The soothing sounds of ʻukulele strumming vibrated throughout a small showroom in Kaimukī. A local musician is playing the four-stringed instrument made in the late 1800s.
That ʻukulele is part of Shawn Yacavone's Honokaʻupu collection of instruments dating back to the Hawaiian monarchy.
"There's only a handful of collectors worldwide that have pre-1900s ʻukulele because they are extremely rare," Yacavone said. "But at the same time, they are important to telling the bigger story about the culture and the music of Hawaiʻi."
The local ʻukulele collector is working on a project to preserve the tiny instruments' sounds. Yacavone said he's partnering with the Hawaiʻi State Archives and a new professional studio in Honolulu to record each historic ʻukulele and then electronically save it.
Yacavone owns Ukulele Friend, a retail store and showroom that sells handcrafted vintage and custom-made ʻukulele. He has one ʻukulele in that showroom that was made in the 1800s.
So far, he has about 50 ʻukulele over 100 years old and knows of roughly 70 pre-1900s ʻukulele worldwide. Yacavone said they're so rare that most museums don't have them to view.
"Collectors would typically retain those pieces, but I'm cut from a slightly different cloth," he said. "I believe that collecting the instrument is important, but I also believe that the people who built those instruments intended them to be played."
Yacavone said the project concept started around 2014 at his friend's recording studio in Kāneʻohe. One modern-day ʻukulele after the other was recorded, but Yacavone noted the room's mood changed when they heard the strum of a vintage ʻukulele.
"It's as though that builder who made that instrument over 100 years ago walked into that room," he said.
The recordings will happen at Line Studio at Washington Middle School, but it's not ready to open. Yacavone said he hopes the ʻukulele will be recorded as soon as this year.
The project's ultimate goal would be to create a Hawaiian music museum or a standalone ʻukulele museum.
A blend of cultures
The ʻukulele is generally associated with Hawaiʻi, but its roots come from Madeira Island, Portugal.
The three Portuguese woodworkers, Augusto Dias, Manuel Nunes and Jose do Espirito Santo are credited with creating the first ʻukulele around 1879. According to Yacavone, they opened their shops in the Downtown-Chinatown area, and King Kalākaua has been known to have frequented their shops,
"Although the ʻukulele is iconic worldwide and is recognized as a Hawaiian instrument, it is not an indigenous instrument to Hawaiʻi," Yacavone said. "It's a blend of cultures. It's the Portuguese that brought over the parent instruments to the ʻukulele. It was the Hawaiian monarchy that popularized the instrument."
He noted that various ethnic backgrounds contributed to playing and creating the instrument.
Yacavone said there are two parent instruments of the ʻukulele. One is called the Maderian and Machete, the father instrument and the size of a soprano ʻukulele. Its tuning was "DGBD."
The other parent instrument looks like a tenor or modern-day ʻukulele. It has five strings, and its tunings are "GCEA," while the fifth string would be a "D."
Each ʻukulele made in the 1800s has been handcrafted. Some are made from koa wood. Yacavone said that each pre-1900s ʻukulele tells a story.
"When you have one piece, you can learn about one instrument. When you have three pieces, you can begin to compare," Yacavone said. "But when you have 10, 15, or 20 pieces, you can learn, educate and understand what's happening in terms of evolution, the changing of shape, the weight, and the material used. It opens a whole new world of education."
An underestimated instrument
ʻUkulele translates to leaping flea to symbolize how fast the fingers would move while playing the instrument.
Local musician David Kekoamanawaleʻa Woodward said the biggest misconception about the ʻukulele is that it's easy.
"It can start as a simple instrument, and it can become appreciated that way," Woodward said. "But we can't underestimate the diversity and beautiful sounds."
He said that the instrument can be challenging to master.
"I think the part that makes it challenging is that there are simple songs," he said. "But when you add diminished chords, it adds a little bit of color. And I think that's what I've learned how to do with this instrument that made a big difference."
Also, Woodward said there are ways to explore the various tuning of the ʻukulele, but it's still unknown what the original tuning was.
He pointed to the ʻukulele in Yacavone's showroom in Kaimukī made in the late 1800s. He added, "A small instrument like this has a big sound, and that comes from the experiences of the makers and wood as it ages."
Woodward will be one of the musicians selected by Yacavone to play the historical instruments in the new professional studio.
"I'm really honored to be a part of this," Woodward said. "First of all, I get to touch, feel and smell these instruments. I would like to think that somebody within our ancestors played the instruments. I'm not sure if they have, but I'd like to think that they've touched it. So this gives me a way of getting in touch with my ancestors."
