Description

Origin of the ukulele

The ukulele (or ukulele) is a four-stringed instrument that originated in Hawaii as a result of the transformation of the machete (braguinha) of the island of Madeira, through the efforts of the Portuguese Manuel Nuñes, who had arrived to Hawaii in August 1879. The modifications made by Nuñes included the use of local woods, the replacement of the nylon strings for gut strings and the modification of tuning to facilitate the fingering of chords.

Since when fingering chords in a string instrument the thumb acts as a support on the mast and only the index, middle, ring and little fingers are available to finger chords on the fretboard, the four string instruments such as the ukulele and the Venezuelans "cuatro" allow fast chord sequences to be performed using intricate rhythms. This is the main reason for choosing these instruments as the first two to be considered in these pages.

Parts of the ukulele

The parts of the ukulele receive the same designation as in many other string instruments that use frets. Below is a diagram that shows the names of those to which we refer to more frequently in these pages: