Thursday 21st March 2024 is World Poetry Day (and the Vernal Equinox). Can you think of songs that started as poems? Can you put words to music? Explore the world of words, rhyme, alliteration, and more! Parodies included!
SPECIAL OFFER: Owners of Fun with Uke Book get free entry to this one-hour song session in Zoom. Bring your book or have your PDF version ready as we will go through three-chord songs in the book. Register in Zoom for the Zoom link. If you don’t own a copy of this 80-page book, you can order your PDF copy here.
Dress code: wear something with words on it.
Effective 15th February 2024, your first 3 Chord Thursday song session in 2024 is FREE. You’re also welcome to have as many people in your Zoom session as you like without further subscription. In-person with the host is free. The next in-person is Thursday 2nd May 2024. Register in Zoom as often as you like to get the Zoom link. Enter Zoom at any time to set up. The host and performers will do sound and visual checks half-hour before the start time. All sessions are live-streamed and video recorded for review and replay.
The Line-Up
Introducing Sarah Shapiro, poet and chocolatier, Wild Child Chocolate, based in Somerville, Massachusetts.
- Nursery rhymes and songs from Mother Goose [3] – Anne (MA) (Fun with Uke Book)
- Golden Slumbers in C [6] – Debbie (HI)
- Down by the Salley Gardens in C [6] – Bruce (HI) (1-page PDF lead sheet) (1-page PDF with tabs)
- My Heart’s in the Highlands in C [4] – Paul (GA) (1-page PDF) Play Along video below
Song Suggestions of famous songs that came from poems
- Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes — now you can play 24 arrangements for the ukulele from the Fun with Uke Book
- Jim Morrison’s poems posthumously became songs by the Doors
- Cats in the Cradle
- America the Beautiful
- Star Spangled Banner
- Footprints in the Sand by Leona Lewis
- Memory from “Cats” the musical was based on poems by TS Eliot, set to music by Andrew Lloyd Webber.
- Johnny Cash‘s “Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes,” from Ben Jonson‘s poem “Song: To Celia.”
- The poem “Down by the Salley Gardens” was based by Yeats on a fragment of a song he heard an old woman singing. Yeats’ words have been recorded as a song by many performers.
- The poem On Raglan Road was put to music when the poet met Luke Kelly of the well-known Irish band The Dubliners in a pub in Dublin.[2] It was set to the music of the traditional song “The Dawning of the Day” (Fáinne Geal an Lae).
- Robert Burns wrote the poems “A Red, Red Rose” and “Auld Lang Syne,” famously set to music.
What time do we meet?
- 20:00 CET (Venice, Italy) – daylight savings start on 31st March 2024
- 19:00 GMT (UK) – daylight savings start on 31st March 2024
- 3:00 PM EDT (East Coast USA) – daylight savings started on 10th March
- Noon PDT (West Coast USA) – daylight savings
- 9:00 AM HST (Hawaii) – no daylight savings
There are many three chord songs but 3 Chord Thursday is not limited to 3 chords!! We always start with a warm up at 3 pm EST followed by two poses for a group photo with our sunglasses and ukuleles. Then we announce our line-up. If there’s no request beforehand, we take impromptu requests and line them up. We aim to end an hour later at 4 pm EST.
Don’t forget your sunglasses & dress code: something with words on it!
- Register in Zoom for the Zoom link.
- Subscribe to 3 Chord Thursday (if you don’t already have a day, season, or annual pass)
- Request a song to perform in advance to get in the line-up.
- Sign up for the FREE Ukulele Enthusiast e-Blast.
- Join our 3,600 member Facebook Group.