Ukulele Essay

1250 Words5 Pages
Ke Kala Ma'alahi (Music Report in Hawaiian) In my Music in Humanities class, we were assigned to write a paper on something that has to do with music. To me, it was obvious; I had to write it on my favorite instrument, the ukulele. Most people don’t know much about ukuleles, mainly just that they came from Hawaii and look like a small guitar. But, I learned there is a lot more to them than that. Ukulele’s are actually very interesting and have a lot of facts about them that the average person doesn’t know. For example: ukulele in Hawaiian means “jumping flea” because of the way a person’s fingers “jump” across the ukulele while playing. The main topics that caught my attention were the history, what the instrument is made out of, how it’s played, and my personal connection to the instrument. Even though ukuleles aren’t very popular, they are extremely fun and exciting instruments. The history of the ukulele dates back to the early 19th century taking place in the Hawaiian Islands. The Portuguese immigrants brought instruments known as the cavaquinho and the rajao to the Hawaiian Islands. Those instruments resemble the guitar but, much like the ukulele, are a lot smaller. The three immigrants that were credited with the actual invention of the Hawaiian Instrument are Madeiran cabinet makers Manuel Nunes, Jose do Espirito Santo, and Augusto Dias. It was sort of a combination of the two instruments. The instrument became popular because the king of Hawaii of that time, King David Kalakaua, highly supported arts, music, and developing Hawaiian culture. After it had been established, it became iconic in music during the Jazz Age (1920s). Because of its size and price, it was portable and many people could buy them. In the mid 1920s, popular music companies and manufacturers added ukuleles to their production because it was in such high demand. The
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