They’re jamming on the ukulele

SMITHFIELD — Ukulele players now have a place to hang out and jam out.

“We come here and have fun,” said Mary Nell Ferguson, 82, of Smithfield.  “It’s a very different group, but we have fun together, so it just makes life interesting and full of joyful things.”

The weekly session, called Ukulele Jams, draws players who enjoy music — and the instrument — from beginners to people who play multiple instruments.

Ferguson is new to the toner ukulele, the instrument the group plays. “In college, I played baritone ukulele,” she said. “Baritone ukuleles and toner ukuleles have different chords, so I have had to learn the new chords.”

It takes time, Ferguson said. “I practice the ukulele daily,” she said. “I have these gloves that I wear because my hands are old. It is harder for me to play getting these calluses. … But I have a really good time playing.”

She had no real reason to join Ukulele Jams, Ferguson said. “I just like doing things with music,” she said. “Many of us were doing line dancing at the HealthQuest, then came this opportunity to give playing a try. I said, ‘Sure, why not?’ ”

Ukulele Jam welcomes everyone, from home-schooled youngsters to retirees.

Jeffrey Schall, 12, of Smithfield started playing the ukulele three years ago. “When I was playing, I was just messing around with it, and the first song I learned was ‘Blue Skies and Rainbows,’ ” he said. “It was really fun.”

Jeffrey is among the group’s multi-instrumentalists. “I have a resonator guitar and a box drum, and I wanted to try something new,” he said. “So I decided to try the ukulele.”

“My whole family loves music,” Jeffrey said. “My mom encouraged me to do this, and my grandma brought me, so it’s really fun.”

His grandmother, Pam Schall, 68, of Smithfield, attends the jam sessions with him.

She started playing in December. “Jeffrey had been playing the ukulele, and this group was perfect,” Schall said. “So it’s something that we do as a grandmother and grandson.”

The session is an encouraging space, Schall said. “It is great, and everybody here is just awesome,” she said. “They are very friendly and supportive.”

The jam sessions, which launched in December at Smithfield’s First Presbyterian Church, trace their roots to last year’s Whirligig Festival in Wilson, where five ukulele bands played. Two church members were there, said Pam Brown, the sessions’ instructor. “They came to me afterward and said, ‘We got to bring that to Smithfield,’ ” she said.

When the Ukulele Jammers formed, they were mostly new to the instrument. “They were all beginners except for me and one other member who plays the dulcimer,” Brown said. “They didn’t know anything about a ukulele.

“I taught them everything, from what the ukulele was, the name of the strings and everything you need to know to play the ukulele.”

The ukulele is an easy instrument to pick up, Brown said. “You don’t need to know any kind of sheet music, just the cords,” she said. “You don’t have to have any music background.”

The Ukulele Jam is a great outlet, Brown said. “It brings me great joy, it gives me purpose, and it’s just fun,” she said. “You can come in here to just have fun. Like a lot of people have sick people in their lives or really negative things, but when they come here, they forget it.”

Ukulele Jam meets from 10 to 11:30 a.m. every Tuesday on the second floor of First Presbyterian Church, 215 S. Third St. For more information, call 919-634-4800.

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