Ukulele
Encyclopedia
The ukulele, ; from ˈʔukuˈlɛlɛ; it is a subset of the guitar
family of instrument
s, generally with four nylon or gut strings or four courses
of strings.
The ukulele originated in the 19th century as a Hawaiian interpretation of the cavaquinho
or braguinha and the rajao
, small guitar-like instruments taken to Hawaii
by Portuguese immigrants
. It gained great popularity elsewhere in the United States
during the early 20th century, and from there spread internationally.
The tone and volume of the instrument varies with size and construction. Ukuleles commonly come in four sizes: soprano, concert, tenor, and baritone.
from Hawaii
where the name roughly translates as "jumping flea", perhaps due to the action of one's fingers playing the ukulele resembling a "jumping flea". According to Queen Lili'uokalani, the last Hawaiian monarch, the name means “the gift that came here”, from the Hawaiian words uku (gift or reward) and lele (to come).
Developed in the 1880s, the ukulele is based on two small guitar-like instruments of Portuguese origin, the cavaquinho
and the rajao
, introduced to the Hawaiian Islands by Portuguese
immigrants from Madeira and Cape Verde. Three immigrants in particular, Madeira
n cabinet makers Manuel Nunes, José do Espírito Santo, and Augusto Dias, are generally credited as the first ukulele makers. Two weeks after they landed aboard the Ravenscrag in late August 1879, the Hawaiian Gazette reported that "Madeira Islanders recently arrived here, have been delighting the people with nightly street concerts."
One of the most important factors in establishing the ukulele in Hawaiian music and culture was the ardent support and promotion of the instrument by King David Kalakaua. A patron of the arts, he incorporated it into performances at royal gatherings.
The ukulele was popularized for a stateside audience during the Panama Pacific International Exposition
, held from spring to fall of 1915 in San Francisco. The Hawaiian Pavilion featured a guitar and ukulele ensemble, George E. K. Awai and his Royal Hawaiian Quartet, 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
. On April 15, 1923 at the Rivoli Theater in New York City
, Smeck appeared, playing the ukulele, in Stringed Harmony, a short film made in the DeForest Phonofilm
sound-on film process. On August 6, 1926, Smeck appeared playing the ukulele in a short film His Pastimes, made in the Vitaphone
sound-on-disc process, shown with the feature film
Don Juan
starring John Barrymore
.
The ukulele soon became an icon of the Jazz Age
. Highly portable and relatively inexpensive, it 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 in the early years of rock and roll. 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.
via The Arthur Godfrey Show
on television. Singer-musician Tiny Tim
became closely associated with the instrument after playing it on his 1968 hit "Tiptoe Through the Tulips
".
Hawaiian musician Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
helped popularise the instrument, in particular due to his 1993 ukulele medley
of "Over the Rainbow
" and "What a Wonderful World
", used in several films, television programs, and commercials. The song reached #12 on Billboards Hot Digital Tracks
chart the week of January 31, 2004 (for the survey week ending January 18, 2004).
or laminate
woods, in some cases with a soundboard of an acoustically superior wood such as spruce
. Other more expensive ukuleles are made of solid hardwoods such as mahogany
(Swietenia
spp.). Some of the most expensive ukuleles, which may cost thousands of dollars, are made from koa (Acacia koa), a Hawaiian wood.
Typically ukuleles have a figure-eight body shape similar to that of a small acoustic guitar. They are also often seen in non-standard shapes, such as cutaway shape and an oval, usually called a "pineapple" ukulele, invented by the Kamaka Ukulele
company, or a boat-paddle shape, and occasionally a square shape, often made out of an old wooden cigar box.
These instruments may have just four strings; or some strings may be paired in courses
, giving the instrument a total of six or eight strings.
Instruments with 6 or 8 strings in 4 courses are usually called taropatch ukuleles, and used to be common in a concert size, but now the tenor size is more common for 8-string taropatch ukuleles. The 6 string, 4 course version, has 2 single and 2 double courses, and is sometimes called a Lili'u, although this name is also applied to the 8-string version, nowadays.
The soprano, often called "standard" in Hawaii, is the smallest, and the original size ukulele. The concert size was developed in the 1920s as an enhanced soprano, slightly larger and louder with a deeper tone. Shortly thereafter, the tenor was created, having more volume and deeper bass tone. The largest common size is the baritone, created in the 1940s.
