Banjolele bananas !!

"Godalming pubs are at the forefront of a new musical phenomenon!"
The Surrey Times

They are talking about Ukejam !!

Its been several months since I was recommended UkeJam and this week I finally picked up my shiny Banjolele and nervously went along - Bazinga !! what have I been missing....

so shiny !!!

Originally in Godlaming it's now based at the Royal Oak in Guildford, and meets every fortnight. 

 I don't find it easy to stroll into a pub full of about 100 people, who all seem to know each other and how it goes, on my own - maybe thats why I've put it off for so long.   But the friendly welcome hits you right between the ukulele strings.  Within seconds people left and right of me were welcoming me into their circle, finding me a songbook or opening theirs wider so I could join in.   The laughter and grins on people's faces said all you needed to know - this was going to be massive fun ! 

The generosity of spirit of the Ukejam is wonderful - just come in, get your instrument out or trill up your vocal cords, and join in.  Ukejam provide their songs books to download for free on their website, with lyrics and chords.  Songs range from traditional to recent pop hits, Gershwin to GaGa, Guns 'n Roses to Gnarls Barkley.  Songs you can't imagine would sound great played en-masse by 60 or more players/singers of all ages just stormed along (all thanks to the Ukejam leaders Adam and Penny).  

Here's a few samples of how the Ukejam sounds :

 Ukejam Price Tag  

Ukejam Chasing Cars

 Ukejam Staying Alive

Can't wait to go again !!

* Technical point :    It was the first time I had played my banjolele and I read some info on the web beforehand which told me that it was bad form to wear a strap on your ukulele because cradling it in your arms helped give the right position for good strumming technique. Stupidly I imagined this was true of my banjolele too - despite the fact it weights about 10 times as much and had sharp metal bits all over the sides of it.   Even a quick practice at home hadn't let sense dawn on me.   The pain as I scratched and cut my forearm trying to hold the darn thing massively interefered with any ability to get some nice chords going. I now have a very nice strap.