Q 01/05

Which four notes are the most common ukulele tuning?

A) GCEA

B) DGBE

C) EADG

D) ADGC

Answer · why

A) GCEA

GCEA, with a twist: the G is pitched above the C next to it, so all four strings sit within one octave. That 're-entrant' tuning gives the uke its tig...

Q 02/05

The immigrants who built the first ukuleles reached Hawaii in 1879 under contract to work in which industry?

A) Whaling

B) Coffee

C) Sugar

D) Sandalwood

Answer · why

C) Sugar

Sugar. The three future instrument makers were signed on as plantation hands, and only set up as guitar makers in Honolulu once their contracts had ru...

Q 03/05

Which ukulele size is normally tuned DGBE, like the top four strings of a guitar?

A) Concert

B) Tenor

C) Baritone

D) Soprano

Answer · why

C) Baritone

Baritone. The deepest of the four standard sizes dates only from the 1940s, and because its strings match a guitar's, guitarists can strum it with the...

Q 04/05

Which ukulele size came first and is still sometimes just called the 'standard'?

A) Concert

B) Sopranino

C) Bass

D) Soprano

Answer · why

D) Soprano

Soprano. Makers later stretched it into the larger, louder concert size, and the bigger tenor soon followed.

Q 05/05

What does the word ukulele roughly translate to in Hawaiian?

A) Jumping flea

B) Little guitar

C) Singing wood

D) Happy strings

Answer · why

A) Jumping flea

Jumping flea, from the Hawaiian words for flea and for leap: perhaps a picture of the player's fingers darting over the strings, though a legend at th...