Ukulele facts for kids
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| String instrument | |
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| Classification | String instrument (plucked, nylon stringed instrument usually played with the bare thumb and/or fingertips, or a felt pick.) |
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The ukulele (pronounced /ˌjʉːkəˈlɛɪli/ from the Hawaiian ʻukulele, pronounced /ˈʔukuˈlɛlɛ/) is a musical instrument with four strings. It is also called the uke for short. Ukuleles are part of the guitar family of instruments. The strings are usually tuned G, C, E, A' or A, D, F#, B. Ukuleles normally have nylon strings or gut strings.
Ukuleles commonly come in four sizes: soprano, concert, tenor and baritone. Sopranino and bass ukuleles also exist. Sopraninos are tuned to standard tuning, however, baritone ukuleles are tuned to D, G, B, E (the top four strings of a guitar). Bass ukuleles are tuned E, A, D, G (bass guitar and double bass tuning).
The ukulele was invented in the 19th Century in Hawaii, where people got the idea from small guitar-like instruments known as cavaquinhos brought to the island by Portuguese sailors.
Images for kids
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Urban Guitars Ukulele bass side.
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1916 cartoon by Louis M. Glackens satirizing the contemporary ukulele craze
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A view of the soundhole and label of a ukulele made by Louis Viohl & Sons in Flushing, Queens, New York sometime in the 1920s. Albert Louis Viohl emigrated to U.S. in the 1860s and started the Empire workshop in 1883 where he made various stringed musical instruments including guitars and mandolins. Both of his sons joined the family business and in 1902 Louis Junior took over running it, (August was the other son) and added ukuleles to the catalogue in the late teens / early twenties
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Soprano pineapple ukulele, baritone ukulele and taropatch baritone ukulele.
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Ukuleles in a music store
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Ukulele C6 tuning .
See also
In Spanish: Ukelele para niños
