Centrum Ukulele Week Recap! 🏔️

Welcome to VIGGY NEWS - a very jiggy newsletter 📩

Hi friends! 👋🏻

I had an absolutely incredible time at Centrum Ukulele Week last weekend, thank you to all my new subscribers who are new to the mailing list who got jiggy with me and the rest of the staff. Nicole and Aaron Kiem put on such a lovely event, it was great to reconnect with friends and make new ones. We were there for just about a week, we got home early Tuesday morning, making sure we had time to explore Seattle a little bit after the fest too. We are so smitten with Washington that we can’t wait to come back soon.

I taught six workshops over the course of 3 days - one three day “Strum & Drum” percussive ukulele course and three drop-in sessions of “Fingerpickin’ Fun!” I love teaching these two workshops, especially the percussive stuff, and I got a lot of great feedback after each session. Thanks to all who came and got jiggy with me!

One thing that I am starting to really look forward to at these uke fests is collaborating with the other teachers and musicians there. I was a little shy when I first started teaching at festivals and got used to performing on stage alone, but it wasn’t until the Midwest Uke Camp last year that I saw other teachers collaborating on stage and I thought “oh wow, I didn’t realize that was an option!” LOL it might sound silly, but since then I always try to plan at least one song for someone to join me on stage with. At both the Allegheny Ukulele Soiree and here at Centrum, I was so lucky to be joined by some absolute PROS who learned these songs on the fly and joined me. After the Friday night concert, Jake took this pic of Ronnie, Larry, Conrad, and myself workshopping some of my tunes to perform the following night. Only one or two sessions of run-throughs and preps and we were all set! It feels like magic to have songs come together so quickly, and every time I come home inspired and driven to keep on making music. I also got to play alongside an accordion player (Nova) and another great bass playet (Matt) who joined me for a very upbeat, unhinged version of Creep by Radiohead. I should have a recording of it somewhere…

The landscape that housed this lovely festival was spectacular - we all stayed and jammed at Fort Worden State Park, almost 2.5 hours north of Seattle. When I wasn’t teaching, Jake and I explored the beach, abandoned bunkers, and soaked in as much fresh air as we could. The stars were gorgeous at night (to no surprise) and overhead we spotted a pair of bald eagles nesting in a tree! 🦅🦅

It’s nice to be home for a moment, but I will be jetting off once more this Thursday for Salt Lake City for a day of teaching with the Salt Lake Strummers! If you’re interested in joining us there, you can click here for tickets and more info.

That’s it for this recap! Take care and happy strumming,

xoxo Viggy

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