CASCOBAY UKEFEST WORKSHOPS
Wonderful news! On Saturday, July 28, at St. Luke's Cathedral on State Street in Portland (across from Mercy Hospital) the Fourth Annual CascoBay UkeFest will kick off at 9:00 AM with three very helpful and fun workshops.
The first workshop beginning at 9:00 - and it's FREE - will be led by the talented wife and husband duo of Lynne and Rick Gammon. Lynne and Rick have taught ukulele in a variety of settings and continue to hone their superb ukulele-playing skills as long-time active members of the Falmouth Library Ukulele Society (a/k/a the FLUKES).
Beginner Ukulele Workshop: Lynne and Rick Gammon
For the complete novice or someone just starting to play, this session will acquaint you with the uke and provide instruction for a simple strum pattern and a few basic chords. Following this brief workshop, attendees will be able to participate in the other activities of the day.
Jim Beloff then follows at 10:00 with a workshop for advanced beginners, but Jim intends that even brand new beginners will get something out of this workshop.
Advanced Beginner Ukulele Workshop: Jim Beloff
For those who know a handful of chords and a basic up/down strum, here’s a chance to take your skills to a new level. Another half dozen or so (dozen if two sessions) well-known songs will be played while learning more chords, new fingerings, new strums, a picking pattern, transposing on the fly and performance tips and techniques along the way.
At 11:00, Jim leads another workshop for advanced beginners that can also be called a "jam" because it will consist of playing lots of songs from The Daily Ukulele but with Jim teaching some fine points of each song that can make our playing even more fun. Again, Jim intends that even brand new beginners will have fun trying out these songs.
Advance Beginner Daily Ukulele Jam: Jim Beloff
An hour of strumming through a dozen or so songs from both Daily Ukulele songbooks with periodic stops to ooh and ahh over the cleverness of a specific chord change, the enduring elegance of the AABA song structure and how the major 7th chord became a defining sound of the 1970s.
The fee for one or both of Jim's workshops is only $10; that is, $10 gets you into either one or both. Combined with the FREE 9:00 workshop, that's only $10 for as many as three all-excellent workshops!
More details are coming about the Jim's world premier concerto at Noon with Jim on ukulele along with the Longfellow String Quartet, the Jim and Liz Beloff concert that follows, and then the afternoon of Maine ukulele group performances, and with an easy-peasy audience sing and strum-along song after each performance. Don't forget to bring your ukulele so you can join in the fun!
We hope to see you there. What fun we all shall have!!
