Like guitar, basic ukulele skills can be learned fairly easily, and this highly portable, relatively inexpensive instrument was popular with amateur players throughout the 1920s, as evidenced by the introduction of uke chord tablature into the published sheet music for popular songs of the time (a role that was supplanted by the guitar in the early years of rock and roll). The ukulele soon became an icon of the Jazz Age. 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. 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. mainland popular music, where it was taken up by vaudeville performers such as Roy Smeck and Cliff "Ukulele Ike" Edwards. The ensemble also introduced both the lap steel guitar and the ukulele into U.S. The popularity of the ensemble with visitors launched a fad for Hawaiian-themed songs among Tin Pan Alley songwriters. Awai and his Royal Hawaiian Quartet, along with ukulele maker and player Jonah Kumalae. The Hawaiian Pavilion featured a guitar and ukulele ensemble, George E. The ukulele was popularized for a stateside audience during the Panama–Pacific International Exposition, held from spring to autumn of 1915 in San Francisco. Glackens satirizing the contemporary ukulele craze. Today, Japan is considered a second home for Hawaiian musicians and ukulele virtuosos. In 1959, Haida founded the Nihon Ukulele Association. During World War II, authorities banned most music from the West, but fans and players kept it alive in secret, and it resumed popularity after the war. 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 and jazz. The ukulele arrived in Japan in 1929 after Hawaiian-born Yukihiko Haida returned to the country upon his father's death and introduced the instrument. "Ukulele in the Classroom", a revised program created by James Hill and Doane in 2008 is a staple of music education in Canada. At its peak, 50,000 schoolchildren and adults learned the ukulele through the Doane program. Chalmers Doane dramatically changed school music programs across Canada, using the ukulele as an inexpensive and practical teaching instrument to foster musical literacy in the classroom. 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 (see § Types and sizes). 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. 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. In the Hawaiian language the word ukulele roughly translates as "jumping flea", perhaps because of the movement of the player's fingers. A patron of the arts, he incorporated it into performances at royal gatherings. 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. 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." Three immigrants in particular, Madeiran cabinet makers Manuel Nunes, José do Espírito Santo, and Augusto Dias, are generally credited as the first ukulele makers. Ukuleles commonly come in four sizes: soprano, concert, tenor, and baritone.ĭeveloped 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. The tone and volume of the instrument vary with size and construction. The ukulele ( / ˌ juː k ə ˈ l eɪ l i/ YOO-kə- LAY-lee from Hawaiian: ʻukulele, approximately OO-koo- LEH-leh), also called a uke, is a member of the lute family of instruments of Portuguese origin and popularized in Hawaii.
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