History and Evolution of the Ukulele
By Bhargav, Devlon, And Abe
The earliest known string instrument was the
harp which can be dated back to the Egyptians.
Harps were generally used to pleasure
Pharaohs and were also used for entertainment.
Some of the earliest known string instruments
were harps, fiddles, viol and the rebec. These
instruments can be dated back 4,000 plus years.
In the 1700’s these instruments were slowly
replaced by newer string instruments like the
violin, cello and the base. Guitars and Ukulele’s
started to appear in the early 1900’s and began
gaining popularity as music continued to evolve.
In the mid to late 1900’s, electric spring
instruments were introduced to produce
synthetic sounds. This changed instruments
because they now needed to be metal or plastic.
Different sound boxes were experimented with
to create different sounds. Different types of
wood were used to project smoother sounds.
The ukulele originated in Portugal at 139 B.C.
The ukulele was brought over by ship from
Portugal, to Hawaii in 1879. The native people
renamed the braghuina, the Portugal name for
the ukulele, ukulele, or “jumping flea” due to the
way the fingers jumped around when it was
played. The ukulele became the most popular
instrument within ten years of its arrival in
Hawaii. The ukulele was introduced to the
United States in 1915. The ukulele had spread
all across the United States in both physical
form, and popularity by the 1920’s and 1930’s.
String instruments have evolved dramatically
over the last hundred years resulting in new
instruments for different cultures and for different
purposes. Most string instruments evolved from
the harp. The harp can be dated back to the
Egyptians. Many instruments have gained or lost
strings depending on the users request. Many
early string instruments had 3 strings. They
began to evolve and more strings were added
creating different instruments like the 6-string
guitar or 5-string ukulele.
Another evolution of string instruments was the
invention of electrical instruments. Electric
guitars were invented in 1931 because
musicians wanted to amplify their sounds so that
a bigger audience could hear them. Many
genres of music branched off of electric
instruments like rock and roll.
The ukulele is similar to the guitar, but it is
smaller, and only has four strings. At first,
ukuleles were made by hand. It was a very
painstaking process. Special wood cutting and
shaping machines were made to help build more
ukuleles. Manuel Nunes, one of the most
important ukulele innovators, modified the
ukulele by replacing the steel strings with gut
strings and by using wood from the koa tree to
make the ukulele lighter and more resonant.
Mario Maccaferri made the first plastic ukulele in
1950. It sold over nine million units by 1958.
There are four different types of ukuleles,
soprano, concert, tenor, and baritone. The
original, and highest, type of ukulele is the
soprano, which is scaled,distance from bridge to
knut, to thirteen inches. It is usually about
twenty-one inches long, and is tuned to GCEA. It
is played by many Hawaiian artists. The concert
ukulele, also tuned to GCEA, has a scale of
fifteen inches. It is usually about twenty-three
inches long and has about fifteen frets. The
tenor ukulele is usually about twenty-six inches
long and is, like the soprano and concert,
usually tuned to GCEA. The scale is seventeen
inches. Some great tenor ukulele players are,
James Hill, David Kamakahi, and Brittni Paiva.
The deepest and biggest ukulele is the baritone
ukulele. The scale is nineteen inches, and is
about thirty inches long. It is tuned to DGBE,
but sometimes GCEA. Many great jazz players
like Byron Yasui, Benny Chong use the baritone
ukulele because the frets are big and they can
play chords all the way up to the neck.