Going Solo

A small group of friends at a recent Ukulele Fun Night. I'm on the left,
with Cherry next to me. The lady on the far right is Jean, another
Slimming World member, so we have more than ukes in common.

Learning to play the ukulele was definitely one of my better decisions, so I remain very grateful to my cousin Jan for coming up with the idea. What a shame that she didn't carry on with it herself. Though I'm still far from being expert, I do enjoy myself immensely and my playing skills are gradually improving. 

One thing I knew nothing about when I enrolled on that Beginners' Course in 2014 was the amazing social side to ukelele playing that was about to open up. I had completed just two terms when a friend on the course invited me to an evening with my local ukulele group, The Ukes uv Azzard. Ten minutes after arriving, I was hooked.

The acceptance and encouragement that's come my way are tremendous and I've made lots of lovely new friends. In gratitude, I tried to put something back into the group by volunteering to keep our song book up to date. More recently, I offered to resurrect my former website writing skills and produce a simple site for The Ukes uv Azzard.  Click here if you'd like to take a look. 

In truth, this is far from being a great technological achievement as the program I used to write the website is very similar to the one I use to keep the songbook up to date — both Serif products (WebPlus and PagePlus). But I did have a lot of fun putting it together, finding a corner of the Worldwide Web to host it and remembering how to use an FTP program to get it from my computer to theirs. 

One skill that I definitely do not possess is that of melodious singing. In many songs I can't reach the high notes of the girls' melody line, whilst trying to join the boys doesn't feel right either, so I try to pick out an alto(ish) harmony in the middle. You will doubtless, therefore, judge that I had taken leave of my senses when I volunteered to sing a solo at a recent Ukulele Fun Night. 

The song I chose was Lamorna, from my native Cornwall, as it's quite comical and has a few Cornish pronunciations:

She said I knowed 'e well, I knowed 'e all along

I knowed 'e in the dark but I did it for a lark...

In Cornwall it's quite well known and many folk would be eager to join in the chorus; here in Gloucstershire no-one had heard it before. Being a solo, I could (of course) choose my own key, ideally 'F', but that would give me a couple of Bb chords in each verse – normally well within my playing abilities, but when standing up and singing solo...? I compromised, went up a tone and played in 'G'.

I confess that I wasn't wholly pleased with my efforts. That top 'G' would be easy when singing with others but (doubtless due to stage fright) my voice cracked a couple of times. Then I messed up the final 'outro' chord sequence. I took my seat feeling crestfallen, but I need not have worried. Janice, who organised the event, gave me an enormous hug and the following day there were messages of congratulation on Facebook:  

Ange your Cornish song tonight was fabulous, thank you for sharing it - we definitely got the wetwetwet bit of the chorus, especially given the last few days weather eh!

Thank you Angela for coming along and doing your solo spot. The song was great :-) xx

Yes, I'd been among friends; good friends. Will I try again?  Yes!.. (if they want me) though I will learn from my mistakes.  Next time I'll sit down, making it easier to play awkward chords, and I'll pitch the song safely within my vocal range. There's a humorous variation of the classic folk song To be a farmer's boy that I know and it would be fun to give it a try.

Finally, thank you Janice and Alastair for the photos, and for organising a fantastic Fun Night.