Ukulele is a fretted string instrument which is, in its construction, essentially a smaller, four-stringed version of the guitar. Associated with music from the
Hawaiian islands, the name roughly translates as "jumping flea" and was developed there in the 80's. The
ukulele instrument comes in four sizes.
The smallest is soprano (the original size), next is the concert, the tenor which was created in the 1920s, and the biggest is the baritone in the 1940s. On a tenor instrument, the strings may be doubled - six strings where first and third strings are doubled or eight strings where all fourth strings are doubled with second and fourth course. The Tahitian ukulele is significantly different from other ukuleles because it does not have a sound box. The body—including the head and neck—is carved from a single piece of wood, with a wide conical hole bored through the middle. It's nice to play the ukulele during
ethnic group festivals where there is singing and dancing involved.
