Learning Ukulele with Curt
The `Ukulele Timeline
LearningUkulele.com & Learning Ukulele with Curt with Curt is the product of Curt Sheller, Curt Sheller Publications, Funky Frets Music Store, and a few trusted advisers. Curt Sheller, your Ukulele Kumu, has been playing ukulele over 20 years and has over 30+ years of teaching experience, written over 50 books, almost 40 for ukulele. From teaching hundreds and hundreds of students of all levels over the years — It's pretty much ALL here. Picasso said it best The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.
20 May 2026
The Ukulele Timeline
1990s to Today
Virtuoso musicians such as Jake Shimabukuro and James Hill are altering traditional perceptions of ukulele music. As well as singer / songwriters such as Victoria Vox touring the world and spreading the Aloha!.
Checkout UKEtopia!-Adventures in the Ukulele World
by Jim Beloff
Jim's new memoir of his journey and his part of this Third Wave
of ukulele popularity. Little did Jim know when he purchased his first ukulele at the Rose Bowl Flea Market in 1992 and with no ukulele songbook collections on the market—none—just a few vintage instructional books. That he would would be at the forefront of this Third Wave of Ukulele.
The current Third Wave
of the ukulele corresponding to the influence of YouTube and the Internet®.
Check out all the famous people and musicians associated with the ukulele on the Ukulele Musicians Page .
1960s
Can't have a Ukulele timeline without a mention of Tiny Tim
…
In 1959 Herbert Butros Khaury a.k.a., Tiny Tim dropped all his other stage names and performed as "Larry Love, the Singing Canary" at Hubert's Museum and Live Flea Circus in New York City's Times Square. While performing there, he signed with a manager who sent him on auditions throughout the Greenwich Village section of New York, where he performed unpaid amateur gigs, playing the ukulele and singing in his falsetto voice the song which became his signature, "Tiptoe Through the Tulips".
NOTE: Tiny Tim was quite the historian and musical archivist on all the songs he performed and from that era. He even knew the recording dates, personal on the recording, etc…
1950s
Weekly TV host Arthur Godfrey keeps ukuleles in the spotlight.
A shift from the popularity of radio to most households having access to a TV and the second wave of the ukulele craze.
Arthur Godfrey is responsible for selling 9,000,000 Mario Maccaferri plastic ukuleles during the 50s.
1940s
Ukulele craze revived by the solders and sailors returning home from South Pacific after World War II.
This is the start of the Second Wave
of the ukulele corresponding to the influence of TV
1920s
After the Panama Pacific International Exposition Ukuleles all the rage. This corresponds to the popularity and availability of radio in the decade of the 20s to 40s. The First truly fast way of disseminating news, entertainment, and information to a mass audience. This was a big shift in the technology for communication around the world.
This is the First Wave
of the ukulele corresponding to the influence of Radio.
1915
Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, California USA unveils ukulele to the world. The Panama–Pacific International Exposition (PPIE) was a world's fair held in San Francisco, in the United States, between February 20 and December 4 in 1915. Its ostensible purpose was to celebrate the completion of the Panama Canal, but it was widely seen in the city as an opportunity to showcase its recovery from the 1906 earthquake.
NOTE: Prior the Panama Pacific International Exposition Hawi`ian performers did tour the US to a great reception. However the Ukulele craze really took off at the Hawai`in pavilion as a result of the year long Panama Pacific International Exposition .
Hawai'i, 23 August 1879
Portuguese sailors introduced Hawaiians to small four-stringed instrument that gave rise to the ukulele. King David Kalakaua was influential in the initial rise of popularity of the ukulele.
Among the passengers of the Ravenscrag that arrived in Hawai'i, 23 August 1879, were migrant sugar cane workers, Manuel Nunes, Augusto Dias, Jose do Espirito Santo, and Joao Fernandes, who are credited with introducing the ukulele to Hawaii. This was the second ship of Portuguese immigrants to reach the Islands, having been preceded on 30 September 1878 by the German bark SS Priscilla.
We can count our blessings that the Hawai'ian's weren't introduced to the Accordion or Tuba, the traditional, popular German instruments at the time. Or the Bladder Fiddle, Dudelsack, Hackbrett, Nyckelharpa from previous ships arriving in Honolulu with migrant workers. (Curt — Dodged a musical bullet with that one.)
The Island of Madeira, Portugal
Before 1879 it really started on the /> Island of Madeira, Portugal with the Bargina and /> Machete . Historians believe the machete was introduced in Madeira from Braga as a braguinha and subsequently brought to Hawaii by Portuguese immigrants in the late 19th century as a possible predecessor of the ukulele.
Emigrants from Madeira also influenced the creation of new musical instruments. In the 1880s, the ukulele was created, based on two small guitar-like instruments of Madeiran origin, the cavaquinho and the rajao. The ukulele was introduced to the Hawaiian Islands by Portuguese immigrants from Madeira and Cape Verde. Three immigrants in particular, Madeiran cabinet makers Manuel Nunes, José do Espírito Santo, and Augusto Dias, are generally credited as the first ukulele makers. Two weeks after they disembarked from the SS Ravenscrag in late August 1879, the Hawaiian Gazette reported that Madeira Islanders recently arrived here, have been delighting the people with nightly street concerts.
Each ukulele craze corresponded to a new form a media for disseminating information fast and to a wide audience.
What's next? Some might say that AI is next – AI will be your teacher. And, that is something that Curt is looking into helping you out right here on LearningUkulele.com & Learning Ukulele with Curt. Using it right now to help optimize the site and clean things up.