YouTube videos, online how-tos and social networking fuel the musical instrument's renewed popularity.
Thanks to the Internet, the humble ukulele is pushing its recent popularity well beyond anything that old-time performers Don Ho, Arthur Godfrey or even Tiny Tim could imagine.
From YouTube to manufacturers' websites, from bulletin boards to iPhone and BlackBerry applications that mimic ukes and teach chords, the Internet has been stoking the craze for nearly two years and unveiling fresh talent.
“The number of new players keeps going up," said Mike DaSilva of Berkeley, who ditched a 20-year software career to make ukuleles. Guitar maker C.F. Martin & Co. stopped producing ukes in 1994 because they had become so unpopular, but resumed in 2001 and is selling some of the handmade instruments for as much as $10,000 -- even in these tough economic times.
C.F. Martin wouldn't release sales numbers, and no one has kept track industrywide since 1980, when the ukulele numbers were folded into overall guitar sales. But uke makers say they are busier than ever.
“Monthly, we're selling more and more. Demand is exceeding the supply," said Michael Upton, whose Kala Brand Music Co. in Petaluma, Calif., sells ukuleles made in China. Artisan ukulele makers such as DaSilva, who makes ukes that sell for $600 to $3,000, said they have waiting lists stretching out more than a year.
Uke makers are riding the wave of popularity that began around the time of former Beatle George Harrison's death in 2001. Harrison was well-known in uke circles, but it was former bandmate Paul McCartney who reignited the public's fascination by playing the instrument in the 2002 tribute Concert for George and in other performances.
Though big stars helped spur the instrument's latest round of popularity, the Internet has been “more important than anything" in the uke's resurgence, said Jim Beloff, a leading publisher of ukulele songbooks and a major promoter of the sweet-strumming, four-stringed, long-maligned uke.
In the last two years, singer-songwriter Julia Nunes has parlayed her YouTube videos, most of her own compositions, into online stardom and an invitation to last month's Bonnaroo festival in Tennessee. Actress Molly Ringwald reportedly was inspired to take up the ukulele after watching Nunes on YouTube.
Last year, rock journalist and self-described “ukuholic" Sylvie Simmons called for a “Million Uke March" -- online only -- in support of then-presidential candidate Barack Obama.
And ukulele virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro, already big in Hawaii, the uke's homeland, became a nationwide sensation with his wailin on Harrisons My Guitar Gently Weeps, which has attracted more than 3 million hits on YouTube since 2006 and earned him tours with Jimmy Buffett, a recording session with cellist Yo-Yo Ma and various television appearances.
As with so many groups the Internet has helped to foster, Ukulele lovers have been searching for like-minded folks among isolated pockets of uke players and creating online communities. Beloff's website Flea Market Music hosts a directory of more than 3,000 ukulele players so they can find one another in their local communities. Good ukes, once hard to find, are popping up on EBay.
“There are a lot of ukulele specialty websites," uke maker Upton said. “For years, music stores didn't carry them."
The website Ukulele Underground posts YouTube videos and ukulele reviews and hosts spirited discussions about concerts, techniques, instruments and everything else a ukulele fan would want. Last year, the Underground staff posted a video lesson on how to play Michael Jacksons Billie Jean on the uke, saying, “We're blasting [Don Ho's] 'Tiny Bubbles' right out of the water."
