{"id":21036,"date":"2021-05-23T05:30:03","date_gmt":"2021-05-23T09:30:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=21036"},"modified":"2021-05-24T08:58:22","modified_gmt":"2021-05-24T12:58:22","slug":"virtually-the-same-transylvania-ukulele-circle-goes-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2021\/05\/23\/virtually-the-same-transylvania-ukulele-circle-goes-online\/","title":{"rendered":"Virtually the Same: Transylvania Ukulele Circle Goes Online"},"content":{"rendered":"

This feature appeared previously in<\/em> Bold Life Magazine.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"The Transylvania (NC) County Library offers more than books. In January 2019, the library launched a fun and informal ukulele circle; participants of all skill levels got together periodically to sing and play. The pandemic briefly put a stop to the uke circle, but organizer and youth librarian Laura Gardner found a way to continue the regular gathering in virtual fashion. With her colleague Heather Reedy, in September Gardner took the ukulele circle online using Zoom videoconferencing technology.<\/p>\n

What is a typical ukulele circle like?<\/b>
\nWe have themes that we choose in advance. We create and distribute a packet of music up to a month in advance. Pre-pandemic, we had a three-minute tutorial before the actual circle would begin. We created a PowerPoint to go over the basics; we would show people a few things so they would be able to read the chord charts that we\u2019d put up on the screen later. It was just a crash course to make people more comfortable. Then, we\u2019d have a jam session for an hour. The idea is that someone could drop in and try it.<\/p>\n

When did the meetings change to virtual?<\/b>
\nOur March circle was the last one that we had in person, and then we had a gap for a while. Like many libraries, we were closed to the public for a bit. Our first Zoom circle was September 10th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

What kind of technological challenges did you face?<\/b>
\nZoom isn\u2019t the greatest for music, especially when you\u2019re playing simultaneously with several different people. So we have two separate Zoom logins with two different sound sources. Heather is inside a room and I\u2019m just outside; we\u2019re able to see each other through a glass window. I do the PowerPoint as a \u201cshare screen\u201d option in Zoom so that people can see the music. And Heather manages the chat, letting latecomers in, and things like that.<\/p>\n

For our first Zoom circle, we muted most of the participants; they could hear us and they could hear themselves, but they weren\u2019t hearing each other. The whole thing took a little trial and error. But I got feedback from people that it seemed to work pretty well!<\/p>\n

What do you think accounts for the ukulele\u2019s recent resurgence in popularity?<\/b>
\nI think a lot of people are enthusiastic about learning music, but we sometimes get intimidated. There\u2019s a learning curve when you try something new. And the ukulele is just really accessible; the size of it makes it easy for a kid to use. There are four strings and you have four fingers, so the fingering is a lot simpler. And those nylon strings are softer on your hands than the coiled wire strings on a guitar.<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t even have to use a pick. There are certainly a lot of different ways to play it. What I do is [play] a rhythm while I\u2019m singing. I\u2019m always very quick to tell people that I\u2019m not at all an expert or a performer; I\u2019m just an intermediate player. And I think that makes me a good person to teach beginners, because I\u2019ve just so recently been there myself!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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