The Story of the Ukulele!

The ukulele (Hawaiian: ukulele, IPA pronunciation: ukulele, sometimes spelled ukelele (particularly in the UK) or uke, is a chordophone classified as a plucked lute; it is a subset of the guitar family of instruments, generally with four strings or four courses of strings.



The ukulele is commonly associated with music from Hawaii, where the name roughly translates as "jumping flea", and was developed there in the 1880s as a combination of the Madeiran braguinha and rajão. A braguinha is an instrument similar to a cavaquinho, built in the city of Braga and named after it; the Portuguese cavaquinho is usually tuned in D-G-B-D, a G-major chord. The Madeira rajão is tuned D-G-C-E-A. The D and G strings are both re-entrant, i.e., tuned an octave higher than expected in the normal low-to-high course of strings. The GCEA strings of the rajão are the source of the re-entrant tuning of the modern ukulele.

The men generally credited with making the first ukuleles emigrated from Madeira to the Hawaiian Islands aboard the British ship Ravenscrag in 1879: Manuel Nuñes, José do Espírito Santo, and Augusto Dias.

Some of the most valuable ukuleles, which may run into the thousands of dollars in price, are made from koa (Acacia koa), a local wood known for its fine tone and attractive color and figure.

The ukulele was popularized for a stateside audience during the Panama Pacific International Exposition, held for most of 1915 in San Francisco, at which the Hawaiian Pavilion featured a guitar and ukulele ensemble, George E. K. Awai and his Royal Hawaiian Quartette, along with ukulele maker and player Jonah Kumalae. The popularity of the ensemble with visitors launched a fad for Hawaiian-themed songs among Tin Pan Alley songwriters. The ensemble also introduced both the lap steel guitar and the ukulele into U.S. mainland popular music, where it was taken up by vaudeville performers such as Roy Smeck and Cliff "Ukulele Ike" Edwards. The ukulele became an icon of the Jazz Age as this highly portable and relatively inexpensive instrument also proved popular with amateur players throughout the 1920s, as is evidenced by the introduction of uke chord tablature into the published sheet music for popular songs of the time (a role that would eventually be supplanted by the guitar). A number of mainland-based instrument manufacturers, among them Regal, Harmony, and Martin, added ukulele, banjolele, and tiple lines to their production to take advantage of the demand.

Types of ukulele

The ukulele can range in many different colors from white to blue and material from plastic to wood. The ukulele comes in four sizes, from smallest to largest:

* (The "Scale" is the length of the playable part of the strings, from the nut at the top to the bridge at the bottom.)

Ukuleles are also often seen in non-standard shapes, such as an oval, usually called a "pineapple" ukulele, or a boat-paddle shape, made popular by the Fluke brand of ukulele, and occasionally a square shape, often made out of an old wooden cigar box.
Tuning a ukulele

In the United States, soprano and concert ukes are usually tuned in the chord of C6: G-C-E-A, with the G-string traditionally tuned an octave up (re-entrant), so it is pitched between the E- and A-strings. In the past, it was not uncommon for the soprano to be tuned a whole step higher in the chord of D6: A-D-F#-B, with the lowest note being D (the A is a whole step below the B). This tuning was very popular in vaudeville in the days before amplification. The tension and tone are a little brighter and louder. This tuning is still used today by some known personalities in ukulele circles.

The tenor ukulele can be tuned either way, and in C, tuning is sometimes tuned with the G-string an octave lower, so it is pitched below the C-string, where you might expect it. Some historians say such a tuning makes it a small guitar, since the re-entrant tuning is the characteristic that most identified the original ukulele. On a tenor instrument, the strings may also be doubled: six strings (where first and third strings are doubled) or eight strings (where all four strings are doubled with second and fourth course). In traditional Hawaiian tuning, first and third courses are tuned in an octave.

The baritone ukulele, which was not invented or developed until the 1940s at the request of Arthur Godfrey, is usually tuned in G (like the highest sounding four strings of a guitar, D-G-B-E).

An alternative tuning is B%u266D-E%u266D-G-C, raised a semitone to the key of E flat. Either of these tunings, and the C tuning above, are known when strummed by the mnemonic, "My dog has fleas" in America (or "My dog's got fleas" in England), possibly referring to the "jumping flea" translated into Hawai'ian as "ukulele". Any song by this name postdates the use of the phrase in published teaching materials by at least decades.

Many other alternate tunings, sometimes known as "slack key," are also used, depending on the needs of the player.

Tahitian ukulele

The Tahitian ukulele is significantly different from other ukuleles because it does not have a sound box. The body——including the head and neck——is usually carved from a single piece of wood, with a wide conical hole bored through the middle. A tahitian Ukulele can often be carved out of three pieces of wood with the sides being made out of different woods. This is however just for decoration.

At the back, the bore is about 4 cm in diameter; at the front it is about 10 cm in diameter. The hole at the front is covered with a thin piece of wood, on which the bridge sits, so the instrument works rather like a wooden-skinned banjo. Indeed, some of these instruments are referred to as Tahitian banjos. The strings are usually made from light-gauge fishing line——usually green in colour (usually around 40—50 lb).

The instrument seems to be a relatively recent invention, popular in eastern Polynesia, particularly French Polynesia. It is reported to have been introduced to the Cook Islands in 1990 by the band Te Ava Piti as a newly invented instrument.

These instruments may have just four strings——or some strings may be paired, so that the instrument has six or eight strings.

The strings or pairs ("courses") are tuned to A6 D6 F#6 B5 or G5 C6 E6 A5 (See Scientific pitch notation for a description of these codes).

After the Hawaiian ukulele was invented, the Hawaiians referred to a similar, eight-string instrument tuned GCEA as a taro-patch fiddle. Before the invention of the ukulele, taro-patch fiddle referred to the rajão.

Those who are familiar with ukulele chords will find that the same chord shapes will fit these tunings, but that the chords will be transposed and inverted.
From
~WIKIPEDIA 

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