Patricia Entwistle

Have you visited the Cottonwood Clubhouse on a Sunday afternoon and heard some happy music and laughter coming from the Ceramics Room? It’s the Sun Lakes Ukulele Group led by Cottonwood Palo Verde resident Nancy Harrison. The group is new this year and is open to anyone in the area. We meet on the first and third Sundays of the month to learn songs, chords, strums, fun licks and tricks on the ukulele. One day we hope to be good enough to perform shows together throughout the year – but most of the group is new to the ukulele this year.

There is a beginner lesson at each session from 1:30-2:15 p.m. and a group sing along from 2:00-3:30 p.m. We use The Daily Ukulele, 365 Songs for Better Living compiled by Liz and Jim Beloff (published by Hal Leonard) as our main songbook. The fee for each session is $3. The remaining sessions for this year are on October 25, 2015, November 8, November 22, December 6 and December 20; sessions for 2016 are on January 3, January 17, January 31, February 21 (no meeting February 7 due to Super Bowl Sunday), March 6, March 20, April 3 and April 17.

If you have a ukulele in playable condition (which means that the tuning pegs work (don’t slip) and the strings are relatively new, please come and join us. If you’re just curious, we’d love to have you drop in, share the fun and see if the ukulele is for you.

Nancy Harrison moved to Cottonwood from Portland, Oregon as a full-time resident in October 2013. She studied music education at the University of Iowa and recently completed a Ukulele teacher Certification program with James Hill in Vancouver, BC. She taught public school music for several years in Iowa and currently works at the Intel Chandler Campus as a Program Manager.

Go to the Sun Lakes Ukulele Group website at www.sunlakesukes.com for more information or call 503-702-7021 and leave a message.