Last week I wrote a blog post asking for people to tell me about their Ukulele Group. Thank you so much to everyone who has sent over descriptions of own ukulele community. It’s been really good to read such positive emails and hear that lots of online jams are now taking place 🙂
Tom Curtis sent me a lovely email, describing their wonderful Corfe Hills Ukulele Group, otherwise known as CHUGS!
“I started the Corfe Hills Ukulele Group (aka CHUGS) with my friend Bob Jackson five years ago 5 or 6 weeks after my wife and I moved to Corfe Mullen in Dorset. Bob and I knew each other from our previous Uke group in Bucks, and Bob introduced us to a couple of local uke groups but they were only meet once a month – not nearly enough. We posted a couple of notices in shop windows and in the local internet group, negotiated with our local pub, The Dorset Soldier, to play there once a fortnight, and was surprised when our first evening meeting brought 16 players and beginners together, wow! We started with the basics and soon attracted more players and learners. We soon outgrew the local pub and moved to the skittle alley in our local Royal British Legion where we still meet every other Monday evening – Coronavirus permitting.
We now have 80+ folk on our mailing list and regularly have up to 40 folk at our meetings and have a lot of fun together. We have hosted a teaching session from Paul Tucker of the Mother Ukers, and had it not been cancelled a fortnight ago, would have had Simon Fernand of Plastic Jeezus coming to entertain and teach us at our 5th birthday celebration. We love playing at local charity events and our biggest event is the local annual Corfe Mullen Carnival, and some of the original learners from our first meeting are now regulars in our performing group. You can see our Facebook page by clicking here.
A big thank you to Tom for sending that over to me. Please keep them coming – it’s so nice to hear positive stories about the many different ukulele communities out there. You can get in touch by sending an email to: matt@noahukuleles.com
Take care
Matt