“Ukuleles are wonderful friendly little instruments and once you learn a couple of tunes on it, it will give straight back to you unlike any other
instrument I know. Everyone should have one at home because they cheer you up.” This quote is from one of Britain’s cheeriest and best-loved
musicians, Joe Brown.

The love of this instrument is shared by the members of the Stanway U3A’s Ukes 4 Fun group who now meet and play in Stanway Rovers Hawthorn Suite, every Friday morning. Here we have use of the kitchen for drinks and refreshments at our half-time break.

Group members have varied skills but many have progressed through the beginner stages of Ukulele playing and now focus on extending and
developing their skills, techniques and knowledge as well as practising individual group arrangements for many different songs and genres.

With the members supporting each other and happy to share their own experiences, learning, playing and singing is enjoyable and addictive without any pressure!

We have now developed and produced comprehensive Songbooks 1, 2, 3 and 4 and are compiling Songbook 5, as well as Folk Songs and Rock ‘n Roll collections. Each week we work on new songs and arrangements, re-visit Songbooks and practise strumming/picking skills.

The group also welcomes those who play complementary instruments, including the guitar, banjo as well as singing and percussion accompaniments.

A warm invitation is extended to anyone (newcomers and seasoned players) who thinks they would like to join this friendly group, to come
along one Friday morning to meet everyone and see/hear us in action. A basic knowledge of your instrument (soprano, concert, tenor) is required to enable you to get the most out of what the group has to offer. We can also offer a short-term loan of a uke until you decide to purchase your own. The group meets just before 10am and finishes just after 12.00.

We are a friendly, welcoming group of players but now find that we have some vacancies to expand our player numbers. Whilst predominantly being a ukulele group, we welcome new players of any instrument – strings, percussion, keyboard and of course singers! Please let me know if you would like to come along either for a ‘taster’ session or to join us weekly.

Please contact the Group Leader on the link at the top of the page if you would like to find out more or wish to join the group.

UKES4FUN December 2025 Event

At our final meet of the year, in December, we were treated to a professional performance from Matthew Quilliam who performs on the uke, throughout the country and abroad.

We met as usual at Stanway Rovers FC and Matthew started with a friendly lesson in strumming, timing and of course, singing.

Then he moved on to a performance of songs through the decades, most of which were well known and everyone participated.

After this, we all enjoyed a prepared party spread of festive sandwiches, snacks and cakes.

Links

• Click here to listen to us play!