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Spreading the Ukulele Fever
Tuesday 9th October 2012 | Alice
In the last few years, the popularity of the humble ukulele has had a huge resurgence. But what could explain ths?
Actually, we can trace it back to the 1990's, when the project of the Beatles' Anthology was on its way. This was in fact an occasion to bring back to everyone's mind that dear Paul and George were big ukulele players ! At the same time, "The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain", rising in popularity, played a big part in spreading the word about the little instrument. Finally, who can forget George Formby's mythical appearances on the screen with his ukulele, singing "When I'm cleaning windows", "With my little ukulele in my hand", "The Marmaid at the Rose and Crown" (to mention only a few of them...), as well as our dear beloved Marilyn's performance in "Some Like it Hot" ?
It has also been popularised by some of today's royalty of the young and trendy people of the world, such as Ryan Gosling, who used a simple ukulele to woo Michelle Willians in Blue Valentine (see below). Standard hipster Zooey Deschanel is also known as a uke player, adding even more quirkiness to herself.
There are some other, more practical reasons for its popularity though : it's cheap (you can get one for about 20 pounds), it's easy to play (only four strings on it, which makes it a lot easier to handle than a guitar!), and also very handy to carry around! But what we also like about ukulele is that it sounds funny and exotic. There is something relaxing and cheerful about its sound.
At the moment in London, there are quite a few ukulele events going on. Check them out here ! ==> http://www.mightyukulele.co.uk/
And if by any chance you happen to be going to Portsmouth soon... There will be a FREE ukulele worskhop on Friday 2nd November (1-3 pm), at Nevada Music, a store based in Portsmouth, in association with a local music school : Igloo Music. Read more about this at http://www.nevadamusic.co.uk/guitar/blogs/free-ukulele-workshop#ixzz28uTKy96w . Ukuleles are provided to all participants at the workshop!
Alice Tchernookova
