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Ukulele Research Paper

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The Ukulele

The ukulele is a member of the lute family of instruments; meaning that the strings run in a plane parallel to the sound table. Most people believe that the ukulele originated in Hawaii however, they actually had their first start in Portugal in 139 B. C in the Lusitania tribe. By the thirteenth century, four-string instruments were being used in Spain, when six-string instruments were introduced in the 1700s the popularity of chordophones exploded. (A chordophone is a musical instrument that makes sound by way of a vibrating string or strings stretched between two points.) Although we all picture ukuleles as a Hawaiian instrument, it wasn't until 1879 that the first ukulele was brought over from Portugal. One of the Portuguese …show more content…

Residents were fascinated with the instrument, adopted it as their own, renamed it 'Ukulele' which in Hawaiian means “Jumping-flea.” The name reflected how the islanders thought the fingers jumped across the fretboard when it was being played, however, the last Queen of Hawaii, Liliuokalani translated the name Ukulele as “A gift from afar.” Within 10 years of its introduction, the Ukulele became a really popular instrument in Hawaii. The ukulele was introduced to the United States in 1915 at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. This was known as the “Great Ukulele craze of 1915”, soon after, record sales of Hawaiian music grew rapidly, and they started selling ukuleles in music stores all throughout the United States. By the 1920s and 1930s, the Ukulele became a very popular item in North America. The first ukuleles were made by hand, a process that was very hard and time-consuming considering the fact that it takes 10 different steps to …show more content…

Manuel Nunes also suggested a different tuning pattern to make chord formation easier. The body of the ukulele is usually made from wood. The type of wood has a significant impact on the sound, tone, and quality. Mahogany is thought to be the finest wood for making ukuleles. It also has excellent aging properties, sounding better as it gets older. Typically, the same type of wood is used for the entire instrument. The ukulele is a small instrument that looks like a miniature version of a guitar. It consists of a short neck, the main body, four strings and tuning keys, a bridge, a fretboard, and a sound hole. There are a variety of different types of ukuleles including the soprano, concert, tenor, and baritone. The soprano is the smallest (20 inches) and the baritone is the largest (30 inches). The strings are tuned to the notes G-C-E-A on all ukuleles except the Baritone. Tuning for the Baritone is D-G-B-E because it has a deeper sound like that of a guitar. Fun fact about the ukulele: Neil Armstrong loved to play the ukulele in his downtime. After his trip to the moon, he feared that he had contracted a strange bacterium, so he spent weeks in quarantine, often

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