..Duke of uke … Tiny Tim tries to work his magic on an unconvinced Dick Martin. Photograph: Corbis/Bettmann..

What is it? A tiny, four-stringed guitar that can look comical or cute when strummed, first popularised in early 21st-century Hawaiian music.

Who uses it? Although there are still some leading Hawaiian ukulele players, such as Jake Shimabukuro and Ohta-san, by the 1920s the ukulele had become most associated with music hall and vaudeville. Uke-shredder Roy Smeck, master Disney tunesmith Cliff “Ukulele Ike” Edwards and George Formby all made the instrument a household name. It was perhaps his obsession with vaudeville and outsider uke legend Tiny Tim that attracted influential indie songwriter Stephin Merrittto the instrument, and recently the uke has found a firm home in a kind of camp, droll Magnetic Fields-indebted indie pop, courtesy of the Bobby McGee’s, Jens Lekman, Allo Darlin’, Patrick Wolf, the Half Sisters,Herman Dune, Uni & Her Ukulele, and Darren Hayman.

The instrument’s inherent comic potential means that it’s still par for the course in musical comedy, too. Some of which, like the the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, is mildly amusing, but most of it, frankly, isnot. Here’s a Spotify playlist.

How does it work? Ukuleles come in four flavours: soprano, concert, tenor and baritone. The most common tuning is C – so the strings are tuned G, C, E, A – although the slack-key open tunings particular to Hawaiian music are sometimes also used. Here’s an online tutorial:

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Where does it come from? It’s actually from Portugal. Some Portugese instrument-makers had been working on a variant of the cavaquinhobefore they emigrated to Hawaii in the 1880s, where their ukuleles became a staple of immigrant street parties.

Why is it classic? It’s a tricky one. Jens Lekman referred to the ukulele as “an emasculated guitar”, which makes a good case for it as a guitar stripped of the machismo and phallic connotations of the six-string. Hawaiian and ragtime-style ukulele has a dainty, nimble sound that’s softer than a mandolin and sweeter than a banjo. But, as with theglockenspiel and recorder, there is a bit of a cringey, twee faux-naivety now attached to the uke.

What is the best ever ukulele song? Tip Toe Thru the Tulips With Me by Tiny Tim is still great – but supposedly disliked enormously in serious ukulele circles.

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Five facts and things
Although arguably one of the figures who helped popularise the ukulele in modern indie pop, Jens Lekman later turned on the four-string, saying the ukulele had “become another beardo instrument” and insisting “if there’s two things I will never do, it would be grow a beard and pick up the uke again”.

The Hawaiian locals were so impressed by the new Portugese guitars in the late 19th century that King David Kalakaua was moved to make the ukulele pretty much the official instrument of Hawaii. The name “ukulele” is a Hawaiian portmanteau that can translated as “jumping flea” or “the gift that came here”.

George Harrison became a big aficionado of the uke while in the Beatles. His obsession must have rubbed off on bandmate Paul McCartney, who later played pseudonymously credited ukulele on the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band’s I’m the Urban Spaceman.

Although George Formby would refer to it as a ukulele, the instrument he mostly played was actually a banjolele – a kind of uke/banjo hybrid.

In 1960s Canada, a teacher named J Chalmers Doane implemented a new school programme that used the ukulele as the primary teaching instrument in music classes. Ukuleles were inexpensive, child-sized, and fairly easy to get to grips with – making them an equivalent to how recorders and glockenspiels were introduced into school music rooms in the UK.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/aug/17/ukulele