Tiny ukulele a big player

After years of being a joke, the ukulele is back in vogue, popping up in television advertising, on movie soundtracks, in wedding ceremonies and in YouTube videos.

It appeals to back-porch pickers and professional entertainers, Tin Pan Alley enthusiasts and Gen Y rockers. It looks like a toy, sounds like wind-chimes on a breezy day and can't fail to raise a smile.

"I've been hauling guitars around all my life, but this is so lightweight you don't even need a strap," said Tucker Web designer and songwriter Cyndi Craven, who took up the instrument a year ago.

It's not just the portability that appeals to Craven, however. It's the cheerful, accessible, sheer fun that the ukulele seems to embody.

"It's like a chihuahua: it just jumps in your arms and begs to play."

This year may, in fact, mark a high point in ukulele visibility. In addition to playing the market, mega-investor Warren Buffett also plays ukulele, and may strum his four-string at President-elect Barack Obama's inaugural next week.

A viral comeback

The current crescendo in ukulele-mania can probably be traced to two developments: the spread of YouTube and the Central Park performance of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" by Hawaiian wunderkind Jake Shimabukuro.

YouTube, the Web site devoted to user-generated videos, turned out to be the perfect venue for the bite-size instrument. The uke fits right inside the small screen, and sits up high, where the Web cam can see (and hear) it. Thousands of strummers, sitting alone in their rooms, can croon and plunk for each other in this medium that loves simple, short tunes — not to mention short instruments. (The site even has a dedicated subset, UkeToob.)

Then, with a flamenco-furious version of the George Harrison song, casually recorded while sitting on a rock in Central Park, Shimabukuro demonstrated that the ukulele could go far beyond Tiny Tim, into the realm of Niccolo Paganini. (One YouTube clip of the performance has been viewed 2 million times.)

Parents might have put new guitars under the tree for Junior and Sis this recent holiday season, but there are ukulele aficionados who suggest that small hands prefer small instruments.

The nylon strings are soft, and easy on young digits. Many chords can be made with one or two fingers, and in about 15 minutes, a beginner can learn and master enough chords to play a huge assortment of songs.

"It's easy to teach kids — or adults who are convinced they will never play a musical instrument," said Jim Beloff, author of the 1997 authoritative tome, "The Ukulele: A Visual History." "It invites a lot of different people who are not necessarily great musicians."

Uke's third wave?

Beloff said there have already been two great peaks of popularity in the history of the instrument. A fascination with all things Hawaiian drove a World War I-era infatuation, making the uke a dominant force in Tin Pan Alley songs and sheet music. The next crest came in the 1950s, propelled by ukulele-playing television personality Arthur Godfrey.

Godfrey endorsed an inexpensive plastic model designed and produced by famed luthier Mario Maccaferri, and the company eventually sold 9 million of them.

All that is ancient history to the current generation of players, who are, in fact, also young enough to have missed that brief 1960s oddity, Tiny Tim, and his falsetto hit, "Tiptoe Through the Tulips."

These kids are more aware of Shimabukuro, or of uke-playing popsters such as Jack Johnson, Will.i.am (of the Black Eyed Peas) or Jason Castro (the dreadlocked guy from "American Idol"). A uke-accompanied hit by the late Hawaiian musician Israel Kamakawiwo'ole has now made "Somewhere Over the Rainbow"/"What A Wonderful World" a regular request at wedding receptions.

Ukulelists are a vigorous online community. They share videos, trade tablature, take lessons, hawk high-end instruments (a basic model can be had for $50, but some spend thousands) and communicate ceaselessly.

YouTube phenomenon Julia Nunes, 19, a junior at Skidmore College, has launched a music career through her charming ukulele-accompanied videos of original songs and covers of tunes by Destiny's Child, Weezer and others. She was a guitarist first, then picked up a ukulele on a whim, discovering it was easier to quietly plink in a room with paper-thin walls.

"I couldn't very well slam on a guitar at midnight, I'd wake the whole hall," she said. "The uke was a sweeter, softer, less intrusive instrument that didn't annoy my roommates."

'Like a naked lady'

Yet the ukulele has unique power, Atlanta musician Mike Geier said. Best known as the towering front-man for the Elvis cover band King Sized, Geier also leads Tongo Hiti, an exotica ensemble that performs every Thursday night at Trader Vic's in the downtown Hilton Atlanta.

As the 6-foot-8 Geier, in beads and tattoos, strides onto the stage at the tiki bar, he seems no more outlandish than his surroundings, where a dugout canoe hangs from the ceiling and sea turtles adorn the walls. He's behind the cocktail drums in a band that also features vibraphone and theremin. Yet all eyes turn toward him — and his itty-bitty axe.

"Hey," says one onlooker on a recent Thursday, "he's got a ukulele."

"A ukulele is like a naked lady," Geier reflects, between sets. "If you walk on stage with a ukulele, everyone is going to look at you."

WHY THE UKULELE?

Enthusiasts offer a few words about a short instrument:

• "The ukulele is doing all the work; all I've gotta do is show up." — Mike Geier of Tongo Hiti

• "I do think there is something somewhat sunny and light and happy about this instrument that appeals to a lot of people, too, and it certainly doesn't hurt that this instrument is associated with one of the most beautiful places on earth." — Jim Beloff, author of "The Ukulele: A Visual History"

• "I find the ukulele lends itself to my personality. The way I play it, it's just kind of weird and awkward, and yet, hilarious." — YouTube sensation Julia Nunes