About
“We make ourselves and others smile using ukuleles, we improve our skills, and we share our music to provide a positive impact on the world.”
– Purpose of DMUS, July 2017
We have come to realize that if we get the smiles, everything else takes care of itself. Please come visit one of our meetings. You will have fun!
Speaking of fun, sometimes DMUS performs or conducts sing-alongs for audiences. I set up a Jokes page with resources that might be used when planning to play of an audience. Click on Jokes to check it out.
When I moved to Memphis in August 2021, I split DMUS into two separate parts. “DMUS Live” meets in person in the Des Moines, Iowa area and “DMUS International” only meets online using Zoom. So that anyone in the Des Moines area can attend both the live and the Zoom meetings, I set up a schedule where the two parts of the original club schedule meetings on alternating Wednesdays.
Details on our website explain how you can visit our DMUS International meetings using Zoom. You are welcome to participate or to just listen and watch.
To get information about DMUS Live meetings, the part of the club that meets in-person and occasionally performs in the Des Moines, Iowa, vicinity, send and email to Steve Melby, stevepmelby@gmail.com.
Songbooks used by DMUS Live
Unlike DMUS International, DMUS Live often selects songs from what we call the yellow and blue books. Members are strongly encouraged to purchase these; however, new members should look on with others until they get settled into the club. And, we find that we always learn faster when sharing books.
The real names of the books are “The Daily Ukulele: 365 Songs for Better Living (Jumpin’ Jim’s Ukulele Songbooks)” and “The Daily Ukulele – Leap Year Edition: 366 More Songs for Better Living (Jumpin’ Jim’s Ukulele Songbooks),” both authored by Jim and Liz Beloff. When you are ready to purchase one of these, Rieman Music will give you the Amazon price when you let them know you are a DMUS member. Also available on Amazon are kindle versions that are less expensive and may be more convenient for any members who are comfortable without paper.
If you have a baritone ukulele, you will want to get the baritone ukulele versions, which are brown and green. If you are not certain what kind of ukulele you have, please bring it to a meeting and let us advise you on which books you will need.
Here are pictures of the books:
Here are resource links that can help you find songs in the books we use in a particular key or with a particular number of chords and other criteria. The first three are from external sites.
Here is a very nice index from Ukulele Tonya.
The Edmonton Ukulele Circle has a page with several different indexes that cover both books.
This last resource is a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, compiled by Kristi, one of our members, from the Edmonton Ukulele Circle materials. Kristi did the hard part. I added filters for sorting and for viewing portion of the total list. This link will download a copy of the spreadsheet to your device; you will need Microsoft Excel or another program that can read files in the Microsoft Excel format in order to use this download.