The most famous Hawaiian instrument is the 'ukulele, a small member of the guitar family. The 'ukulele's iconic contours adorn aloha shirts, souvenirs, and the sides of buses. Indeed, the 'ukulele's sound is as omnipresent as its graphic: the distinctively mellow tones reverberate in advertisements, schools, malls and beaches.
The ʻukulele shares European ancestors and technique with the guitar. Whilst the modern guitar sports six strings, ʻukuleles typically have four strings and are tuned a fourth higher than the guitar, allowing a smaller body size with enhanced portability. The sound of an 'ukulele:
The Sound of Silence | Paul Simon | Kala Doghair 'ukulele | Frary Ukulele Band
Hawaiian Islands | Hawaii is the northernmost island group in Polynesia and the only U.S state located outside North America | Wikimedia Commons
Ancient Lineage
During the Renaissance, c.1450-1600, the European merchant class was on the rise and eager to consume and make music. Small guitars and lutes were all the rage for home use due to portability and ease of playing.
What does the guitar have to do with the ʻukulele? Instruments develop for centuries and are shared across vast geographical regions. The genesis of the guitar family and, ultimately, the ʻukulele, is European. Thus, ʻukulele linage reaches across five centuries, interwoven with the guitar family, colonization and the rise and fall of empires.
Renaissance Guitar
The Renaissance guitar was fitted with four courses of strings and was similar in size to a tenor ʻukulele. Sixteenth century Spanish guitar methods by Narváez (1538), Bermudo (1555) and Mudarra (1546) indicate the Renaissance guitar was tuned G C E A, same tuning as modern ʻukuleles. Some instruments used a low G on the fourth course (string nearest player's face), called a bourdon, while others tuned the fourth course an octave higher, called reentrant tuning.
Five centuries later, ʻukuleles use the same tuning variations as the Renaissance guitar: soprano and concert ʻukuleles favor the high G or reentrant tuning while larger tenor ʻukuleles often employ a low G or bourdon. ʻUkuleles are closer to Renaissance guitars in sound, tuning and construction than modern guitars.
Adrian Le Roy, "Pimontoyse" | The four-course Renaissance guitar is tuned and sized like a tenor ʻukulele. "Pimontoyse," was composed for home use.
Toy of the Emerging Middle Class
The popularity of the Renaissance guitar is documented in the many instruction books and scores published for it. Here’s an illustration from Morlaye's guitar method book depicting a four-course Renaissance guitar and tablature book:
G. Morlaye, Le Premier Livre (1552) | Renaissance guitar on title page
Both the guitar and music books were symbols of wealth and class during the sixteenth century. Ownership meant you were rich enough to own music books and guitars, had leisure time and were musically educated.
Renaissance Guitar Tablature | Alonso Mudarra, 1508-1580 | Pavana from Tres libros de musica en cifras para vihuela (Seville, 1546). The four lines represent strings whilst numbers are frets.
Guitar music increased in sophistication and strings were added. By the Baroque, the guitar increased in size and sported five courses of strings. A sixth course was added in the late eighteenth century and the modern guitar was born. While the full-sized guitar has garnered the most attention, the original small four-course guitar soldiered on as an inexpensive and portable instrument for Spanish and Portuguese musicians. We'll take a peek at 'ukulele forerunners.
Spanish Timple
The timple is a small member of the guitar family from the Canary Islands (Spanish islands near Africa). Until the end of the nineteenth century, it had four strings tuned G C E A—same as the 'ukulele. By the early twentieth century a fifth string was added, a high D, resulting in the current G C E A D tuning.
Timple | Germán López (timple) and Antonio Toledo (guitar) play Canela y Limón.
ʻUkulele in Hawaii
The Spanish and Portuguese colonial empires were vast, and the diminutive guitar was cast to the four corners of the earth. As centuries passed and colonial empires crumbed, these wee guitars evolved into different but similar instruments: timple, rajão, cavaquinho, cavaco, braguinha, machéte, cuatro, requinto and, finally, the Hawaiian ʻukulele.
ʻUkulele(c.1880) | Late nineteenth century Hawaiian soprano ʻukulele or Portuguese braguinha. | Metropolitan Museum of Art
Sanoe | A love song by Romantic composer and last monarch of Hawaii, Queen Lili'uokalani (1838-1917), played on 'ukuleles by the Frary Ukulele Band.
Portuguese Origins
Prototypes of the ʻukulele were introduced to Hawaii in 1879 by settlers from Madeira. Madeira, an island in the Atlantic and region of Portugal, is three hundred fifty miles from North Africa. Along with hopes and dreams, these immigrants brought to Hawaii a small four-string guitar called the braguinha, aka the machéte (ma-CHET) or machéte de Braga, named after Braganza in northern Portugal where the instrument originated. The braguinha and close relatives were popular in Madeira for centuries and are considered national instruments.