. Some prefer "Low G" tuning on the tenor, with the G in sequence an octave lower. The baritone is usually tuned to D3 G3 B3 E4 (low to high), which is the same as the highest four strings of the standard 6-string guitar.
Another common tuning for concerts is D-tuning, D4 F#4 B4, one step higher than the G4 C4 E4 A4 tuning. D tuning is said by some to bring out a sweeter tone in some ukuleles, generally smaller ones. This tuning was commonly used during the Hawaiian music boom of the early 20th century, and is often seen in sheet music from this period. D tuning with a low 4th, A3 D4 F#4 A4 is sometimes called "Canadian tuning" after its use in the Canadian school system, mostly on concert or tenor ukuleles.
Hawaiian ukuleles may also be tuned to open tunings, similar to the Hawaiian slack key style.
(also called guitarlele), banjo ukulele (also called banjulele), harp ukulele
, and lap steel ukulele
. There is an electrically amplified version, the electric ukulele
. The resonator ukulele
is louder and of different tone quality from traditional wooden ukuleles, producing sound by one or more spun aluminum cones (resonators) instead of the wooden soundboard. The Tahitian ukulele
, another variant, is usually carved from a single piece of wood and does not have a hollow soundbox.
Close cousins of the ukulele include the Portuguese forerunners, the cavaquinho
(also commonly known as machete or braguinha) and the slightly larger rajao
. Other stringed variants include the Puerto Rican bordonua
, the Venezuelan cuatro
, the Colombia
n tiple
, the timple
of the Canary Islands
, the Spanish
vihuela
, and the Andean
charango
traditionally made of an armadillo
shell. In Indonesia, a similar Portuguese-inspired instrument is the kroncong
.
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
family of instrument
Musical instrument
A musical instrument is a device created or adapted for the purpose of making musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates back to the...
s, generally with four nylon or gut strings or four courses
Course (music)
A course is a pair or more of adjacent strings tuned to unison or an octave and usually played together as if a single string. It may also refer to a single string normally played on its own on an instrument with other multi-string courses, for example the bass string on a nine string baroque...
of strings.
The ukulele originated in the 19th century as a Hawaiian interpretation of the cavaquinho
Cavaquinho
The cavaquinho is a small string instrument of the European guitar family with four wire or gut strings. It is also called machimbo, machim, machete , manchete or marchete, braguinha or braguinho, or cavaco.The most common tuning is D-G-B-D ; other tunings include D-A-B-E...
or braguinha and the rajao
Rajao
The Rajao is a stringed instrument from Madeira, Portugal.It has 5 or 6 strings in 5 courses and is tuned D4, G4, C4, E4, A4. The strings are made of steel....
, small guitar-like instruments taken to Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
by Portuguese immigrants
Portuguese American
Portuguese Americans are citizens of the United States whose ancestry originates in the southwest European nation of Portugal, including the offshore island groups of the Azores and Madeira....
. It gained great popularity elsewhere in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
during the early 20th century, and from there spread internationally.
The tone and volume of the instrument varies with size and construction. Ukuleles commonly come in four sizes: soprano, concert, tenor, and baritone.
Hawaii
Ukuleles are commonly associated with musicMusic
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
from Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
where the name roughly translates as "jumping flea", perhaps due to the action of one's fingers playing the ukulele resembling a "jumping flea". According to Queen Lili'uokalani, the last Hawaiian monarch, the name means “the gift that came here”, from the Hawaiian words uku (gift or reward) and lele (to come).
Developed in the 1880s, the ukulele is based on two small guitar-like instruments of Portuguese origin, the cavaquinho
Cavaquinho
The cavaquinho is a small string instrument of the European guitar family with four wire or gut strings. It is also called machimbo, machim, machete , manchete or marchete, braguinha or braguinho, or cavaco.The most common tuning is D-G-B-D ; other tunings include D-A-B-E...
and the rajao
Rajao
The Rajao is a stringed instrument from Madeira, Portugal.It has 5 or 6 strings in 5 courses and is tuned D4, G4, C4, E4, A4. The strings are made of steel....
