The temperature outside was a frigid 12 degrees with a foot of snow on the ground. At Featherstone Center for the Arts, inside the Pebbles, 20 of us played our ukuleles and other instruments loudly, smiling and carrying on.

Though we meet and play year-round every Wednesday evening from 7 to 9 p.m., this past winter may have provided the ukulele players with a cathartic experience. You could say that our gathering and playing was akin to group therapy, since it helped us cope with one the worst winters in the history of the Vineyard.

By strict definition, therapy is treatment intended to relieve or heal a disorder. In our case, playing together as a group may have helped us prevent a nasty winter personal disorder commonly known as cabin fever (think Jack Nicholson’s movie The Shining).

With respect to ability, our ukulele group runs the gamut from neophytes to professional musicians. As a prior non-player, I have mastered the D and F chords and have been struggling with the G chord. Perhaps if I practiced more, I would have mastered that chord by now.

I’m also still struggling to overcome my debilitating music experience at elementary school P.S. 105 in Boro Park in Brooklyn, N.Y., where I was labeled a “listener” and was not allowed to participate in singing at weekly assemblies. I nonetheless wore the requisite white shirt and red tie to assembly, where the listeners sat in the row next to the piano and were bawled out by the music teacher whenever anything went wrong. Later I wrote a paper about the experience in an undergraduate psychology course.

At Featherstone on Wednesday evenings, we all play various-sized ukuleles, banjos and guitars. Every now and then someone shows up with still another instrument. We range in age from millennials to octogenarians. Everyone is generous and helpful with tuning, sharing music sheets and welcoming warmly newcomers. And we learn from one another.

In 2011, Deirdre DeCarion discussed with Ann Smith the idea of whether Featherstone would sponsor a ukulele group for two-hour sessions, with the first hour devoted to instruction and the second to jam time. Deirdre’s interest and love of music, in particular stringed instruments, started as a young child with her Uncle Dave’s Gibson guitar. When she was in sixth grade, a neighbor gave her a Favilla baritone ukulele that became her “sidekick” through college and is still with her today.

Today the Featherstone ukulele jam that began with five members in the fall of 2011 has grown. At times in the summer there are 40 participants.

Ruth Meyer keeps us up to date via email on sessions and what we will play.

Just in case next winter is another doozy, here’s my advice to anyone who is a stay here year-rounder and wants to preserve his or her mental health. First, don’t kvetch (Yiddish for complaining). Read our local papers, watch MVTV, maybe take a course with ACE, visit a library for information and programs, find an activity at the Y, enter a house of worship or talk with good friends about finding a group to join. If you are a gardener there is COMSOG, and each town has a council on aging and senior center overflowing with programs.

Get out of the house and join up. I think there are more book groups on the Island than any other place in the world. If you join a group and after your first meeting you leave feeling downcast, don’t go back! Find another group, one that makes you feel like skipping instead of walking and puts a smile on your face.

Thank you Featherstone and my fellow ukulele players for saving me about $350 — I think that’s about the going rate for a visit to the therapist that may or not be covered by my health plan. We all have a right to feel good about ourselves. But it is incumbent upon each of us to do something about getting off our tush (Yiddish for backside) and engage in an activity that infuses us with a positive, healthy state of mind.

All of the above said, I’ve been a lucky guy. I figure my late two brothers and I had a rare, rich, loving and genuine family model for emulation — a warm, supportive and beautiful mother and father — who got us off to a great start.

Don’t be bashful. Come spend Wednesday nights from 7 to 9 p.m. with us at Featherstone. Regardless your ability, playing with us will improve your skill, plus you’ll have fun and as a bonus you will sustain a positive mental attitude.

Herb Foster is an Edgartown Library Trustee and host of the upcoming Inside Education on MVTV.