Madeira and Portugal | Madeira (circled at bottom) is an island settled by Portugal in the 1400s and home of the ʻukulele's ancestors | Wikimedia Commons
Portuguese Woodworkers
Among these Portuguese immigrants to Hawaii were three cabinet makers, Manuel Nunes, Augusto Dias, and Jose do Espirito Santo. They built the braguinha and are credited with being Hawaii's first ʻukulele makers. They adapted to native woods and other materials available in Hawaii. European tone-woods such as spruce and maple were hard to source in Hawaii.
Here's a late nineteenth century Hawaiian piece played on the 'ukulele:
Hene | Ian O'Sullivan plays a 1886 Jose do Espirito Santo Soprano 'ukulele.
'Ukulele's Ancestors and Tuning
In the ensuing decades, variants of small four- and five-course guitar-like instruments, e.g., machéte de braga, machéte de rajão and cavaquinho, were brought to Hawaii by Portuguese immigrants. These instruments collectively became the immediate ancestors of the ʻukulele. The five-string machéte de rajão, or simply rajão (rah-ZHOW), is still popular in Madeira. If you ignore the 5th course (D), the rajão is tuned the same as the ʻukulele: D G C E A. Originally, the braguinha was tuned D G B D but early on the ʻukulele kept the form factor of the braguinha but adopted the tuning of the upper four strings of the rajão: G C E A.
Machéte de rajão | Imua Garza plays a five-String machéte de rajão, c. 1890, from Madeira, the "mother" of the ʻukulele and sibling of the four-course braguinha. Sound and appearance are similar to an ʻukulele (:55).
New Moniker
This wee Portuguese instrument quickly gained popularity and evolved into a uniquely Hawaiian style instrument. Portuguese instrument names were eventually supplanted by a somewhat whimsical Hawaiian word, ʻukulele, meaning "jumping flea." The instrument was beloved by King Kalākaua and his influence helped integrate the ʻukulele into Hawaiian culture.
The most significant ʻukulele changes from the braguinha were:
Construction using koa and other native woods.
Adoption of the G C E A tuning.
Use of gut strings in place of the metal strings common to some Portuguese instruments.
Aloha 'Oe | Lili'uokalani's song played on tenor 'ukuleles | Frary Ukulele Band
Use of gut rather than metal strings, later replaced with nylon and fluorocarbon, results in a rounder tone, softer finger action and a timbre unique to the ʻukulele.
The 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco introduced ʻukulele to US audiences. The Hawaiian exhibit featured the Royal Hawaiian Quartet, a guitar and ʻukulele ensemble and ʻukulele maker-player Jonah Kumalae. The exhibit was a hit and started the Hawaiian music craze of the twentieth century.
Tin Pan Alley
Musicians from New York's Tin Pan Alley saw dollar signs and aped Hawaiian writing style, supplying a stream of simulated Hawaiian song. Composer and Russian migrant Herman Paley (1879-1955) was among the first to cash in on Hawaiian music popularity. His sheet music for I Can Hear The Ukuleles Calling Me was published in 1916 by Jerome H. Remick and Co., New York, one year after the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. There are no Hawaiian lyrics, melodies or ʻukulele used, but the alluring cover art made for good sales.
"I Can Hear The Ukuleles Calling Me" Cover Art | Tin Pan Alley cranked out Hawaiian themed songs during the early 20thy century. | Library of Congress
Hawaii Calls
The radio program Hawaii Calls kept Hawaiian music popular for decades outside the islands. Hapa Haole Songs such as My Little Grass Shack and Sweet Leilani became a part of North American culture. Throughout this whirlwind of activity, the ʻukulele took center stage as both an instrument and icon of Hawaiian culture.
It wasn't long until the ʻukulele spread to the rest of the world. There are now more ʻukulele players in Japan than Hawaii! In Canada the ʻukulele is a staple of music education, used to promote and teach music skills and literacy. Indeed, the ʻukulele has devoted fans and players in nearly every country on earth.
Ukulele Square | Hawaiian music and culture were popular in the United States during the early twentieth century | New York Tribune, November 5, 1916
Despite the fame and popularity rained down upon it, the ʻukulele is embraced for the attributes inherited from its Portuguese grandparents: portability, ease of learning, relatively low cost and attractive sound. With that said, the musical flexibility of the ʻukulele's provides much of its universal appeal. After all, it is an able solo and accompanying instrument and at home with nearly any musical style. Today it is more likely to hear a pop song played on the ʻukulele than legacy Hawaiian and Portuguese repertoire.
Kaka'ako Jam | Cory and Zach blaze Ko'olau and Blackbird 'ukuleles against Pow Wow street murals.
ʻUkulele Notation | ʻUkulele music may be scored in staff notation or tablature.
Minuet | Joseph Haydn | Frary Ukulele Band
ʻUkulele Makers
The literally hundreds of luthiers and instrument companies building ʻukuleles worldwide are telling evidence of the instrument's popularity and its economic and musical impact outside Hawaii. Nevertheless, the most prized ʻukuleles are those made in Hawaii by Kamaka, Kanilea, Ko`olau, Koaloha, Mele and others.
