George Elmes is Ireland’s most prominent ukulele player. Originally from Balbriggan, Co Dublin his virtuoso playing has garnered him a huge audience on YouTube. He has released two solo ukulele albums and will play the main stage at the Ukulele Hooley in Dún Laoghaire on Sunday.
The ukulele is becoming the instrument of choice for young people are for those getting into music for the first time. What is your advice to ukulele players?
Hobbies should be challenging, not fun. Have a consistent practice plan. Even if you are not in the mood, still do it. I have learned from teaching in China that the people who are consistent in practising, they are the ones who always flourish. Also enjoy it.
How did you get into the ukulele?
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I was playing guitar for years. I used to play in wedding bands. It was during the recession that I got tired of it and it was harder to get work. I bought a ukulele as a joke. It was in Walton’s at the time and it was €20. I bought it just for fun. They became popular because Chinese companies started making these colourful ukuleles which started to come on to the market in the mid-2000s. I bought one of them. Then I discovered players such as Roy Smeck and George Formby and people like that.
I started doing that on the side and then I started playing less guitar. At the time I was full-time with guitar playing in a band. It is either a feast or a famine with music. Sometimes you are doing well, other times there is nothing going on. During the recession there was not much going on. I was in my early 20s. I used that time to practise the ukulele and get better on it. I always practised it with a view to making it my career. I took it very seriously from the beginning.
I was working as a ukulele teacher in China for six years. During Covid-19 it was a challenge, so six months ago I decided to come back to Ireland. Now I’m based in Italy
Then the ukulele took over and it became a full-time thing. I don’t own a guitar any more. It’s all ukulele.
I went to a music institute in Brighton for a year, but I never really saw music as an academic pursuit. I saw it as a trade. I learned on the job. I know what music theory is. I study it and I implement it a lot, but I’m mainly self-taught.
I was working as a ukulele teacher in China for six years. During Covid-19 it was a challenge, so six months ago I decided to come back to Ireland. Now I’m based in Italy. I operate from Florence teaching and performing around Europe. Teaching is mainly online nowadays so I continue to teach people in China.
What was it about the ukulele that attracted you?
It has a reputation as a mellow instrument that relaxes people. When I picked it up it was actually a very aggressive instrument. All the great players from the 1920s onwards play the crap out of it. A lot of that was missing with the current popularity. There were so many unique techniques to it like the triplet strum that it sounded very different from any other instrument. It was very exciting to learn. When you are learning something new, the first few months are always the best because you are making progress. You get a second wind. This gave me a new lease of life.
You play the soprano ukulele, which is the smallest version of the instrument. Is there a challenge to playing an instrument that small?
The violin and the cello are also four stringed instruments and people play the hell out of them as well. I think the full potential of the instrument has not been explored. The soprano ukulele is a lot harder to play than the guitar because the frets are so narrow and the strings less forgiving. If you are not perfect, the note chokes and you hear it. It is a struggle, but a fun struggle in terms of mastering it.
At what stage did you decide to make the leap to becoming a professional ukulele player?
It started when I saw the needle move with YouTube. I started uploading videos rather naively and then you saw more people commenting a lot more. I did one viral video which got five million hits comparing a $20 ukulele with a $1,000 ukulele.
Then I decided to pursue it a bit more and I got asked to play ukulele festivals back in 2012 and 2013, I think it was. That builds you up. When the world responds to what you are doing, it tells you you are on the right path. I moved to China in 2016 to do a tour with a ukulele brand. I met a bunch of people in a massive store with loads of students and they asked me if I wanted to teach there. I ended up staying for six years. I enjoyed the teaching and performing so much.
Is the ukulele popular in China?
Yes. In the West it is seen as an instrument for middle-aged people, a relaxing and social thing to do. They take their musical education seriously in China. It is not seen as a fun thing. It is really incorporated into their education. They take it much more seriously as an instrument. The novelty aspect is not there. There are a lot of great ukulele players in Japan. That was great for me. It was a good challenge to be playing over there.
How important is YouTube to your brand?
It’s everything. It is how you get to know people, it is how you get to network in terms of teaching and getting your music out there. Social media is all you have. I have a following on Chinese social media. Some times I have mixed feelings about it. A lot of the stuff that gets hits is where you are giving a quick, free lesson. People are really only interested when they are getting something out of it. At the moment I’m trying to make it mutually beneficial, because people want everything for nothing.
When I was getting more involved in the scene, I noticed a lot of players in the real world who are not on social media and they are really good. I thought I was really good, but then you see these players. I took a break from social media to play live and get myself up to speed.
Tell us about your two albums of original music.
I have two solo soprano ukulele albums (soprano ukulele 1 & 2). One is them is on Spotify. I’m moving one of them over to Bandcamp at the moment which is a bit more of an organic thing. The first album did really well in China because I have a following there. We produced CDs, T-shirts and badges. It was the first time that they likely heard this tune or that tune.
Where is the ukulele at as an instrument in Ireland at the present?
You can match the trend in Ireland with all of the rest of Europe. It came out in the late 2000s. You saw these ukuleles arrive in shops. The second reason why it became popular is because of YouTube. People can see this small instrument, they can click on videos. The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain are very popular.
The ukulele does very well at a time of economic depression. It did really well during the Great Recession and the Great Depression of the 1930s. It had a boost, too, during Covid-19. Ukulele Hooley was one of the first festivals in terms of it going on all day with various types of acts.
That approach inspired other festivals across Europe. Ukulele players owe a lot to Ireland for that early festival. I always thought the popularity of ukulele would go away around 2014, that it would be like rollerblading, but it has solidified. A lot of people who played back there are still playing. It is not a fad. To me, it is an instrument that has been born and is now fully formed. I don’t think it will go away any time soon.
You are playing the Ukulele Hooley on the main stage on Sunday. Are you looking forward to it?
It will be quite emotional playing that, because it is in Ireland. I didn’t get a chance to play it because I was in China and then there was Covid-19. The last time I was there was around 2017. It is a great festival. It is very well done and is run by people for all the right reasons. You see people who get into the ukulele for money. They started giving lessons and selling ukulele because they know it is popular. I noted this a lot in China. They weren’t really into it, but there was always money to be made.
