Ukulele sales soaring in Brooklyn

Written by archtop girl on Wednesday, 24 February 2010

The hipsters of New York have cottoned on to a trend that's been around over here for a while: the rennaissance of the ukulele.  A report from the Huffington Post this week ("Brooklynites Crazy For Ukuleles!") has come up with some truly startling statistics: uke sales at shops in the Brooklyn borough have increased four or even five-fold in recent months, with one shop in Flatbush noting an 80%  sales rise in recent months. And it's not just NY: the owner of the Kala ukulele company in California told the HuffPo that sales were up 70% last year and will rise further this year. The ukulele has "come out of the underground", said Mike Upton. "New York is experiencing its own kind of little movement."

We've all seen the excellent Duke of Uke stand at British festivals, and the shop of the same name's doing sterling business in East London (it can even sell you a proper uke-sized Stagg flightcase, as well as running workshops and uke-ing events). There are various ukulele orchestras and large-scale ensembles doing the rounds, and ukes are popping all over the place in the media. We've lost count of the number of recent broadsheet features extolling their virtues, and we hear there's even a lunchtime uke group for BBC Radio 4 and 6 staff in London...

What's so great about the uke? It's cheap, it's easy to play, and it's fun: you can't take yourself too seriously holding one of these. And you'll look the part should you wish to hang out in Williamsburg. More importantly, the uke's now on the curriculum in many schools and has got to be a better way of encouraging kids to take up music than making them play a recorder.

Anyway, if you haven't yet jumped on this bandwagon, ukes start from a recession-friendly £20 or so and there are innumerable YouTube videos and websites to help you out. Ukulele Tabs looks like a good place to begin... though possibly not with this poor little broken Hawaiian souvenir, which I recently found for 50p at a jumble sale. I doubt it'll play again - it's missing two tuning pegs, for a start - but it has a pretty stamp on its headstock and looks very sweet on the wall.