Bytown Ukulele Group Jam January 2021

Join Sue and Mark for an evening of ukulele revelry, songs, and laughter!

It's FREE and you don't need to be any good. This is the kind of BUG you WANT to catch!

Don your favourite pyjamas or loungewear, grab a snack, and sit down with your family and pets to sing along with us! (or if you live in Ottawa, perhaps order some takeout/delivery from the Clocktower Brew Pub)

WHEN: Wednesday, January 20, 2021
TIME: meet & greet check-in 6:45 pm, singing starts at 7:00 pm (eastern time, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada)
WHERE: right in your own home

ZOOM LINK
ZOOM password: uke15 (if needed)
Meeting ID: 848 168 915 (that's if the link above doesn't work for you, you can type the ID in once you click on JOIN MEETING)

The PDF songbook we'll be using for this jam is posted below at the top of the songlist. We'll display the songsheets on your screens and our wonderful Ellen will be scrolling through for all of you. On your own screen, you can resize the songsheet window to take up most of the screen, or if you've got a big screen (we plug our computer into our TV) you can resize the songsheet so that you can see more people. Those settings are entirely up to you! Click here for info about changing your view in Zoom.

IF YOU CAN'T JOIN US LIVE for whatever reason, no worries! We record the jam, so that you can play along with us anytime! Be sure to plug an external speaker into your computer to listen so that you'll hear the uBass and get the full effect! In the recording, no one's names appear on the screens! We'll upload the jam video and the songbook we use for the evening on our BUG Jam Videos page.

HOW DO I JOIN IN?

Download ZOOM - it's free!
Click on the Zoom Link under WHERE at the top of this announcement.
Turn off all other programs, apps, emails, games, that use the internet. That will maximize your bandwidth to help improve delay and choppiness. Some people have had much better success with Zoom when they plug their device directly into their router/modem with an ethernet cable (depending on your device, you may need to get a USB ethernet dongle to do this).
The Zoom host will mute everyone just before the song is to start. Then only the song leader will unmute themselves and start the song. Everyone else needs to stay muted - otherwise it's a mess. So if you notice that for some reason your mic is unmuted during the song, i.e., there is not a slash through the microphone symbol, please STOP singing and mute yourself by clicking on the microphone symbol. At the end of the song, if you'd like to clap, hoot, and holler - which we hope you will - then you need to unmute yourself.
For optimal audio quality and volume, plug an external speaker into your device or wear headphones. If you don't do that, the sound may be choppy, tinny, and you won't hear the uBass. If you're using an older Apple product there may be a headphone out jack that you can plug an external speaker into. For newer Apple devices, you may need a USB-C connector to a 3.5 mm audio adapter to connect an external speaker or headphones.
Due to the noise/feedback that occurs when someone connects to Zoom mid-song, the "waiting room" feature will be enabled. So people will only be admitted to the jam from the waiting room in between songs. If you're arriving after 7 pm, please be patient as it might take a few minutes.
If you're not familiar with Zoom, please take some time to read these help pages ahead of time - they tell you how to test your audio and video:

How Do I Join or Test My Computer Audio
How Do I Test My Video

MANY THANKS to Ellen Dickson for encouraging Mark and I to try Zoom, and to Ellen and Sharon Baird for being the Zoom wizards behind the screens for our jams!

BUG PyJAMa Jam January 20, 2021

Here is the Songlist: