About us
Ukulele Friends is all about having fun while learning the ukulele and improving our playing skills. We welcome all skill levels from beginning to advanced and love sharing what we know about this fun little instrument. Playing the ukulele can relieve stress and bring communities together. It's also a pastime that is wholesome and appropriate for any age.
Check the Individual Meetup pages for the location we are meeting at. Most often we meet at Pilgrim United Church of Christ at 2020 Chestnut Ave in Carlsbad from 12:00 to 2:00 in the multipurpose room next to the courtyard. Come join us for some laughs, music, good friends, and sometimes we have cookies.
Upcoming events
2
Songs Of The Islands
Pilgrim United Church-Christ, 2020 Chestnut Ave, Carlsbad, CA, USPLEASE NOTE:
Starting at 11:30am, the first half hour of today's session is dedicated to the new/beginner group. We will review some ukulele basics and play some easy songs.
Bring your questions, and let's play some ukulele.
The Ukulele Friends session will begin at 12:00 with some of the easier songs.
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Today we dedicate ourselves to the birth place of the ukulele, the Hawaiian Islands. We will have some "hapa haole" (half foreign, half Hawaiian) music as well as some more traditional Hawaiian language songs. You don't have to know Hawaiian to sing along, no one will be correcting pronunciation. :-)Here is a little background on the HAPA HAOLE song tradition:
"Hapa haole is described as Hawaiian music that uses primarily English lyrics, with both real and mock Hawaiian words sometimes included. Its lyrical content usually focuses on the people, culture, and nature of the Hawaiian Islands. Early hapa haole was influenced by music popular in the mainland United States in the early 20th century, especially ragtime. Throughout its evolution, hapa haole began to comprise other styles of music, including Hawaiian swing, rock and roll, and rap with English lyrics." (Source - Wikipedia - so we know it's right.)I hope the group finds these songs fun, easy to play, and engaging.
We will start with the list below, and feel free to suggest your favorite Tropical or Hawaiian song during the second half of the day.
There are links below to help you hear at least one version of the songs that might be new.
- Yellow Bird - Jamaica Farewell
- Hukilau
- Island Style - John Cruz
- E Huli Makou - Not exactly like our, but OK example
- Lovely Hula Hands - Don Ho version
- Little Grass Shack
- Maui Hawaiian Sup'pa Man - IZ version
- Hanalei Moon - Cynthia Lin
- Tiny Bubbles - Don Ho
- Ulupalakua - Nani
- Molokai Slide - Ehukai
Combined Song File - download this file to get all of the above songs in one file:
Combined Songs in one fileIndividual Songs Files can be found here:
Folder of Individual Songs***
We'll be playing inside and projecting the music on a wall for those who don't have the music downloaded onto tablets.As usual, we will play the songs listed above for the first half of the meetup and then go around the room and play whatever people want to play.
You can find a spreadsheet with an alphabetical list of links to all of our library here: (just click on the following link and you should see a google spreadsheet with all the song links).
UFO A-Z LinksIf you would like to download the current library of songs onto your tablet, here are the links:
OUR UFO complete library is found in two folders:
UFO Music A-L
UFO Music M-ZAloha And Mahalo!
20 attendees
Pilgrim Church Performance
Pilgrim United Church-Christ, 2020 Chestnut Ave, Carlsbad, CA, USI briefly mentioned at our last Meetup that Pilgrim Church, where we've been holding our Meetups, has lost their musical director and has been asking members to perform special music while they search for a new director. As a thank you to the church for hosting our group and as a chance to perform I'm hoping we can get a large contingent of our Meetup members to perform two songs in September during a Sunday church service. I haven't pinned down an exact September Sunday yet, and that may be dependent on UFO members availability. Church starts at 10am and lasts roughly an hour, but typically we setup for the music at 9am.
I'm posting the two songs here along with the music so everyone can get a feel for the songs and start practicing at home.
The two songs are:
People Have the Power, by Patti Smith.
We'll be performing the Choir, Choir version as shown in this link:
People Have the Power - Patti Smith - Choir Choir version
This song is reminiscent of 1960s protest music and is particularly poignant today. Patti Smith is a musician, poet, model and artist. She's known as the Godmother of Punk Rock.For this performance I envision UFO playing the music and performing the choir portions. I've asked the church bassist to join us, UFO member Dot Hafer to sing the Pattie Smith parts and I have a church member lined up to direct the congregation to also join in on the choir parts (he'll be playing the part of the gentleman in the video with the black Woke shirt on).
Hammer and Nail, by the Indigo Girls
For this song UFO will play and sing all the parts, with help from the church bassist. Here's a link to the Indigo Girls performing the song:
Hammer and Nail - Indigo Girls
The Indigo Girls are a reinvention of Folk Music and this song speaks of social responsibility. This one is not easy, but if we work on it a little at each Meetup we can do it.
Here's a nice ukulele version:
Hammer and Nail UkuleleThe Songs Files can be found here:
People Have the PowerAloha And Mahalo!
6 attendees
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