Tuesday, September 30, 2008

The great Impact.

In Hawaii there are 3 significant contribution to string music history which are slack-key guitar, steel guitar, and ukulele. When ukulele was introduced to Hawaii as a Braguinha it was a start of a new musical life. I would never think that a small instrument would have such a big impact. At first when ukulele was being first noticed everybody was wanting one. Then later it was being diminished by other type of music like hip-hop and R&B. Then brought back and incorporated to other types of music like Reggae, Rock, and Tradition Hawaiian music now that's the kind of music I like. In 1915 ukulele was formally introduced to the world at an exhibit at Panama Pacific Exposition in San Francisco. Here the Royal Hawaiian Quaret which is a band that includes a guitar, steel guitar, mandolin and of course the ukulele which happens to include the 3 significant string instruments in Hawaii. The exhibit had an estimate of 17 million people in 7 months. This is how it all started. Ukulele began to be a great demand. It was being used all over the U.S. because of it's uniqe sound and small size it could be carried around pretty much anywhere. In Hawaii ukulele was the most popular instrument. So popular that even the King and Queens were in demand for it. In 1916 Hawaiian records were so popular that it outsold the other type of music on the mainland. Until this day ukulele is still being used all over the world. With this popularity ukulele also had many new improvement like adding more strings giving it a louder and pure sound and also the FLUKE.

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