Tag - ukulele

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Ukulele History

Ukulele History

To talk about ukulele is to talk about Hawaii islands, beautiful wahines, dancing hula with feather leis and never ending white sand beaches. However, and unlike what your first impression may be, the ukulele does not technically originate in Hawaii, nor is it part of traditional hawaiian music, which is only based in chants and rudimentary percussions (na mele oli) used as accompaniment to dances (hula). Actually, the origin of the instrument is way closer to us than the Paradise Islands of the Pacific ocean. The ukulele (or uke) is a plucked string instrument, that generally has 4 strings, which can be doubled (hence the six-string and eight-string ukuleles). In order to find out about its birth, we need to trace back to the late 19th century, more specifically to the Portuguese island of Madeira, from where the British boat SS Ravenscrag set sail towards Hawaii, with 423 crew members[…]

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