, introduced to the Hawaiian Islands by Portuguese
Portuguese people
The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....
immigrants from Madeira and Cape Verde. Three immigrants in particular, Madeira
Madeira
Madeira is a Portuguese archipelago that lies between and , just under 400 km north of Tenerife, Canary Islands, in the north Atlantic Ocean and an outermost region of the European Union...
n cabinet makers Manuel Nunes, José do Espírito Santo, and Augusto Dias, are generally credited as the first ukulele makers. Two weeks after they landed aboard the Ravenscrag in late August 1879, the Hawaiian Gazette reported that "Madeira Islanders recently arrived here, have been delighting the people with nightly street concerts."
One of the most important factors in establishing the ukulele in Hawaiian music and culture was the ardent support and promotion of the instrument by King David Kalakaua. A patron of the arts, he incorporated it into performances at royal gatherings.
Pre–World War II
Panama-Pacific International Exposition (1915)
The Panama-Pacific International Exposition was a world's fair held in San Francisco, California between February 20 and December 4 in 1915. Its ostensible purpose was to celebrate the completion of the Panama Canal, but it was widely seen in the city as an opportunity to showcase its recovery...
, held from spring to fall of 1915 in San Francisco. The Hawaiian Pavilion featured a guitar and ukulele ensemble, George E. K. Awai and his Royal Hawaiian Quartet, along with ukulele maker and player Jonah Kumalae
Jonah Kumalae
Jonah Kumalae was a Hawaiian politician, businessman, publisher and ukulele manufacturer and musician. Though most noted for manufacturing and marketing his 'Gold Award' Kumalae Ukuleles from 1911 to 1940, he may be best remembered by local Hawaiians for his purchase and relocation of the...
. The popularity of the ensemble with visitors launched a fad for Hawaiian-themed songs among Tin Pan Alley
Tin Pan Alley
Tin Pan Alley is the name given to the collection of New York City music publishers and songwriters who dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century...
songwriters. The ensemble also introduced both the lap steel guitar
Lap steel guitar
The lap steel guitar is a type of steel guitar, an instrument derived from and similar to the guitar. The player changes pitch by pressing a metal or glass bar against the strings instead of by pressing strings against the fingerboard....
and the ukulele into U.S. mainland popular music, where it was taken up by vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
performers such as Roy Smeck
Roy Smeck
Roy Smeck was an American musician. His skill on the banjo, guitar, steel guitar, and especially the ukulele earned him the nickname "Wizard of the Strings."-Background:...
and Cliff "Ukulele Ike" Edwards
Cliff Edwards
Cliff Edwards , also known as "Ukelele Ike", was an American singer and voice actor who enjoyed considerable popularity in the 1920s and early 1930s, specializing in jazzy renditions of pop standards and novelty tunes. He had a number-one hit with "Singin' in the Rain" in 1929...
. On April 15, 1923 at the Rivoli Theater in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, Smeck appeared, playing the ukulele, in Stringed Harmony, a short film made in the DeForest Phonofilm
Phonofilm
In 1919, Lee De Forest, inventor of the audion tube, filed his first patent on a sound-on-film process, DeForest Phonofilm, which recorded sound directly onto film as parallel lines. These parallel lines photographically recorded electrical waveforms from a microphone, which were translated back...
sound-on film process. On August 6, 1926, Smeck appeared playing the ukulele in a short film His Pastimes, made in the Vitaphone
Vitaphone
Vitaphone was a sound film process used on feature films and nearly 1,000 short subjects produced by Warner Bros. and its sister studio First National from 1926 to 1930. Vitaphone was the last, but most successful, of the sound-on-disc processes...
sound-on-disc process, shown with the feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
Don Juan
Don Juan (1926 film)
Don Juan is a Warner Brothers film, directed by Alan Crosland. It was the first feature-length film with synchronized Vitaphone sound effects and musical soundtrack, though it has no spoken dialogue...
starring John Barrymore
John Barrymore
John Sidney Blyth , better known as John Barrymore, was an acclaimed American actor. He first gained fame as a handsome stage actor in light comedy, then high drama and culminating in groundbreaking portrayals in Shakespearean plays Hamlet and Richard III...
.
