An Evening with the Dover Uke Heads
“DUH” would like to extend an open invitation to the public to attend a fun, casual performance. Sing along, clap, dance and meet the members of The Dover Uke Heads on
Tuesday, June 4th, 2013
Grace United Church
18 Chapman Street, Port Dover
7:00 pm to 8:30.
Here is the website link for the tablature lesson that Peter showed us last Tuesday night. He explained how tablature works in relation to the strings on the ukulele and we played a few notes. Peter also took us through the blues tabs for Kansas City, and has typed out the tablature for that.
Here is the website, Ukulele Tricks dot com, and the lesson is How to Read Ukulele Tabs. http://www.ukuleletricks.com/how-to-read-ukulele-tabs/.
If you are interested in finger-picking, Peter also recommends this lesson which is accompanied by a video. http://www.ukuleletricks.com/ukulele-blues-fingerpicking-lesson-pattern-1/.
Here is Peter’s tablature for Kansas City: Kansas City.
This is a great website full of information, pictures, video’s and charts. I was excited to see that there is also a lesson with pictures showing players how to play the “dreaded B-flat chord”, as we call it here in DUH: http://www.ukuleletricks.com/playing-a-bb-chord-on-ukulele/.
Have fun, and as James Hill would say, “Uke On!”
The past 2 weeks certainly have been a whirlwind of ukulele performer appearance opportunities, beginning with James Hill concerts in both Hamilton and London on the same weekend, followed by Manitoba Hal in Port Dover, who was also in Hamilton and London beforehand, and followed up by a live concert at Brock University by ukulele virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro in St. Catharines.
As you may have already noticed, some of our DUH members have been having a great time car-pooling here and there to all, most or some of these events mentioned above. One of our younger members, Coleton, had the good fortune to be able to meet James Hill in Hamilton on April 5th, and then Jake Shimabukuro in St. Catharines on April 18th, both of whom are his ukulele heroes. He managed to get both of their autographs on his uke, and I wonder if he is just going to shellack it and hang it on his wall from now on! Coleton also met Manitoba Hal the same week and was able to strut his stuff so to speak and played some of his own instrumental songs for him.
Getting his uke signed by Jake Shimabukuro on April 18th
Coleton is somewhat of a unique member of our group. At such a tender age he is already an accomplished instrumental ukulele player, and is also a student of a specialized flute instrument called the Ocarina. He owns several of these instruments (in different keys) and can often be heard playing them at our ukulele nights before we start and at break time. During our Irish theme song night in honour of St. Patrick’s day he sent our leader a song called The Blarney Stone Ukulele and Ocarina. He also brought one with him to see James Hill in Hamilton on April the 5th, and played it for Anne Janelle (James’s cello-accompanist and love interest), who was so impressed by his musical talent that she asked for his name and email.
About a month ago, Coleton participated in the Norfolk Musical Arts Festival, which is actually a music competition with scholarship prizes, and was only awarded a certificate of participation by the panel due to the fact that there was no musical category for ukulele players. He performed his original composition called East Bound. You can view his performance on his Youtube channel called Coleton33Music at this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8ffqd6Ww0k. He also has a number of vid’s showing him playing his ocarina with ukulele and guitar. Coleton often publishes info on our Facebook group page with links to Ocarina sites he belongs to and links to his own music scores. I would like to be able to say that the Dover Uke Heads have taken him under our wings, but since we welcomed him with open arms we have more or less come to the conclusion that his talent in music will take him far. Someday we’ll be able to say, “I knew him when….”!
Hal with his custom-made double neck ukulele
Tuesday April 16th was a guest appearance night. We had Manitoba Hal Brolund, who has been singing and playing the blues since he was a young teen in Manitoba, teach us some secrets to strumming the blues. Hal is always the gracious and knowledgeable teacher who is both entertaining and talented. Later in the evening we were treated to a Blues Concert down on Main Street in the Brig.
The Dover Uke Heads as “students” of the blues!
Jenny, with “youngsters” Dillan and Coleton.
Coleton shoed Manitoba Hal some licks of his own
Recently, a group of our Uke Heads were fortunate enough to see James Hill, live, in concert,
One of our “youngster” members, Coleton, a Grade 8 student of Simcoe, Ontario.
TWICE in one weekend. This spectacular alligning of events took place on Friday, April 5th in Hamilton and Sunday, April 7th in London.
