Washington library gives ukulele history lesson

A small crowd turned out to learn about the history of ukuleles at the Washington Public Library Tuesday afternoon.

Adult Services Librarian Tammy Valentine said the program, called “Ukuleles are unique,” was a run-up to a concert featuring the instruments at noon on Thursday, Feb. 3.

“We have two of our library pages, who also play the ukulele,” Valentine said. “So on Thursday this week, we’re having a concert (where) our pages and Clyde will be playing.”

Clyde Pearce, a ukulele teacher who gave the historical presentation, said his goal was to eventually form what he called a “Ukulele society” in Washington.

“I stumbled onto the Austin Ukulele Society, it was really amazing … they have all people playing,” he said. “You see small children, old people older than me, all races, male, female; it doesn’t matter if you’re a banker or a garbage collector. I thought, ‘This is just a wonderful community activity, everybody doing something happy together.’”

The group, at least in Austin, meets once a month for an informal group practice for the sake of playing, rather than a formal performance.

“They begin working on the song they’re going to play next month … and they’re all different levels of skill, so some people who have a little more skill are helping those who have to learn it yet,” Pearce said. “And at the end of the evening, they all get together, all 200 people, and all play the song they started learning a month ago. It just looked like a lot of fun, and something we should bring to Washington.”

Pearce said one of the instrument’s strengths was its affinity for cheerful music.

“Ukulele playing is not sad, I don’t know of any sad songs you can play on a ukulele,” he said.

The slideshow is scheduled for another showing at Halcyon House Thursday night. Pearce said it was meant to showcase various levels of skill and some of the instrument’s history.

“There are several different versions of the story of how the Ukulele was made,” Pearce said. “It was introduced in the U.S. in 1915, and then it began to rise in popularity, then it kind of faded away, and it became popular again and faded away. We’ve been in kind of a fade away, you don’t hear too much about it, but it’s beginning to get much more popular. There are communities all over the U.S. that have ukulele societies.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com