Hi, Jan!
We sure missed Jack this evening, but I appreciate your stepping up to scroll and help lead. You have gone over and above by providing the recap notes. Bless your buttons – and welcome back from Iceland, by the way!
Jack, we hope you will recover post haste and be back by my side next week. You missed a really interesting evening – as Jan has pointed out, Becky and Sandy added some excellent instrumental additions to the songs we are working on. Just amazing! I hope to have everyone on hand again next week to continue to fine-tune the songs.
Africa, I am afraid to say, went from okay to bad. My apologies for trying to push the strum rhythm I hear in the song. It always drives the people who try to count the number of beats to each chord absolutely bats! I think the song is worth continued work, but it seems I am marching to a different drum than everyone else, so I will take a step back for now and come back to it later. Patty suggests listening to the Austin ukulele group’s version, which can be found online. Bill suggested singing the intro rather than trying to strum. I am happy to go with whatever works.
We have been putting together some performance dates for next year, which I will start posting on Meetup.
I have also added one more event for this year: October 31, 10 am, we have a date to play at Birch Healthcare in Rochester. This will also be posted. Jack will be telling everyone to dress in a costume. I will be telling everyone that is not mandatory. We will be dusting off the Halloween songs and mixing in some of the standards. Birch residents are a great audience and truly appreciate our making the trip to play for them, so come along if you can.
Please sign up to all events you plan to join, so we can better plan the music – including Warner. We have some fun songs in the works and we need you all!
That’s all I have for now.
Get better, Tonto!!
Have a good week, everyone. It’s going to rain, so we can all do a lot of practicing this weekend!
Susan
———- Forwarded message ———
From: Jan Hanson<jan.j.hanson@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Sep 23, 2026 at 8:11 PM
Subject: SUP notes 9/23/26
To: Susan Ayer <clerkkent33@gmail.com>
Cc: Jack Heffernan <jackheff@yahoo.com>
Hello Susan,
We had 23 in attendance this evening on the first Wednesday of Fall 2026. Where did the Summer go?
Jack was under the weather so I stepped up to fill his role tonight. Get well soon Jack! I think I’ve captured the essence of what was discussed.
The evening started with a run-through by a few of us of the Chicago tune 25 or 6 to 4. Sandy provided a great rendition of the Horns with Becky on Keys. The full group played this later in the program and it sounded great and was well received. Susan will look into us playing the chord riff at the end two times before ending on an A.
We played California Dreaming with a flute part after the second verse, played by Sandy on the Recorder. It sounded very nice. Thanks Sandy.
Africa by Toto: this needs some clarification on the instrumental intro bars that are also found later in the song as well.
If You Want to Sing Out Sing Out: There was discussion about what the Bass riff on the last line of the verses, and in the choruses is suppose to be. Tom will listen to the song to see what needs to be done there. We need to work on the pacing of the song as well as the playing of chords on the last two lines of the choruses, as there was a bit of mix up as to timing.
For What It’s Worth: We will play the last verse once, then we will play the [A] [D] opening sequence with the Bass before ending on [A].
Upcoming Events:
Warner Ukulele Festival 2 – Warner. NH – 10/17/2026
South Berwick Library Performance – South Berwick, Maine – 11/14/2026
Seabrook Rec Festival of Trees – Seabrook, NH – 12/4/2026
Please see Meetup for all the details.
We are working on events for 2027. If you have any ideas, please send them forward.
Have a great weekend and I hope to see you all next week.
Jan (for Jack)
