The Ukulele In The General Music Classroom Part I – Ukulele 101
By Thomas Amoriello
Flemington Raritan School District
tamoriel@frsd.k12.nj.us
Matthew S. Ablan
Elementary Music Educator Charlotte, NC
tors we constantly look for new ways to reach our students, and the ukulele may offer yet another option. If Orff instruments, Boom- whackers and recorders have dominated the “hands on” portion of your general music curriculum, then consider this an invitation to use the ukulele to enhance your classroom. The “uke” is an instru- ment that is fun, inexpensive, portable and extremely popular. For music educators it has the added bonus of also being easy to manage and teach. Moreover, it can serve as a gateway to other plucked string instruments such as the guitar, electric bass, mandolin, and banjo. Developed in the 1880’s, much of the ukulele’s history is told
A
from the Hawaiian perspective, but in fact it was introduced to the islands by Portuguese immigrants. This tiny folk instrument is origi- nally from the Madeira Islands off the coast of Portugal and first be- came popular in the US after the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition held in San Francisco. It was there that the Hawaiian contingent featured a guitar and ukulele ensemble which caught on with PPIE visitors. It then found its way into popular culture via Tin Pan Alley songwriters of the time who wrote Hawaiian themed music - from there going international, even becoming a hit in such faraway places as Japan! The instrument became so popular in 1920 that Christian Frederick Martin III (from the Martin Guitar Com- pany of Nazareth, Pennsylvania) estimates that the company turned out nearly twice as many ukuleles as guitars during that time period. Helping to fuel the ukulele craze in the 1920s and ‘30s was Roy
Smeck (1900-1994), who was billed as the “Wizard of the Strings” because of his virtuosity on guitar, banjo and especially the ukulele. Roy was a consummate artist who performed at FDR’S inaugural ball in 1932, the coronation review of George VI, and later on the Ed Sullivan and Jack Paar television shows. His numerous record- ings, method books, arrangements and invention of the “Vita-Uke” marketed by the Harmony string instrument company make him an indelible part of ukulele history. From the 1940s-‘60s the uku- lele was a mainstay as millions were sold, but the mass popularity the instrument once enjoyed was on the decline. It wasn’t until the 1990s that the ukulele was again in the spotlight, spurred on by the famous rendition of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Won- derful World” by Isreal “Iz” Kawiwo’ole (1959-1997); the song is #2 of all-time iTunes downloads and found in the soundtrack to countless films. Recently, the ukulele has seen a full-blown rise in popularity witnessed by its use in hit songs like “Hey Soul Sister” by the Cali-
TEMPO
loha! If images of palm trees, grass skirts and white sands come to mind when you hear the high-pitched strum- ming of the ukulele, you are not alone! As music educa-
fornia-based rock band Train or even jumping genres into progres- sive heavy metal in the song “Pretelethal” by Coheed and Cambria. Now more than ever there are a number of ukulele virtuosi, the most well-known probably being Jake Shimabukuro (the Jimi Hendrix of the ukulele), who has made a name for himself through grandiose arrangements of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” and The Beatles’ “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” Additionally, the late John King (1953-2009) became well-known for his scholarly research and cre- ative transcriptions of J.S. Bach and the famous Carol of the Bells for the instrument. Today one must only search “ukulele” on YouTube to produce literally millions of posted videos to confirm that “ukulele- mania” has indeed gripped the world once again! Currently, there are a number of companies who produce qual-
ity student level instruments and beyond. Moreover, depending on the manufacturer, ukuleles can be purchased individually or as bundles.
Various Ukulele Manufacturers
Kamaka Lanikai Mahalo Makala
Ohana Ovation Pono Rogue
There are four types of ukuleles: Soprano, Concert, Tenor and
Baritone (pictured below smallest to largest) of which the most com- monly used are the Soprano and the Concert. Other variants also ex- ist in uke design such as the banjo-uke, resonator-uke, electric uku-
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JANUARY 2014
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