Jazz Age
The Jazz Age was a movement that took place during the 1920s or the Roaring Twenties from which jazz music and dance emerged. The movement came about with the introduction of mainstream radio and the end of the war. This era ended in the 1930s with the beginning of The Great Depression but has...
. Highly portable and relatively inexpensive, it also proved popular with amateur players throughout the 1920s, as is evidenced by the introduction of uke chord tablature
Tablature
Tablature is a form of musical notation indicating instrument fingering rather than musical pitches....
into the published sheet music
Sheet music
Sheet music is a hand-written or printed form of music notation that uses modern musical symbols; like its analogs—books, pamphlets, etc.—the medium of sheet music typically is paper , although the access to musical notation in recent years includes also presentation on computer screens...
for popular songs of the time, a role that would eventually be supplanted by the guitar in the early years of rock and roll. A number of mainland-based instrument manufacturers, among them Regal
Regal Musical Instrument Company
The Regal Musical Instrument Company was established in 1908 in Chicago. By the 1930s, they were one of the largest manufacturers of musical instruments in the world.Regal specialised in:...
, Harmony
Harmony Company
thumb|right|250px|A collection of Harmony guitars:SS Stewart gold acoustic, H73 [[Roy Smeck]], H37 Hollywood, Silvertone 1446, H44 StratotoneThe Harmony Company was an American company that, in its heyday, was the largest musical instrument manufacturer in the USA...
, and Martin, added ukulele, banjolele
Banjolele
The banjolele is a four-stringed musical instrument with a small banjo-type body and a fretted ukulele neck. "Banjolele," sometimes also spelled "banjelele" or "banjulele" is a generic nickname given to the instrument, which was derived from the "banjulele-banjo", introduced by Alvin D...
, and tiple
Tiple
Tiple is the Spanish word for treble or soprano, is often applied to specific instruments, generally to refer to a small chordophone of the guitar family. A tiple player is called a tiplista.-Colombian tiple:...
lines to their production to take advantage of the demand.
Post–World War II
From the late 1940s to the late 1960s, plastics manufacturer Mario Maccaferri turned out about 9 million inexpensive ukuleles. The ukulele continued to be popular, appearing on many jazz songs throughout the 50s, 60s, and 70s. Much of the instrument's popularity was cultivatedvia The Arthur Godfrey Show
Arthur Godfrey
Arthur Morton Godfrey was an American radio and television broadcaster and entertainer who was sometimes introduced by his nickname, The Old Redhead...
on television. Singer-musician Tiny Tim
Tiny Tim (musician)
Tiny Tim , , born in Manhattan, was an American singer and ukulele player. He was most famous for his rendition of "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" sung in a distinctive high falsetto/vibrato voice.-Rise to fame:Born to Lebanese parents in 1932, Khaury displayed musical talent at a very young age...
became closely associated with the instrument after playing it on his 1968 hit "Tiptoe Through the Tulips
Tiptoe Through the Tulips
"Tiptoe Through the Tulips" is a popular song originally published in 1929. The song was written by Al Dubin and Joe Burke .‘Crooning Troubadour’ Nick Lucas’ recording of "Tip-Toe Through The Tulips" hit the top of the charts in May 1929. The song he introduced in the 1929 musical talkie Gold...
".
Post-1990 Revival
After the 1960s, the ukulele declined in popularity until the late 1990s, when interest in the instrument reappeared. During the 1990s, new manufacturers began producing ukuleles and a new generation of musicians took up the instrument.Hawaiian musician Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
Israel "IZ" Kaʻanoʻi Kamakawiwoʻole was a Hawaiian musician.He became famous outside Hawaii when his album Facing Future was released in 1993...
helped popularise the instrument, in particular due to his 1993 ukulele medley
Medley (music)
In music, a medley is a piece composed from parts of existing pieces, usually three, played one after another, sometimes overlapping. They are common in popular music, and most medleys are songs rather than instrumental. A medley which is a remixed series is called a megamix, often done with tracks...
of "Over the Rainbow
Over the Rainbow
"Over the Rainbow" is a classic Academy Award-winning ballad song with music by Harold Arlen and lyrics by E.Y. Harburg. It was written for the movie The Wizard of Oz, and was sung by Judy Garland in the movie...
