Original Post By: UkeKook Date: 9/1/2006 11:05:38 AM I'm writing my Master's Music Theory Thesis on Reentrant tuning systems on the ukulele. I need a few things. a) WHERE did the "My Dog Has Fleas" thing come from. I know that uku-lele means "jumping flea" but is that all there is to it?? b) Has anyone done any serious and thorough research into which instruments ACTUALLY contributed to the uke's birth? I know about the Venezuelan Cuatro, the Portugese Braghinha and Rajćo, and I've seen a reference to the Machete. All of these have similarities to the uke but which is the actual culprit? c) I wanna include a comprehensive chord chart as an Appendix. Is there one that has systematically gone through ALL of the chords possible on the instrument within reasonable perameters? All the one's I've seen cover a few standard chords but don't get into which voicing is better where or fingerings or any of that... and MOST leave out the chords that they found not useful whether it is playable or not. Posted By: Jim T. Date: 9/1/2006 12:10:59 PM Ukekook: The earliest known published tuning for the 'ukulele is in Ernest Kaai's 1906 method: GCEA, the standard, re-entrant tuning known today. As A.A. Santos and Angeline Nunes' subsequent method (published in Honolulu in 1915) makes clear, this was "taro patch" tuning, that is, the tuning of the first four strings of the five-string Madeiran rajao applied to the 'ukulele. 19th century sources show the Madeiran machete, the direct ancestor of the 'ukulele, was tuned DGBD. Machete is the 19th century term for what is today known in Madeira as the braguinha. Braguinha appears to be a modern term, as it hasn't been found to date in in any contemporary 19th century references to Madeiran music. (When the original 'ukulele makers advertised their wares in 1885 in O Luso, Honolulu's Portuguese-language newspaper, they advertised machetes.) Slightly larger than a machete, the five-string rajao appears to be a Portuguese variant of the Spanish guitarro and a close relative of the baroque tiple. There are a number of competing accounts as to the origin of the name 'ukulele. Thus far, no definitive evidence has emerged to clarify which might be correct. Whatever its origin, the name emerged quickly: the earliest use of the word 'ukulele I have seen in print dates back to 1889, just 10 years after the machete was introduced to the islands. For more details, you might want to look at "A New History of the Origins and Development of the 'Ukulele. 1838-1915," which appeared in the 2003 edition of the Hawaiian Journal of History. John King at NALU Music http://www.nalu-music.com/index.html would be your best source for more information on the reentrant tuning. Posted By: UkeKook Date: 9/1/2006 12:33:51 PM WOW. What a GREAT reference. Thanks, Jim! That's exactly the kinda stuff I need. I'm not sure what the format is for postings, but I'll try to find a way to credit you. Shawn Posted By: hoaryhead Date: 9/1/2006 12:48:24 PM Contact John King. I think he's in Florida (check players directory). Someone here should be able to tell you how to get ahold of him. Posted By: hoaryhead Date: 9/1/2006 12:49:04 PM ...as it says in Jim T's post. Duh. Posted By: Oceanika Date: 9/1/2006 3:48:04 PM Re question a) "where does the my dog has fleas thing come from?" I think it's just a cute device to remember the tuning - sort of like do-re-mi... I'm not sure if it was part of a song or not; I seem to remember a verse that went "my dog has fleas, how can that be?, I have no dog." I doubt that there is anything significant about the word "flea" in this ditty. The non-musically trained person has no vocabulary for tones so this is just a simple way to remember sequences of them when we need to tune-up. Posted By: UkeKook Date: 9/1/2006 4:00:26 PM Thanks Oceanika, Unfortunately for me... I need something fairly concrete to say about WHERE the saying comes from. I agree that it is probably just a pneumonic device to remember someting but I am at a loss as to how they attach those particular pitches to the words, "My Dog Has Fleas." Even Do, Re, Mi, etc... has concrete roots and reasons that THOSE particular syllables were chosen. I need the ukulele's equivalent. Posted By: Neil A Date: 9/1/2006 4:46:55 PM Sheep Entertainment [linkhttp://www.ukulele.nl/[/link] has chords, lyrics, and a nice performance of a song called "My Dog Has Fleas". This is the only place I've encountered a song by that name and I don't know if it is an old song that happened to use gCEA for opening notes or if it was written more recently and inspired by the common mnemonic (FYI, 'pneumonic' refers to lungs not memory) for tuning the uke. I hope in the process of writing your thesis you may be able to trace down the origins of this oft-repeated phrase. I assume there was a familiar song by that name or with that line in the early days of uke popularity but I'm still unclear when such a song was