The Ukulele: A Magical History Tour

Bonus Chapter
In This Chapter What happens in Hawaii doesnt necessarily stay in Hawaii
Buster Keaton, Thomas Edison, flappers, and the Roaring Twenties The ukulele conquers the world

The ukulele is huge. We all get that. But how did the ukulele go from niche, local instrument to worldwide phenomenon? Interestingly enough, the worldwide appeal of the ukulele these days can be traced right back to its beginnings. Rather than being a purely Hawaiian instrument, its roots are truly international. In this chapter, I trace the history of the uke, from its humble beginnings to todays ukulele boom.

The Invention of the Ukulele

At the time the ukulele was developed the end of the 1800s Hawaii was melting pot: native Hawaiians, British, European, American, Chinese and Japanese people were all well represented on the islands. Power was still in the hands of the native Hawaiian monarchy, but the monarch was fighting against strengthening foreign interests. It's through the mixture of immigrants and the native Hawaiians that the uke developed. The Hawaiian King David Kalakaua had done some smart dealing with the United States and secured a deal that gave Hawaii exclusive rights to trade sugar to the mainland U.S. This arrangement brought huge amounts of money to the island but also resulted in a shortage of people to work the land. So immigrant workers were in high demand. One place that supplied these workers was Madeira (a small island which belonged to Portugal but which is far into the Atlantic Ocean). In 1879, a ship called the Ravenscrag sailed from Madeira to Hawaii with three furniture makers who would build the first ukuleles: Manuel Nunes, Augusto Dias and Jose Espirito de Santo. These three men had braved a long and dangerous journey and now had to spend two years working off the cost of their move. I asked Jim Tranquada great-grandson of Augusto Dias and ukulele historian why they took such a risk. He replied, By the time my great-great grandfather was in his late thirties, he had survived a cholera epidemic, a prolonged famine, and two plagues that devastated the vineyards that were then the basis of the Madeiran economy. When they moved to Hawaii they brought with them two instruments which would influence the development of the ukulele: the machete (pronounced ma-shet) and rajo (pronounced ra-zyow). The machete was a small, four stringed instrument and the rajo featured a tuning similar to that of the ukulele. As they developed their new instrument, the makers made a very important decision: They started making the ukulele out of koa wood. Koa wood is native to Hawaii and was a very important royal symbol to the Hawaiians and an integral part of Hawaiian identity. At the time, King Kalakaua was battling the richer foreigners on the island who were keen to overthrow the Hawaiian monarchy. To combat this, Kalakaua was on mission to strengthen Hawaiian identity and culture. He leapt on the ukulele with enthusiasm. With his royal patronage, the ukulele became embedded in Hawaiian culture very quickly. So much so that it's now impossible to think of Hawaiian music without the ukulele. \ The ukulele was originally strummed to provide accompaniment to traditional Hawaiian hula dancing. And its with strumming that you can start learning to play the ukulele.

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The First Ukulele Boom

Not long after the death of King Kalakaua, the Hawaiian monarchy was overthrown and Hawaii became a dependency of the United States. This meant Hawaiian culture slowly spread to the West Coast of the U.S. The ukulele proved particularly popular with college students who needed an instrument that was portable, cheap and guaranteed to annoy the older generation. This lead to the ukulele being associated with the hip, young flappers who used it to play early jazz tunes (which you can learn to play in Ukulele For Dummies). During the 1920s the ukulele became absolutely huge. So much so that sheet music at the time featured ukulele chords next to the piano notation (an indication that it was more popular than the guitar at the time). It became an essential prop for silent film stars such as Buster Keaton, Laurel and Hardy and Clara Bow. But kings of the ukulele at the time were Roy Smeck who recorded music for Thomas Edison and featured in the opening feature of the very first 'talkie' and Ukulele Ike. By this time the ukulele was beginning to be used as a solo instrument rather than just as chord accompaniment. The pioneer of this style of playing was Ernest Kaai who wrote the earliest ukulele instruction books and spread the idea that the ukulele could be used as a solo instrument. Then, with the Great Depression, the ukulele fell out of popularity. It did however, see great popularity in the U.K. in the 40s thanks to George Formby who played the banjolele (a ukulele with the body of a banjo instead of the wooden ukulele body).

The Second Ukulele Boom

After many years in obscurity in the U.S., the ukulele experienced a revival in the 1950s thanks largely to Arthur Godfrey, a huge TV star of the day. He endorsed a new development: the plastic ukulele. This made the ukulele even cheaper and, with Godfrey giving lessons on the TV, even easier to learn. This time the ukulele spread to other genres. A blues musician called Rabbit Muse started using the ukulele to produce music it had never been used to make before. In the 1960s the ukulele slipped out of popularity again. The big player of the era was Tiny Tim. A geeky, falsetto voiced oddity who used the ukulele as part of his jokey act. But behind the scenes were a few very famous closet ukulele players. Paul McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison (you may have heard of them) have all been ukulele players with Harrison being particularly dedicated. He, Brian May (of Queen) and Pete Townshend (The Who) would all release songs with ukulele the 1970s.

The Third Wave

It wasn't until the 1990s that the ukulele became popular again. Hawaiian music became rejuvenated as it took influence from the reggae music of Jamaica the resulting genre was called Jawaiian. The biggest hit came when Israel Kamaka'wiwole covered Over the Rainbow on his ukulele. It became a huge hit and has been used in an endless run of films, TV shows and commercials. The current revival is perhaps the most extensive of all. It's hard to think of a genre that it hasn't touched. The ukulele can be heard everywhere. Hip-hop act Janelle Monae, indie bands like Beirut, pop stars like Train, and Pearl Jam people like Eddie Vedder have all caught the bug. Even the highly traditional Proms summer series of classical music concerts in the London has seen a sell-out performance by the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain!

About the Author

Alistair Wood is a ukulele player, transcriber, arranger and the owner of ukulelehunt.com, one of the most popular ukulele sites on the Internet.

Wiley, the Wiley logo, For Dummies and all related trademarks, logos, and trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates.