I’ve been trying to stay in shape and eat well and so, after my workout, I had Protein Powder Pancakes with Banana… it was awesome!

And eehr…

My dad bought me a Ukulele!

A bit random, but thanks Dad!

I didn’t know that much about the Ukulele to be honest, other than the fact that a lot of uppity songs that make you think of Hawaii feature the instrument.

I’ve been seeing an ever-increasing ressurgence of young girls playing it though… thanks Dad.

But we want to know more about stuff in this blog, right?

Let us check Wikipedia and see what it can tell us about the Ukulele:

The ukulele is commonly associated with music from Hawaii where the name roughly translates as “jumping flea”, perhaps because of the movement of the player’s fingers. Legend attributes it to the nickname of the Englishman Edward William Purvis, one of King Kalākaua’s officers, because of his small size, fidgety manner, and playing expertise. One of the earliest appearances of the word ukulele in print (in the sense of a stringed instrument) is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Catalogue of the Crosby Brown Collection of Musical Instruments of All Nations published in 1907. The catalog describes two ukuleles from Hawaii: one that is similar in size to a modern soprano ukulele, and one that is similar to a tenor (see § Types and sizes) Developed in the 1880s, the ukulele is based on several small guitar-like instruments of Portuguese origin, the machete, the cavaquinho, the timple, and the rajão, introduced to the Hawaiian Islands by Portuguese immigrants from Madeira and Cape Verde.Three immigrants in particular, Madeiran cabinet makers Manuel Nunes, José do Espírito Santo, and Augusto Dias, are generally credited as the first ukulele makers.Two weeks after they disembarked from the SS Ravenscrag in late August 1879, the Hawaiian Gazette reported that “Madeira Islanders recently arrived here, have been delighting the people with nightly street concerts.”

One of the most important factors in establishing the ukulele in Hawaiian music and culture was the ardent support and promotion of the instrument by King Kalākaua. A patron of the arts, he incorporated it into performances at royal gatherings.

Wow… Ok!

The ukulele is a member of the lute family of instruments. It generally employs four nylon strings. The ukulele is a small guitar-like instrument, which was introduced to Hawaii by Portuguese immigrants,from Madeira. It gained great popularity elsewhere in the United States during the early 20th century and from there spread internationally. The tone and volume of the instrument vary with size and construction. Ukuleles commonly come in four sizes: soprano, concert, tenor, and baritone.

Huh…wow!

The tunings are weird on it too?

Like I think the regular tuning is G4 C4 E4 A4 which is strange to me… It’ll take a whole lot of time to get used to I guess…

But does it djent?

I’m… I’m not sure… We’ll see!

Well… I’m going to spend the rest of the day looking at tabs for this thing.

Cheerio!

---

Images taken throughout the day: