The ukulele is commonly associated with music from Hawaii, where its name
roughly translates as "jumping flea", perhaps because of the movement of
the player's fingers.
Legend attributes it to the nickname of Englishman Edward William Purvis,
one of King Kalākaua's officers, because of his small size, fidgety
manner, and playing expertise. One of the earliest appearances of the word
ukulele in print (in the sense of a stringed instrument) is in the
Metropolitan Museum of Art's Catalogue of the Crosby Brown Collection of
Musical Instruments of All Nations published in 1907. The catalog
describes two ukuleles from Hawaii - one that is similar in size to a
modern soprano ukulele, and one that is similar to a tenor.
Developed in the 1880s, the ukulele is based on several small, guitar-like
instruments of Portuguese origin, the machete, cavaquinho, timple, and
rajão, introduced to the Hawaiian Islands by Portuguese immigrants from
Madeira, the Azores and Cape Verde. Three immigrants in particular,
Madeiran cabinet makers Manuel Nunes, José do Espírito Santo, and Augusto
Dias, are generally credited as the first ukulele makers.
Two weeks after they disembarked from the SS 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 Kalākaua. A patron of the arts, he incorporated it into
performances at royal gatherings.
It is important as a budding musician to learn the easy things first. Not
only will you make noticeable progress faster but you’ll enjoy the journey
too. We would never recommend a beginner to try to play a song with 12
different chords, difficult chord progressions or ask them to fingerpick,
or even to play an advanced strumming pattern. It is setting them up for
failure.
We also think that playing ukulele songs that are easy to play is
extremely important when learning the ukulele. If you learn to play a
beginner ukulele song by Taylor Swift, Bruno Mars, Ed Sheeran, Vance Joy,
Leonard Cohen, or Jason Mraz that your friends can sing along with it will
motivate you to learn other chords, songs and strumming patterns that
otherwise might just frustrate you.