" and "What a Wonderful World
What a Wonderful World
"What a Wonderful World" is a song written by Bob Thiele and George David Weiss. It was first recorded by Louis Armstrong and released as a single in 1968. Thiele and Weiss were both prominent in the music world . Armstrong's recording was inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999...
", used in several films, television programs, and commercials. The song reached #12 on Billboards Hot Digital Tracks
Hot Digital Tracks
The Hot Digital Tracks chart is a song popularity chart that ranks the best selling digital tracks in the United States according to Billboard magazine...
chart the week of January 31, 2004 (for the survey week ending January 18, 2004).
World
- Japan: The ukulele came to JapanJapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
in 1929 after Hawaiian-born Yukihiko Haida returned to the country upon his father's death and introduced the instrument. Haida and his brother Katsuhiko formed the Moana Glee Club, enjoying rapid success in an environment of growing enthusiasm for Western popular music, particularly Hawaiian music and jazz. During World War IIWorld War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, authorities banned most Western music, but fans and players kept it alive in secret, and it resumed popularity after the war. In 1959, Haida founded the Nihon Ukulele AssociationNihon Ukulele AssociationThe Nihon Ukulele Association is a Japanese association for ukulele players. It was founded in 1959 by Yukihiko Haida, a Hawaiian-born nisei who moved to Japan at a young age....
. Today, Japan is considered a second home for Hawaiian musicians and ukulele virtuosos.
- Canada: In the 1960s, educator J. Chalmers Doane dramatically changed school music programmes across CanadaCanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, using the ukulele as an inexpensive and practical teaching instrument to foster musical literacyMusic educationMusic education is a field of study associated with the teaching and learning of music. It touches on all domains of learning, including the psychomotor domain , the cognitive domain , and, in particular and significant ways,the affective domain, including music appreciation and sensitivity...
in the classroom. There were 50,000 schoolchildren and adults learning ukulele through the Doane program at its peak.
- UK: The singer and comedian George Formby was perhaps the most famous ukulele player in the UK, though he often played a banjoleleBanjoleleThe banjolele is a four-stringed musical instrument with a small banjo-type body and a fretted ukulele neck. "Banjolele," sometimes also spelled "banjelele" or "banjulele" is a generic nickname given to the instrument, which was derived from the "banjulele-banjo", introduced by Alvin D...
, a hybrid instrument consisting of an extended ukulele neck with a banjo resonator body. There has been a recent upsurge in demand for the instrument, due to its relative simplicity and portability.
Types and tunings
Construction
Ukuleles are generally made of wood, although variants have been made composed partially or entirely of plastic. Cheaper ukuleles are generally made from plyPly
Ply, Pli, Plies or Plying may refer to:* Ply , a turn in game play* PLY or Polygon File Format* Plying, a spinning technique to make yarn* Plies , American rapper* Pli, an academic journal...
or laminate
Laminate
A laminate is a material that can be constructed by uniting two or more layers of material together. The process of creating a laminate is lamination, which in common parlance refers to the placing of something between layers of plastic and gluing them with heat and/or pressure, usually with an...
woods, in some cases with a soundboard of an acoustically superior wood such as spruce
Spruce
A spruce is a tree of the genus Picea , a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the Family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal regions of the earth. Spruces are large trees, from tall when mature, and can be distinguished by their whorled branches and conical...
. Other more expensive ukuleles are made of solid hardwoods such as mahogany
Mahogany
The name mahogany is used when referring to numerous varieties of dark-colored hardwood. It is a native American word originally used for the wood of the species Swietenia mahagoni, known as West Indian or Cuban mahogany....
(Swietenia
Swietenia
Swietenia is a genus of trees in the chinaberry family, Meliaceae. It occurs natively in the Neotropics, from southern Florida, the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America south to Bolivia...
spp.). Some of the most expensive ukuleles, which may cost thousands of dollars, are made from koa (Acacia koa), a Hawaiian wood.
Typically ukuleles have a figure-eight body shape similar to that of a small acoustic guitar. They are also often seen in non-standard shapes, such as cutaway shape and an oval, usually called a "pineapple" ukulele, invented by the Kamaka Ukulele
Kamaka Ukulele
Kamaka Hawaii, Incorporated, also known as Kamaka Ukulele or just Kamaka is a family-owned Hawaii-based maker of ukuleles. It is often credited with producing some of the world's finest ukuleles, and created the first pineapple ukulele.-History:...
company, or a boat-paddle shape, and occasionally a square shape, often made out of an old wooden cigar box.
