Live ‘Ukulele

Major – A: 6454

Minor – Dm: 7555

Dom – E7: 4445

Open – Bm7: 4220

Other – C+: 9887

Don’t forget to enter our CD giveaway if you haven’t already. We will be giving away a copy of “Ukulele Mike” on St. Patricks day. Just post a comment on the “Ukulele Mike” review page to enter.

~Hippie Guy

Portuguese immigrants began coming to Hawai’i in 1878 to work the sugar cane fields. With them they brought two traditional Portuguese instruments: the braguinha and rajão. Manuel Nunes and some of his buddies (Augusto Dias and Jose do Espirito Santo), immigrants and instrument/cabinet builders, combined elements from the two instruments to create the machete, which would eventually become known as the ‘ukulele.

By 1886 the instrument came to be known as the taro patch fiddle and was popular even with the royalty. King David Kalakaua had accepted and was playing the taro patch fiddle. Isobel Strong writes: “He would occasionally pick up a ‘ukulele or a guitar and sing his favorite Hawaiian song, Sweet Lei-lei-hua.” It is said that the King’s chamberlain Edward Purvis who also played the instrument, had the nickname ‘ukulele (jumping flea) because of his antics. Since he was associated with the instrument, the Hawaiians began using the word ‘ukulele instead of taro patch fiddle.

Another theory about the origin of the name is that when the Portuguese began playing their machetes, their fingers looked like jumping fleas when they played.

Nunes began the first ‘ukulele company with his two sons around 1910. He called it M. Nunes & Sons (clever guy).

The ‘ukulele’s popularity grew. Many people on the mainland had caught the bug, and the demand for ‘ukuleles was greater than Nunes could supply. Cue Samuel Kaiali’ili’i Kamaka. Kamaka began building ‘ukuleles as an apprentice to Nunes, but in 1916 he started his own business. His workshop was in his basement, where he would turn out a dozen ‘ukuleles a week and sell them for $5 a piece. Now run by Sam Jr., Kamaka Hawaii inc. is still building some of the world’s best ‘ukuleles.

Along with Kamaka, other companies like Martin, Gibson, and National also jumped on board the ‘ukulele-making bandwagon in the early part of the century.

In the 40s, 50s, and 60s the demand for ‘ukuleles started to slow down. When the 70s came around, Kamaka was the only company still manufacturing ‘ukuleles.

Now into the 21st century, the ‘ukulele is making a comeback. People are really starting to see the potential that the instrument has, lots of thanks to Jake Shimabukuro’s Gently Weeps Youtube video. Along with the new interest came new manufacturers: Kala, Lanikai, Hilo, G-string, and Koaloha, just to name a few.

Hopefully someday we will walk down the street and there will be somebody playing an ‘ukulele on every corner.

~Hippie Guy

http://www.ukes.com/ukelele_history.html
http://www.ukuleleguild.org/history.php
http://www.geocities.com/~ukulele/kamaka.html
http://www.kamakahawaii.com/ukehistory.html

If I Had Eyes is a great song off of Jack’s new album: Sleep Through the Static. The song itself is very simple: 4 chords. The strum pattern goes something like: X X X X V ^ X X X X X X V ^. Keep in mind that is for a guitar with studio effects to make the two rotations sound full. Something like: V ^X X^^V X^ might work better for jamming with your friends.

If I Had Eyes Song Sheet

Youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVmbGsEtmFI

Sleep Through the Static was recorded using 100% solar energy:

Jack, you are the man.

~Hippie Guy

P.S. Don’t forget to enter our CD giveaway!

Hey Everybody, we are going to be giving away our review copy of Mike Conway’s “Ukulele Mike”. Read our review of the album here.

To enter your name in the drawing, either comment on this post or the “Ukulele Mike” review page. One entry per person. We will accept entries until midnight Hawaii time March 16. We will draw the lucky winner on March 17 - St. Patricks day!

~ Hippie Guy

Major – F: 2010

Minor – Am: 2000

Dom – D7+5: 3223

Open – F#m7: 6420

Other – E+: 1003

Slack-key is yet another genre that the ‘ukulele can successfully cover and is relatively easy to learn, but has many opportunities for advanced players.

Slack-key music is really beautiful. If you’re not familiar with it, I would recommend Legends of slack-key guitar. There is also a short clip of Ledward Kaapana playing slack key ‘ukulele on the ‘Ukulele Fest 2003 Youtube video.

To play slack key ‘ukulele you need to put a low-G string on your ‘ukulele.

Slack key is a style, not a tuning. You do not need to tune your ‘ukulele differently, but some artists do. Uncle Ledward Kaapana sums it up nicely: “When I was young my uncle Fred told me you can play slack key in Standard tuning. He said, ‘It’s easy, jus’ press the right strings’. Jus’ press’ was something he would always tell us when we’d ask him a question. One time when we were playing I asked him, ‘Uncle Fred, what key is this?’ He told me, ‘Boy, no worry what key, jus’ press.’”

The most commonly used slack-key guitar tuning is open G (taro patch). Since the ‘ukulele is tuned five steps higher than the guitar, the easiest open tuning to access is open C. To create an open C tuning you must tune the A-string down to G.

To play slack key you must play a bass line. This is tough to pull off on the ‘ukulele because of the limited amount of strings, but since most songs are in C, hitting the low-G-string or the C-string every few notes will work. This is important - play the bass line!

Harmonics are popular in slack-key music so try to ingrate them into your playing. If you don’t know how to play them, check out our lesson on How to Play Harmonics.

You also need to know turnarounds. Figuring them out by ear is probably the best way to learn them. There are so many turnarounds you can use that almost any combination of notes in a scale could work. I would recommend Exploring the ‘Ukulele by Herb Ohta Jr. and Daniel Ho to get you started. It has turnarounds for all of the major keys.

We just received some more tabs from Ken Middleton. Some of these are updates for the tabs we got awhile ago.

Ken says: “I have made some improvements, made them a bit more playable and added some left-hand fingering. I have also converted the pieces for baritone using the same positions, but written in different keys. I also include 2 new songs: Whiskey Before Breakfast (Intermediate) and Wildwood Flower (Easy). The intention with Wildwood Flower is to just give a hint of what the song could sound like and also to use some simple chords. I may do a more trick version later. As with the others I have included 2 versions: GCEA and DGBE.”

Blackberry Blossom: GCEA - updated

Blackberry Blossom: DGBE

Red Haired Boy: GCEA - updated

Red Haired Boy: DGBE

Simple Gifts: GCEA - updated

Simple Gifts: DGBE

Whiskey Before Breakfast: GCEA

Whiskey Before Breakfast: DGBE

Wildwood Flower: GCEA

Wildwood Flower: DGBE

Thanks again Ken,

~Hippie Guy

Major – G6/9: 4455

Minor – Dm6: 2212

Dom – C7: 3433

Open – Fmaj7: 5500

Other – Cdim: 2323