As well as playing the ukulele with the Stafford based All About Uke group, I’m also a member of the Stone U3A (University of the Third Age) Ukulele Group. It’s an opportunity for me to take along a tenor ukulele and join in with the strumming and the singing.
We performed a concert yesterday in Stone (Staffordshire) for the local Alzheimer and Dementia Support Group. It was a different kind of concert but in many ways it was the most rewarding. The audience consisted of people affected by Alzheimer or Dementia together with their carers. Initially they were quite subdued listening but as we started playing they became more involved. We performed a variety of Music Hall and War-time songs which they joined in with singing and clapping along in time to the music. Then, when we played some rock’n’roll numbers they got up and started dancing. This just shows the power of music, their faces lit up and just for a few moments they were transported back to how they were all those years ago. They thoroughly enjoyed the performance and we found it to be a very worthwhile experience.
Meanwhile, with the All About Uke group, where I play the bass ukulele, we’ve a number of gigs over the next few weeks so we’re busy practicing our Christmas songs. It only seems like five minutes ago when we were last playing them. Whilst we’ll be playing the usual favourite Christmas songs which people expect to hear, we’re also learning a couple of new songs. Hopefully I’ll be able to get some photos or even some video which I can include in my next post.