I’m a long time admirer of your work. I had the good fortune of working with James Hill on a chord solo book (50 Easy Uke Chord Solos) which he recorded for me. He also stays at our house when he comes to So. Calif, so he have a lot of time to chat about things. The subject of John King came up and he was more than complimentary about your work.

I was prompted to write to you finally because, strangely enough, your recording of Washington Post March. As a clarinet player, I spent a lot of time in band in the military, and remember a commanding officer telling the band: If you want to know how to please the commander, play Wash. Post, because it gives me that spine tingling feeling up my _____.

The chord solo book came out of my frustration of not having been able to find a beginning method book for chord solos. I was encouraged after James Hill played through the solos and said he would be glad to record them for me.

I started to play in ‘01 and had a lot of help from Bill Tapia, who lives close by and was available for teaching. Can’t believe it. In 9 days he’ll be 100. I’ve played a lot of gigs with him on clarinet and bari uke.

I understand that you are a classical guitarist. You may know Jeff Cogan of Chapman Univ, who is very active in all the international guitar groups. He introduced me to some of the works of Sor, Carcassi and Coste, and it inspired me to write twelve clarinet pieces which use the Sor, Carcassi and Coste pieces as accompanyments. They worked out quite well, and ClearnNote Publishers of Columbus, Oh. has just published them.

I would email a couple of the MP3s we have of them, but I do not have an email address for you. I’ll try to get them hooked up onto my web site.

Hope to meet you someday. If you would like to look further into the book, the web site is http://www.ukesolos.com. Have to admit though, I can think on the uke only with low G string. I need that extra perfect fourth for the melodies. Haven’t played long enough to master those high frets.

Gerry Long

P.S. I’m also doing a series of on line teaching aids called UKE-TIPS, in which I talk about chords, chord progressions. and other short cuts to learning the uke.

Jim Beloff sent me on over to ask my question to you. He mentioned that you are currently working on a book, an in-depth history of the ukulele, and so you would be the person to ask.

I have a copy of an obituary of Nunes in a newspaper, The Modesto Evening News August 2, 1922, that mentions “Manuel Nunes, inventor of the ukulele, dies in Honolulu. He built the first ukulele out of a cigar box in 1879.”

I’ve seen the Kamaka cigar box Ukes before. But, Nunes? The idea isn’t
absurd that Nunes made a cigar box ukulele. Kamaka was a student of Nunes afterall and the dozen or so that Kamaka made are well known.

My question is, does any other evidence of a Nunes cigar box ukulele survive today? The newspaper could be wrong, but if it is correct, perhaps Kamaka designed his cigar box ukuleles after Nunes. Any ideas?

Great looking site by the way! –Bill

Thanks for your comments. With regard to your idea for updating the Dias marker, perhaps other descendants might have a similar interest. I’m not sure who owns the deed to the burial plot, but a call to Makiki Cemetery caretakers might shed some light. Then again, since Augusto’s grave was overlooked in the 1980s survery, maybe not. I might be able to put you in touch with some descendants; let me know.

John

My great-great grandfather was Augusto Dias. Thank you for the information on his grave-site. I was dissapointed in how deteriorated the headstone is and would like to investigate installing a new, more fitting headstone that would recognize him for his contributions to the ukulele as well as his friendship with the “merry monarch”. There is some debate on who actually invented the ukulele and all of my research indicates (given the record keeping of that day) at least two and possibly three men are credited with this. It would be nice to share some of the credit for someting of such historical significance. Do you have any clue on who I might speak to regarding the potential for a new headstone for Augusto Dias?

Thanks,

Bob Dye

noel v.

ps. any plans for a book on the history of the ‘ukulele?

Thanks for your comments. Jumpin’ Jim’s Ukulele Masters: The Classical Ukulele has a couple of uke and guitar arrangements and Ukulele: The Early Methods has a few. There are also some out-of-print methods and anthologies that come to mind: The Bickford Ukulele Method and Arling Schaeffer’s ukulele book. Have fun.

JK