Now, I cannot claim to be Hawaiian. So that begs the question, do Hawaiians really tune the ukulele this way?
- The first video below shows Israel Kamakawiwo’ole singing “Ahi Wela” while playing ukulele.
- At the beginning of the video, you can see he plucks each adjacent open string. As he plucks, he lets the strings ring.
- Then, he makes a final check by strumming a C chord.
You can see that Kamakawiwo’ole checked the ukulele using essentially a cross between the “my dog has fleas” and Bailey’s tuning methods.
- However, he did not sing “my dog has fleas.”
- Nor did he do “Do, Mi, Sol, Do.”
- When I did my test tuning, I basically did the same thing he did.
In addition, on the Facebook Xenharmonic Alliance group Richie Greene – who went to King Kekaulike High School in Makawao, Hawaii – made this comment on the post you’re reading:
… this is very real. I was born and raised in Hawaii. Maui elementary schools definitely used the ‘my dog has fleas’ method.
He then goes on to say:
Uku’ (in an elementary school context) meant ‘Lice’ though just as likely was synonymous with ‘Flea,’ as ‘Lele’ is ‘to jump.’ It’s said earlier Polynesians and Hawaiians thought the plucked strings sounded like fleas jumping!
So, the answer is “yes.” You need to use some form of the My-Dog-Has-Fleas method if you want to tune your ukulele like a Hawaiian.
However, if you’re not comfortable tuning the ukulele without using the frets, you can tune the ukulele with the free “My Dog Has Fleas” online tuner.
In the final video you will learn, “Aloha ‘Oe.”