These instruments may have just four strings; or some strings may be paired in courses
Course (music)
A course is a pair or more of adjacent strings tuned to unison or an octave and usually played together as if a single string. It may also refer to a single string normally played on its own on an instrument with other multi-string courses, for example the bass string on a nine string baroque...
, giving the instrument a total of six or eight strings.
Instruments with 6 or 8 strings in 4 courses are usually called taropatch ukuleles, and used to be common in a concert size, but now the tenor size is more common for 8-string taropatch ukuleles. The 6 string, 4 course version, has 2 single and 2 double courses, and is sometimes called a Lili'u, although this name is also applied to the 8-string version, nowadays.
Sizes
Four sizes of ukuleles are common: soprano, concert, tenor, and baritone. There are also less common sopranino, with a nut to bridge of under 13 inches, which is seeing more popularity and bass ukuleles at the extreme ends of the size spectrum.The soprano, often called "standard" in Hawaii, is the smallest, and the original size ukulele. The concert size was developed in the 1920s as an enhanced soprano, slightly larger and louder with a deeper tone. Shortly thereafter, the tenor was created, having more volume and deeper bass tone. The largest common size is the baritone, created in the 1940s.
| Type | Scale length Scale length *Length scale, - a significant concept in physics used to define the order of magnitude of a system*Scale height, - a specific parameter in physics denoting the distance over which a quantity decreases by a factor of e... | Total length | Tuning |
|---|---|---|---|
| soprano or standard | 13" (33 cm) | 21" (53 cm) | A4-D4-F#4-B4 or G4-C4-E4-A4 |
| concert | 15" (38 cm) | 23" (58 cm) | G4-C4-E4-A4, or G3-C4-E4-A4 |
| tenor | 17" (43 cm) | 26" (66 cm) | G3-C4-E4-A4, G4-C4-E4-A4 , or D4-G3-B3-E4 |
| baritone | 19" (48 cm) | 30" (76 cm) | D3-G3-B3-E4 |
Tuning
Traditional standard tuning for the soprano ukulele was D6-tuning: A4 D4 F#4 B4, but today many people favor the C6 tuning instead: G4 C4 E4 A4. The standard tuning for concert, and tenor ukuleles is C-tuning, G4 C4 E4 A4. The G string is tuned an octave higher than might be expected. This is known as reentrant tuningReentrant tuning
A reentrant tuning is a tuning of a stringed instrument where the strings are not ordered from the lowest pitch to the highest pitch ....
. Some prefer "Low G" tuning on the tenor, with the G in sequence an octave lower. The baritone is usually tuned to D3 G3 B3 E4 (low to high), which is the same as the highest four strings of the standard 6-string guitar.
Another common tuning for concerts is D-tuning, D4 F#4 B4, one step higher than the G4 C4 E4 A4 tuning. D tuning is said by some to bring out a sweeter tone in some ukuleles, generally smaller ones. This tuning was commonly used during the Hawaiian music boom of the early 20th century, and is often seen in sheet music from this period. D tuning with a low 4th, A3 D4 F#4 A4 is sometimes called "Canadian tuning" after its use in the Canadian school system, mostly on concert or tenor ukuleles.
Hawaiian ukuleles may also be tuned to open tunings, similar to the Hawaiian slack key style.
Related instruments
Ukulele varieties include hybrid instruments such as the guitaleleGuitalele
A guitalele is a guitar-ukulele hybrid, that is, "a 1/4 size" guitar, a cross between a classical guitar and a tenor ukulele. The guitalele combines the portability of a ukulele, due to its small size, with the six single strings and resultant chord possibilities of a classical guitar...
(also called guitarlele), banjo ukulele (also called banjulele), harp ukulele
Harp ukulele
The term harp ukulele is used to describe two different variants of the ukulele:*an ukulele with unfretted strings extending from the body, essentially forming a miniature harp guitar...