The modern ʻukulele is commonly sold in four sizes: soprano, concert, tenor, and baritone, the soprano being the smallest at about 21 inches in length (53 cm) and the baritone the largest at 29 inches (74 cm).
Standard tuning for soprano, concert and tenor ʻukulele is: G C E A. Names like soprano and tenor should imply different tunings and ranges but, in the case of the ʻukulele, they don't. They indicate physical size. Volume and timbre vary with size, but tuning is the same for the soprano, concert and tenor sizes (baritone is a 4th lower). Listen to Carlos Gallardo-Candia play Hello Dolly on the soprano, concert and tenor ʻukuleles:
Córdoba 21 Series Ukulele Comparison | Comparison of the sound and appearance of the soprano, concert and tenor ʻukuleles (2:43)
Reentrant Tuning
The G string or fourth course is often tuned an octave higher than one would expect. This is known as reentrant tuning, and was common on the Renaissance and Baroque guitars discussed earlier. Reentrant tuning allows close harmonic voicings, imparting a unique chime to strumming. The ʻukuleles in the video comparison use reentrant tuning. Thus, most of the melodic playing is done on three strings (C E A) while the high G is mainly played for full chords.
Reentrant Tuning | Also known as high G tuning.
Low G Tuning | Also called linear or bourdon tuning.
Low G Tuning
Some players, prefer the low G or bourdon tuning: the G string sounds an octave lower than reentrant tuning, yielding a deeper bass range. Advantages of the low G tuning are strings are arranged in a logical pitch sequence of high to low, increased pitch range and a deeper sound. The choice of tuning is a personal choice and one tuning is not inherently better than the other.
Kawika | Hilo ʻukulele star, Brittni Paiva, performs on a tenor (3:06)
Baritone
The largest ʻukulele is the baritone, tuned D G B E like the upper four strings of the guitar. Baritone timbre and sustain are similar to a classical guitar.
Taimane "Neptune's Storm" | Waikiki ʻukulele star Taimane performs her original, Neptune's Storm on a Pono baritone ʻukulele (4:46)
Guitarlele
A six-string 'ukulele variant tuned A D G C D A, the guitarlele, also called guitalele or guilele, is popular with guitar players craving an ʻukulele sound.
The guitarlele features the timbre and size of a tenor or baritone ʻukulele coupled with an extended bass range. However, what's new is often old. The requinto, a small six-string guitar tuned the same as the guitarlele, has long been popular in Spain and Latin American countries.
Guilele or Guitalele | Peter picks a pop standard on a guitalele (2:56)
ʻUkulele Technique
Like the guitar, the strings of the ʻukulele are plucked and strummed with the fingers of the right hand. Individual pitches and chords are changed by pressing fingers of the left hand on the fingerboard. Jake Shimabukuro demonstrates ʻukulele technique (24:24):
The ʻukulele is renowned for its mellow harp-like tone. Players often play the strings over the end of the fingerboard to enhance the sweetness of the sound. On the guitar and violin this technique is called sul tasto. Playing close to the bridge results in a brighter and more twangy tone.
While the average player may stick to strums, the ʻukulele is capable of using the same techniques as guitar: double stops, harmonics, tremolo, vibrato, rasgueado, tapping, glissando and ligado. Indeed, virtuosos such as Jake Shimabukuro excel at playing the instrument at a high technical level. Listen to Jake play his jazz-rock fusion original, Blue Haiku:
Blue Haiku (2016) | Jake Shimabukuro, Kamaka tenor ʻukulele (5:58)
One Instrument, Many Styles
The popularity of the ʻukulele has pushed it into a multitude of musical directions: folk, pop, rock, Hawaiian, jazz, bluegrass, etc. Certainly its musical versatility is no less apparent than its appearance in the classical music world.
Much ʻukulele repertoire consists of arrangements of music written for other instruments. However, contemporary classical composers are writing solos, chamber music and even concertos for the ʻukulele. Byron Yasui's Concerto for ʻUkulele and Orchestra, “Campanella,” was premiered by the Hawai’i Symphony Orchestra on June, 2015, with soloist Jake Shimabukuro. There is no video of the performance, but Shimabukuro and Yasui enlighten us with the work's challenges:
Concerto for ʻUkulele and Orchestra (4:39)
Codetta
Although descended from a humble Portuguese folk instrument, the Hawaiian ʻukulele is now a beloved instrument of international fame. And yet it remains a unique part of Hawaiian music culture. Along with slack key guitar, the ʻukulele is Hawaii's most significant contribution to the music of the great planet Earth.
Vocabulary
ʻukulele, course, Renaissance guitar, Baroque guitar, reentrant tuning, bourdon, timple, braguinha, machéte, machéte de braga, machéte de rajão, guitarlele, sul tasto
Ancient Lineage
ʻUkulele in Hawaii 
Madeira and Portugal
New Moniker
International Fame
Hawaii Calls
ʻUkulele Sizes & Tuning 
ʻUkulele Technique
Codetta
