UNION MUSIC PUB. CO. / E. N. GUCKERT — The Original Guckert's Chords for the Ukulele at Sight without Notes Or Teacher

Detroit, MI: Union Music Pub. Co, 1917. 1st Edition; 1st Printing. Sheet music. B&W Illustrations; This is a larger than trade sized booklet with cardstock covers and a stapled spine. The booklet is in Near Fine condition and was issued without a dust jacket. The text pages are clean and bright. "The Ukulele is commonly associated with music from Hawaii where the name roughly translates as "jumping flea", perhaps because of the movement of the player's fingers. Legend attributes it to the nickname of the Englishman Edward William Purvis, one of King Kalakaua's officers, because of his small size, fidgety manner, and playing expertise. One of the earliest appearances of the word Ukulele in print (in the sense of a stringed instrument) is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Catalogue of the Crosby Brown Collection of Musical Instruments of All Nations published in 1907. The catalog describes two ukuleles from Hawaii: one that is similar in size to a modern soprano Ukulele, and one that is similar to a tenor. Developed in the 1880s, the Ukulele is based on several small guitar-like instruments of Portuguese origin, the machete, the cavaquinho, the timple, and the rajão, 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." " (from Wikipedia). Near Fine .