The Ukulele
The 'ukulele has been an icon of Hawaiian music for over 120 years,
but where did it come from? The original 'ukuleles were a combination of different
instruments from the Iberian Peninsula of Europe brought to Hawaii along with plantation workers in the 1880s.
It combined elements from several different instruments; the braguinha, the rajão, and the cavaquinho. The word 'ukulele is
Hawaiian for "jumping flea". The story goes that a Portuguese immigrant jumped off a ship into the water while playing one, and the Hawaiians watching dubbed him and the instrument 'Ukulele!
The Rajão and Braguinha
The D-G-C-E-A tuning of the rajão
is thought to be the root of modern 'ukulele tuning.
Ukulele come in four basic sizes. There is the soprano or standard, the concert, the tenor, and the baritone.
The soprano, concert and tenor ukes share the same traditional tuning of GCEA, but differ in scale
length (measurement from bridge to the nut) and body size. Sopranos are smallest, and generally work well
for small hands and new students. Their small scale and compact body are also popular with people on the go,
and are the uke you'll spot being played on the beach or while the owner walks around town. Concerts are a little larger,
usually with a 2-3 inch increase in scale and a slightly larger body. Like the name suggests,
these are the most popular for live performance, as their comfortable size and good projection work
well in amplified or acoustic settings. The Tenor is also popular for performances, but is used more often
in acoustic sessions and recording. Their larger scale makes them an easier adaption for guitar players,
and their large bodies produce warmer, more complex tones that are desirable for any genre of music.
So if the other sizes are siblings, we'll say the baritone is the hanai (adopted) brother.
It's very similar to the others, but is tuned DGBE like a 4 string guitar.
It has the longest scale of all, and is a little smaller than a 3/4 size guitar.
These instruments are more popular in Hawaiian music from the early part of the last century.
The Koa Ukulele
Solid koa Pomahina (L) and G-string (R) ukuleles.
'Ukulele construction similar to that of a guitar,
but generally uses less bracing because of the small size of the instrument. They can have 4, 6 or 8 strings, but the extra strings are pairs with the same 4 note course.
The most common wood used
in high end 'ukulele building is the Hawaiian koa tree, which is known for it's density, resonance and most
notably it's beautiful golden curls in the grain of the wood. Makers like Kamaka, G-string and Po Mahina use
koa to build instruments that are both sonically and esthetically pleasing. With the depletion of koa forests,
other types of wood becoming popular in 'ukulele construction are mahogany, mango, and cedar, but they don't hold
the same desirability as the traditional koa uke. With a shrinking supply of koa for 'ukulele, prices of koa
instruments in the past decade have risen sharply, and the trend will only continue.
Pictures from:
Rajao:
http://www.culturede.com/image/14022007122337_Rajao-5-Cordas.jpg
Braguinha:
http://www.atlasofpluckedinstruments.com/europe1/Braguinha_2.jpg