A good representation of DUH first descended upon “the Hammer” (aka, the city of Hamilton) on Friday night for a full-out concert by reknowned Ukulele virtuoso performer and entertainer James Hill. He was accompanied by Cello-ist (and love interest) Anne Janelle Davison, for a sold out show at the Pearl Company Arts Centre.
On Sunday, the DUH car-pooled up to the “Forest City” of London for a screening of the Mighty Uke at the Palace Theatre on Dundas, paired with a live performance by James Hill and Anne Janelle, with a little bit of a strum-along at the end.
Tony Coleman, Director of the Mighty Uke
Director Tony Coleman had personally invited as many ukulele clubs as he could get in touch with, and had reached us via this website. The London group known as S.O.U.P. (Southern Ontario Ukulele Players) was in attendance as well as ukers from Stoney Creek, Hamilton, Dundas and the Niagara area. Tony was kind enough to point out to the audience that the DUH uke group was in attendance. He said we were “inconspicuous as usual”…..
We really enjoyed the Mighty Uke movie, James and Anne’s show, passed out t-shirts and got our ukes autographed!
At one point during the evening James performed a 3-part syncopation of the song Billy Jean, which had our fearless leader worried that our group members might mutiny and decide to join Anne’s camp to become “Cello-heads”.
You can tell by the big smile on her face how much she would just love that!
However, Peter tells me that he will head it off by convincing the group that a cello won’t fit on the t-shirts! (Well, duh!)
So! What did you do on your weekend?
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Anne told us she started playing the cello when she was 8 years old! Anne’s website: http://www.annejanelle.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3&Itemid=105.
James Hill is a graduate of the Langley Ukulele Ensemble and the Langley Community Music School, and a co-author of the popular Ukulele in the Classroom. His website: http://jameshillmusic.com/audio.
Full blues music ukulele technique workshop at the Grace United Church, 18 Chapman Street, Port Dover, starting at 6:30. $20 Fee: includes all materials, just bring your uke! Contact Cat or Peter to get on the list. Cat: canadian.woman@hotmail.com or Peter: petershebib@kwic.com.
Blues concert ~ open to the public! ~ begins at 9 pm at the Brig in Port Dover. $10 Admission.
More info on this award-winning Canadian blues performer available at:
www.manitobahal.com and http://www.reverbnation.com/manitobahal
Biographical info: http://music.cbc.ca/#/artists/Manitoba-Hal
Enjoyed by all, the Children’s Songs night was hosted by Stew and Val Smith, Sandy Hill and Jenny Gedye. They displayed the songs with a projector on a wall in the auditorium. It was also nice not having to tote along a music stand and several ukulele music books. I truly felt like a vagabond musician walking in with little more than my ukulele! The children’s songs were a lot of fun and brought back some fond childhood memories as well.
Here is the music folder the Smith’s provided. KIDS MUSIC for DUH pdf
Peter’s email to the group: “Thanks to Val, Stu, Sandy and Jenny for hosting a fun and enriching Kids evening. That’s the second in a row evening hosted by members of group. (Mandy, St. Patrick Day celebration) That gave Cat and myself a welcome break. Hopefully, others will get together and host upcoming themed evenings. It’s a great experience.”
Due to a taxing on our limited storage space Peter and Cat have decided to post the future video’s on a Youtube Channel. It looks great! You can reach it by clicking this link: https://www.youtube.com/user/PeterShebib1?feature=watch .
Here is a preview of Uke Head Keith performing Ain’t Misbehavin’ on February 12th:
Great songs on the 12th of March at our new location, the Grace United Church in Port Dover. Honouring St. Patrick’s Day, the group played a variety of Irish tunes including Oh Danny Boy, When Irish Eyes are Smiling, Whiskey in the Jar, the Blarney Stone, Mairi’s Wedding, The Unicorn Song, and many many more. Pics taken by one of our new members, Uke Head Karen.
From Peter’s email to the group: Peter says, “Thanks to Mandy for organizing and heading up a great St.Patricks evening. Also, thanks to Gayle for bringing along her Borhan and Coleton accompanying us on his ocarina. In addition thanks to everyone for their fine singing and uke playing to make it a successful evening.”
Late in February, Uke Head Rick Eller had a chance to visit the famous Elderly Instruments music store, located in Lansing, Michigan. He and family and friends were enroute to catch a concert, and stopped in to see what the place had to offer. Rick claims that he was a good boy, and although they were hard to resist, he did NOT make any purchases! Well, better luck next time, Rick! And thanks for the photos!
The wall of ukes!
