Ukulele: Trend or … trendy

When I bought my first Ukulele nearly 12 years ago, I had no idea where to go to get one. Back then, in Orange County, they were pretty hard to come by and virtually non-existent at Guitar Center or any other basic local music shop.

So I ended up going where anybody goes to acquire hard-to-find items – a pawn shop – and picked one up for $40 bucks.

At the time, the only Ukuleles readily available were like the toy Uke’s they sell at the ABC store in Hawai’i for about $10. Those things sounded like just that – a toy – and never stayed in tune.

So in my mind, I was getting quite a deal, something far superior, a Ukulele that didn’t have palm trees or ocean waves painted on it – and one that “kind of” stayed in tune. 

At the time, I didn’t know how to play any chords. I knew how to strum, so I figured a book with chord charts would help me out. Turns out, that was even harder to find than a high-quality Uke. Eventually, after much shopping around at different music shops, I did find a laminated, two-page folder that showed the basic Ukulele chords and their variations.

Fast forward.

Last Christmas, when shopping around for some kind of musical gift for my fiancé’s nephew at Guitar Center, low and behold, a stacked palate of Ukulele’s sat right in the middle of the store. There was also a whole section of books dedicated to Ukulele instruction and chord charts.

Did I miss something here? At what point did the masses start to catch on to this?

Part of the novelty of learning the Ukulele, aside from me wanting to reconnect with my Hawai’i Nei, was that it was kind of an “underground” instrument that nobody really took seriously. Nevertheless, the popularity of the Ukulele has been on a steady rise since 2006, according to the website www.ukulelestrummer.com.

It’s not really much of a surprise, states the website: “This instrument is so easy to play, portable, relatively cheap and most importantly fun to play and sing along.”

Maybe the growing popularity of the Uke can be attributed to Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder, who released his “Ukulele Songs” album last year, or to the increasing regularity of the instrument appearing in mainstream media, with shows like American Idol, Bob’s Burgers, or anything involving Zooey Deschanel.

Whatever the reason, the popularity of the Uke is not necessarily a bad thing.

As UkuleleStrummer.com states: “If this trend continues and the Uke goes mainstream, we’ll get all the benefits that come along with it like song books, instructional guides and prices for the good Ukes should also come down.”

This certainly rings true in the case with my Christmas shopping last year. While I was unable to find a suitable musical gift for my 2-year-old nephew, I did pick up a book that contained 1,001 Ukulele chords, about 900 more chords than my previous laminated “folder.”

 Does the current Ukulele trend devalue my interest and love for the native Hawaiian instrument? I don’t think so. I just think that now a quality Ukulele is much easier to find.

 

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