Carry your music on your iPad!

Interested in carrying around your ukulele music on an iPad? Here are some basic steps that should help you do just that...

A lot of ukulele music is available in PDF format (for example, the songbooks we link to on this site). Even if you can't find a PDF version of a song you like, there are ways to print the music to PDF yourself. For the purposes of this post we'll stick with grabbing existing PDFs off websites, but once you get this working, there's even more music out there you can take with you.

Once you've tracked down a PDF or three that you'd like to carry around with you, you need something on the iPad to open the file. I'd suggest getting iBooks from the App Store as a good starting point:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ibooks/id364709193?mt=8

It's made by Apple, it's free, and it does a decent job of managing PDF files on the iPad.

Once you have iBooks installed, launch the Safari web browser on the iPad and go to where the PDF can be downloaded. For example, you could go to our Songbooks page:
http://www.houkulele.com/p/songbooks.html

Click on the link for a songbook, and it'll open the PDF for you in Safari. Tap the middle of the PDF and you should see a black menu-type bar show up towards the top with an 'Open in "iBooks"' button on it:
Click the 'Open in "iBooks"' button.

Once it copies the PDF to iBooks, go back to Safari, hit the back button and download the next PDF, and so on.

From that point on, when you open iBooks, you'll have a section called PDFs that has the songbooks you've downloaded. Enjoy!

Houkulele in the Cleveland Advocate

Here's a nice article on the "Learn to Play the Ukulele" program, starting up in October:
Ukulele group forms at R.B. Tullis Library

Houkulele on CW39's NewsFix

Houston's CW39 joined us for our Hickory Hollow Meetup in August and put together a nice segment for their NewsFix program:

Mark your calendars: Ukulele Open House and Mighty Uke viewing on September 17th

Join us the evening of September 17th at the R B Tullis Library (21569 U.S. 59, New Caney, TX) from 6:30-8:30PM for a Ukulele Open House and viewing of the documentary Mighty Uke. The full details can be found on our Meetup site.

Never heard of Mighty Uke? Now you have!

We've added some new pages to the site that you may want to check out:

• Songbooks: Some of the songbooks we use during our meetups. Print 'em out, put 'em on your iWhatever/tablet, bring 'em along!
• Sites: Other places on the internet that can help feed your ukulele need.

The (Not-Quite) First Anniversary of (What Would Eventually Become) Houkulele!

In July of 2011, the dormant Houston Ukulele Meetup Group was rebooted when more than twenty folks gathered in the swelter of a backyard patio in the Heights to play.

Today, the Houston Ukulele Meetup Group has been renamed Houkulele, surpassed 150 amazing members, and performed a concert with the Houston Choral Showcase. We are growing by leaps and bounds in terms of membership, participation, organization and activity, so it is the perfect time to expand our online presence. 

Welcome to Houkulele.com!

Houkulele has been expanding beyond the walls of Meetup for some time now, and it's been admittedly difficult for everyone to find and follow all of the activity. Our goal is for Houkulele.com to solve that problem by serving as a central location where members and friends can easily navigate through the Houkulele universe. 

Here is a quick list of Houkulele's online activity centers, and what you can (or will soon) find at each one. All of the links can be found in the column to your right:

Houkulele.com - news regarding performances by Houkulele and its members, as well as publicly-located jams, other events, and general ukulele news. Quick links to all other club activity.

Facebook.com/groups/houkulele - the heart of daily communication for Houkulele. If you want to get in touch with the club's most active members quickly, this is the place to do it.

Meetup.com/houston-ukulele - the event-planning center and repository for song files, chord sheets, etc. Also, if you want to email a specific member instead of messaging through Facebook, this is the place to do it.

Twitter.com/houkulele - this is basically an "echo chamber" for news and information about the group. Up and running, and we'll start wiring it up, so to speak, so there will be an active feed by mid-July.

Google Map - Find players in your area. To have yourself added to the map, send us an email and include your zip code, first and last name (you'll be listed by first name and last initial only.)

Zazzle.com/houkulele - Houkulele buttons, stickers, fully customizable t-shirts and more.

More Links Coming Soon! - In the very near future, our Youtube channel and photo gallery will be fully activated, and we'll have a few other useful widgets and apps set up as well.

Thanks to one and all, from those who signed on at the beginning to those who have only just found us.  Houkulele will continue to grow, and it will become what we make of it. Keep bringing that positive energy and ukulele spirit!