approached by Radio Station Gold 90.5 Fm staff to do a "LIVE" on the spot interview. This was all too sudden and with the cue given to proceed with our performance, I promised the good people of the Radio station that I will give them time after our gig was over.
After our introductory medley of local songs which got many singing and clapping along, we did a couple of catchy old time favourites.
You may be wondering what are some of these.
Know the 1957 song "Marianne" sung by Terry Gilkyson and The Easy Riders?"
The lyrics....
" All night, all day Marianne
Down by the seaside sifting sand
Even little children love Marianne
Down by the seaside sifting sand.

Marianne, oh Marianne
Oh won't you marry me
We can have a bamboo hut
And brandy in the tea
Leave your fat old mama home,
She never will say yes
If mama don't know now,
She can guess, my, my, yes! " etc....



Songs like Marianne and others from the 50's and 60's were songs that most of our seniors grew up with. They may not recall every verse but they sure know the tune and the melody...and as they sing along, some of the "lost" lyrics come flooding back.
That's the way it is.
If you sing these songs more often the lyrics will be on your lips easily.
However, some songs have such simple easy to remember lyrics that even after 40, 50 years they come back again naturally.
One such song is clear to me. Someone requested for " Oh Carol ". As soon as we began strumming the melody...the audience automatically went into " Oo...oooh...ooo...ooo..ooo ...Oh carol, I am but a fool, darling I love you, though you treat me cruel....". They all knew the words of the song!

Can anyone name more such songs?

Often most of us will remember the entire chorus of a song but may forget one or two of the verses.

A good example is the song,

" Beautiful Sunday ".

An entire crowd will go...

" Hi, hi, hi, beautiful Sunday.

This is my, my, my, beautiful day

When you say, say, say, say that

you love me,

Oh, my, my, my it's a beautiful day."

Just knowing the chorus and joining in will spice up things tremendously.

So for such public preformance as ours was, where the venue and location was bound to be noisy with all sorts of dynamic movement and activities... care must be given to the kind and type of songs to be selected.

My selection of songs and type of music will be quite different if the performance is meant for an indoor room or auditorium with no other distractions or competing sounds.

In the past, I have added some percussion music to go with the main rhythm of the ukelele or guitar. Richard and I are still on the look out for anyone keen and able to join us in this.

Anyone who has a sense of rhythm and can handle some of the hand-held percussion instruments will be ideal.

Bongo drums, castinets, maraccas, etc..