, and lap steel ukulele
Lap steel ukulele
The lap steel ukulele is a type of and method of playing the ukuleleThere are three main types of lap steel ukulele:* Lap slide ukuleles, simply a ukulele with high action played with a slide* Resonator ukuleles, particularly those with square necks....
. There is an electrically amplified version, the electric ukulele
Electric ukulele
An electric ukulele is a ukulele which is electrically amplified. If not plugged in, it can still play acoustically.-Electric vs. Electro-Acoustic:...
. The resonator ukulele
Resonator ukulele
A resonator ukulele or "resophonic ukulele" is a ukulele whose sound is produced by one or more spun aluminum cones instead of the wooden soundboard...
is louder and of different tone quality from traditional wooden ukuleles, producing sound by one or more spun aluminum cones (resonators) instead of the wooden soundboard. The Tahitian ukulele
Tahitian ukulele
The Tahitian ukulele is a short-necked fretted lute with eight nylon strings in four doubled courses, native to Tahiti and played in other regions of Polynesia...
, another variant, is usually carved from a single piece of wood and does not have a hollow soundbox.
Close cousins of the ukulele include the Portuguese forerunners, the cavaquinho
Cavaquinho
The cavaquinho is a small string instrument of the European guitar family with four wire or gut strings. It is also called machimbo, machim, machete , manchete or marchete, braguinha or braguinho, or cavaco.The most common tuning is D-G-B-D ; other tunings include D-A-B-E...
(also commonly known as machete or braguinha) and the slightly larger rajao
Rajao
The Rajao is a stringed instrument from Madeira, Portugal.It has 5 or 6 strings in 5 courses and is tuned D4, G4, C4, E4, A4. The strings are made of steel....
. Other stringed variants include the Puerto Rican bordonua
Bordonua
The Bordonua is a large, deep body bass guitar which is native to Puerto Rico. They are made using several different shapes and sizes....
, the Venezuelan cuatro
Cuatro (instrument)
The cuatro is any of several Latin American instruments of the guitar or lute family. The cuatro is smaller than a guitar. Cuatro means four in Spanish, although current instruments may have more than four strings....
, the Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
n tiple
Tiple
Tiple is the Spanish word for treble or soprano, is often applied to specific instruments, generally to refer to a small chordophone of the guitar family. A tiple player is called a tiplista.-Colombian tiple:...
, the timple
Timple
The timple is a traditional Spanish plucked string instrument of the Canary Islands.In La Palma island and in the north of the island of Tenerife, many timple players omit the fifth string, in order to play the timple as a four-string ukulele, though this is considered less traditional by players...
of the Canary Islands
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...
, the Spanish
Spanish people
The Spanish are citizens of the Kingdom of Spain. Within Spain, there are also a number of vigorous nationalisms and regionalisms, reflecting the country's complex history....
vihuela
Vihuela
Vihuela is a name given to two different guitar-like string instruments: one from 15th and 16th century Spain, usually with 12 paired strings, and the other, the Mexican vihuela, from 19th century Mexico with five strings and typically played in Mariachi bands.-History:The vihuela, as it was known...
, and the Andean
Andes
The Andes is the world's longest continental mountain range. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South America. This range is about long, about to wide , and of an average height of about .Along its length, the Andes is split into several ranges, which are separated...
charango
Charango
The charango is a small Andean stringed instrument of the lute family, 66 cm long, traditionally made with the shell of the back of an armadillo. Primarily played in traditional Andean music, and is sometimes used by other Latin American musicians. Many contemporary charangos are now made with...
traditionally made of an armadillo
Armadillo
Armadillos are New World placental mammals, known for having a leathery armor shell. Dasypodidae is the only surviving family in the order Cingulata, part of the superorder Xenarthra along with the anteaters and sloths. The word armadillo is Spanish for "little armored one"...
shell. In Indonesia, a similar Portuguese-inspired instrument is the kroncong
Kroncong
Kroncong is the name of a ukulele-type instrument and an Indonesian musical style that typically makes use of the kroncong , the band or combo or ensemble consist of a flute, a violin, a melody guitar, a cello in pizzicato style, string bass also in...
.
Audio samples
External links
- Beginner Ukulele Guide – information for beginning ukulele players
- Live Ukulele – tabs, lessons, and reviews
- Tiki King's Ukulele Brand name database – information on over 500 ukulele makers past and present