A Short History of Ukuleles
Posted by Harper James on Thursday, May 24, 2012
Ukuleles are not an instrument native to Hawaii as many people presume. As Portuguese immigrants made their way to Hawaii at the end of the 19th century they taken with them different instruments from their country, such as the machete and the five stringed rajão, both of which date from sometime in the early 1800s.
There are four men well-known during the initial history of the instrument in Hawaii. Joao Fernandes presumably played a small stringed instrument on the docks after arrival on the Ravenscrag in 1879, delighting those that surrounds him. Manuel Nunes, Jose do Espirito Santo, and Augusto Dias also appeared with Fernandes to work the fields gathering sugar cane.
After the other three were finished with their contracts in the sugar cane farm they pursued as ‘taro patch fiddles’ for their families and friends. Nunes then constructed a factory of ukuleles in 1910. When he passed away in the year 1922 his son continued the business until the 1930.
The lanikai ukuleles turned famous in Hawaii and even the royals were amused with it and played with the instrument. Its native flair may have attracted the native settlers in Hawaii and adapted their music to it. The four-stringed instrument was attractive for them specifically the “jumping with the fleas” tuning because the fingers look like fleas when playing this instrument.
Martin, a truly large guitar manufacturer, began making the ukulele in 1907, but no one bought them. After starting production yet again in 1915, the instrument's popularity skyrocketed, and in 1920 they started making them out of koa wood from Hawaii. 1926 was the most popular year for Martin's ukes, when the company created 14,000.
The popularity of the instrument on the mainland seems to have started when it was revealed in San Francisco at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. Many different mainstream guitar makers started creating their own versions of the uke, like Gibson, Dobro, Regal and Harmony, who marketed half a million of them in 1931.
Possibly due to its small size and reasonably cheap selling price, the uke rapidly became the most popular musical instrument in the world. The Prince of Wales played the uke in the middle of the 1920s. Harmony made Prince Edward a unique version with a gold-engraved coat-of-arms on it.
The popularity of the instrument was strike hard by the Great Depression, after which it really died out after World War II with the rise in popularity of the electric guitar. Still popular in Hawaii, the uke was no more selling like it did in the early 1900s.
With the internet ukuleles popularity is now slithering into the picture again since the internet channels more music and culture sharing. There are several musicians who are enthusiastic about ukuleles and made great music with it, they are the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, Mike Okouchi, and Brittni Paiva. Now many musical instrument manufacturers are making ukuleles again. There is indeed future that people will started to buy ukulele and use it.
There are four men well-known during the initial history of the instrument in Hawaii. Joao Fernandes presumably played a small stringed instrument on the docks after arrival on the Ravenscrag in 1879, delighting those that surrounds him. Manuel Nunes, Jose do Espirito Santo, and Augusto Dias also appeared with Fernandes to work the fields gathering sugar cane.
After the other three were finished with their contracts in the sugar cane farm they pursued as ‘taro patch fiddles’ for their families and friends. Nunes then constructed a factory of ukuleles in 1910. When he passed away in the year 1922 his son continued the business until the 1930.
The lanikai ukuleles turned famous in Hawaii and even the royals were amused with it and played with the instrument. Its native flair may have attracted the native settlers in Hawaii and adapted their music to it. The four-stringed instrument was attractive for them specifically the “jumping with the fleas” tuning because the fingers look like fleas when playing this instrument.
Martin, a truly large guitar manufacturer, began making the ukulele in 1907, but no one bought them. After starting production yet again in 1915, the instrument's popularity skyrocketed, and in 1920 they started making them out of koa wood from Hawaii. 1926 was the most popular year for Martin's ukes, when the company created 14,000.
The popularity of the instrument on the mainland seems to have started when it was revealed in San Francisco at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. Many different mainstream guitar makers started creating their own versions of the uke, like Gibson, Dobro, Regal and Harmony, who marketed half a million of them in 1931.
Possibly due to its small size and reasonably cheap selling price, the uke rapidly became the most popular musical instrument in the world. The Prince of Wales played the uke in the middle of the 1920s. Harmony made Prince Edward a unique version with a gold-engraved coat-of-arms on it.
The popularity of the instrument was strike hard by the Great Depression, after which it really died out after World War II with the rise in popularity of the electric guitar. Still popular in Hawaii, the uke was no more selling like it did in the early 1900s.
With the internet ukuleles popularity is now slithering into the picture again since the internet channels more music and culture sharing. There are several musicians who are enthusiastic about ukuleles and made great music with it, they are the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, Mike Okouchi, and Brittni Paiva. Now many musical instrument manufacturers are making ukuleles again. There is indeed future that people will started to buy ukulele and use it.