The Ukulele…

Growing up in Hawaii the Ukulele is a very familiar instrument to the islands. It’s a smaller version of the guitar, made of various types of wood and comes in 4, 6 and 8 strings. The ukulele which means, “jumping flea” is also called uke for short.

The ukulele is small, light and much easier to play then the guitar. Although it takes time to learn to play it, it has a beautiful sound once mastered. It does take practice to learn the different keys but it also takes a good ear to master the different ways to tune your uke. There are great musicians who offer classes to the public and there students range from 5 year olds to 60 year olds plus.

The ukulele is a very popular instrument not only in Hawaii but all over the world. There are master craftsmen who take pride in producing beautiful and great sounding instruments. Today there are different types of uke’s produced. The types are the concert, tenor, soprano and baritone. The soprano is more widely used but gaining in popularity is the concert uke.

The uke’s also varies in size. The concert uke which is my favorite is around 23 inches long; the soprano which is the smallest measures in at 21 inches, the tenor is 26 inches long and the baritone which is the largest of them all measures in at 30 inches.

The popular ukulele’s in the 60’s was the Kamaka ukuleles and the Martin uke’s. Both are still popular and very high quality. There are a lot of different craftsmen nowadays who produce custom uke’s that offer you different selections of woods from koa to mango. The custom uke varies in price range depending on what you require. You can select the wood and type of uke you want. Different craftsmen offer different shapes and finishes. You need to shop around for the type, shape, finish and sound quality that you want. Price range for good quality uke’s can run from $200 to $3000+ for your custom uke’s.

You can find a wide range of prices and types of uke’s on eBay.

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