♪♪♪ announcer: From beautiful Solana Beach, this is San Diego's musical showcase, "Live at the Belly Up."

In tonight's episode, Jake Shimabukuro takes us up and down his ukulele's fretboard with Hawaiian, rock, classical, and flamenco songs.

♪♪♪ Jake Shimabukuro: I wanna please the audience, you know?

I want them to walk out of the venue feeling like, "Oh, you know, that music really touched me," or "I was so impacted by it."

announcer: And now please welcome to the stage Jake Shimabukuro.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Jake: Hah.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Jake: Hah.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Jake: Woo.

Jake: So I was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, and my mom played the ukulele, so when I was about four years old, she sat me down, taught me a few chords, and I just fell in love with it.

One of the nice things about the ukulele is it's a very simple instrument, so you can learn chords right away.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Jake: And because I couldn't sing, I couldn't just strum chords, right?

I had to play--incorporate the melody so that the listener could identify the song, and that's what kind of led to the style that I play today.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Jake: Here's Amy's part.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Jake: The arrangements that I will be playing tonight, you know, will demonstrate different sides of the ukulele, again, you know, talking about the different characters, right?

So, you're gonna hear these harp-like techniques that I use on a song called "Piano Forte," where I play these arpeggiated notes, so it sounds more like you playing arpeggios on a piano, right?

And then I also have a looper with me, so that song was inspired by watching piano players and watching their left and right hand, so it's a piece that I composed for two ukuleles.

One ukulele represents the left hand of the pianist, and the other ukulele represents the right hand.

So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna play the left-hand part first, record it, loop it back, and then play the right- hand part over that.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Jake: There's another song.

It's inspired by a Japanese folk tune called "Sakura, Sakura."

That is played on the koto, which is a 13-string Japanese harp.

It has the most incredible sound, very percussive, unique, but it just kind of transports you, you know, that sound, and I remember, when I first heard the koto in Japan, I was so inspired, and when I got back home to Hawaii, I locked myself up in my room, and I just tried all these different things on the ukulele to make my ukulele sound more like the koto.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Jake: At some point, I realized that I didn't just have to listen to ukulele players for inspiration, right?

And that's when I started listening to guitar players.

I started listening to pianists, to harpist, you know, even singers, right?

Just learning how to phrase the melodies like a singer would.

I would even do exercises where I would only play, and as I played, I would have to exhale and breathe out, and if I ran out of breath, I would have to stop playing, so it kind of taught me to not just play these run-on ideas, you know, that would just go on forever, but it helped me to phrase more to be more conversational, I think, with my playing, and that really changed the way that I expressed, you know, myself through the instrument.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Jake: Woo!

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Jake: Woo!

Woo!

Woo!

Please welcome to the stage my dear friend, all the way from Honolulu, Hawaii, Jackson Waldhoff.

All right.

Jackson's gonna play the big ukulele.

Jake: A nice thing about the ukulele and bass is that, to me, the bass guitar almost kind of, like, completes the ukulele because the ukulele has a very limited range.

You have two octaves, right, to work with.

The lowest note on the ukulele is the third string.

In traditional tuning, it's the third string, which is C, or like middle C on the piano, and then I have a C above that and then one more C above that, so I'm basically just working with that much of the keyboard, like if you sat at a piano, so it's a very limited range, but most popular melodies and things like that fall within a two-octave range, right?

But then, with the bass now, I have all this--I have from middle C up until--you know, and two C's above that, but then the bass covers everything below that, all of the notes and the entire register that I don't have.

So when we play certain chords, if we voice it right, it becomes this huge sound.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Jake: Give it up for Jackson Waldhoff on the bass there.

Nice, man, woo.

That was an original piece, called "6/8."

Thank you very much.

All right.

See if you recognize this Beatles tune.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Jake: One of the messages I always share with every performance is, especially if there's kids in the audience, I always like to say, you know, to all the kids in the audience, you know, find your passion.

Find something that you love.

And I share with them, you know, for me, it was playing the ukulele and music, and I started when I was four, and, you know, I just encourage them to find something that they love and just practice, practice, practice, study, study, study, and the last thing I always like to leave them with is and be drug-free, you know, 'cause I've been drug-free my whole life, and I think it's important to encourage, you know, kids to make that decision.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Jake: Yeah!

Oh!

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Jake: Woo.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Take care.

Have a wonderful night.

Hope to see ya at the Belly Up once again.

Aloha.

Thank you.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ announcer: Support for this program comes from the KPBS Explore Local Content Fund, supporting new ideas and programs for San Diego.