written: before or after ukes were becoming more popular. I do recall reading a reference somewhere that mentioned an old Burns and Allen movie where Gracie said something about "my dog has fleas" while a uke was being tuned, but I've never identified that film. But that would have to be in the late 30's or early 40's. If you can sort some of this out please share with the rest of us. Oh yeah, to find the song at the above link you will need to double-click the red pick in the lower left field of the screen and go through the listing of songs. Posted By: UkeKook Date: 9/1/2006 4:53:43 PM Thanks for the info. Good leads. Also, thanks for the spelling... LOL. You're totally right and I'm a big ole dork for not remembering the diff. Maybe there's a mnemonic device to remember that... It's kinda funny. When I first got the idea to do this thesis, I was telling my grandmother how the uke is tuned (without using the phrase My Dog Has Fleas) and her immeidate response was "Well, My Dog Has Fleas..." though she couldn't recall WHY that phrase came to mind and she had NO idea it was ukulele related. There has to be SOMETHING from one of the ukulele booms that brought that phrase to the cultural eye. Or, as you guys have said, maybe a song from a bygone era that it is based on. Thanks for the info. Posted By: UkeKook Date: 9/1/2006 4:58:14 PM WOW, Neil... Great site! Thanks again! Posted By: William Date: 9/2/2006 3:49:32 AM how about memory starts with m and pneuma is greek for wind/air which has to do with lungs...except for airheads? where the mneumapneuma no cue no clue (it's too late to think how to finish) ode to ha ha, we'll just let it die............. Posted By: UkeKook Date: 9/2/2006 8:12:25 AM FYI, The "My Dog Has Fleas" song on Sheep Entertainment was written and performed there by Richard Hefner, the webmaster of ezFolk.com. He had no idea it was being used, which I think is kinda sketchy on the part of Sheep Entertainment, but Richard was cool about it so I guess I won't complain. So, I'm still looking for the roots of that one. Any other ideas? Posted By: Neil A Date: 9/2/2006 11:37:28 AM Thanks for tracing back the origins of that particular song. I suspected it was fairly recent and inspired by the long established "mdhf" phrase but I completely missed the Richard Hefner connection. The clawhammer picking should have given a clue and the voice was vaguely familiar. Did he have any insights regarding older songs using that phrase? He'd be a good source for songs from the early uke era. Or Brian Hefferan at http://heftone.com/ This phrase is pretty deeply ingrained in the cultural memory. When I first showed one of my ukes to my brother-in-law who has no previous experience with musical instruments his first remark was "my dog has fleas". I'm not sure how well "my dog has fleas" is known among post baby-boomer generations though. Posted By: Oceanika Date: 9/2/2006 2:43:13 PM I just listened to the song Neil A recommended and that's not the one I'm talking about. I did a quick search and couldn't find a song but I did run across these: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukulele has some good info but has a dead link to the mdhf song. http://www.eob.org.uk/template.cfm?name=commission2 link has this info: "My (Soh) Dog (Doh) Has (Mi) Fleas (Lah)." This also works on any size uke and the top four strings of the quitar, so there are no "fixed" notes, rather a sequence in any key. This may be a false memory, but it seems that in some old B/W movie, someone (Cliff Edwards?) tunes up for his song this way. This, indeed, may not be a complete song, but simply a little ditty that was devised just for this purpose - then became popular through incidental references in articles, radio or movies. Posted By: UkeKook Date: 9/2/2006 6:27:09 PM Thanks for the help, Oceanik. I guess the problem is that I can't find anywhere that tells me why "My=(Soh) Dog=(Doh) Has=(Mi) Fleas=(Lah)." Without a specific reason or source for this, my professors are going to say, "yes... but why does the phrase "My Dog Has Fleas" have any more relevance to those pitches than "Grand Ma Eats Peas..." The solfege syllables, (Do Re Mi, etc...)were a teaching tool used by monks in the 16th century to equate certain pitches in the scale. The names Do, Re, Mi, etc... come from actual Latin words that fell on those pitches in that particular chant and have become the standard for many who teach music, just as we use the musical alphabet. I need the ukulele/My Dog Has Fleas equivalent to THAT kind of info. Where does it come from and WHY does it mean those particular pitches. That's what NOBODY seems to know exactly. Shawn Posted By: juke jeff Date: 9/2/2006 7:23:13 PM From- http://www.spiritofaloha.com/features/1105/ukulele.html Even the origins of the mnemonic my-dog-has-fleas is lost to us. They do tell a humorous story about it in Honolulu, though. A keiki walks into the Kamaka ā€˜ukulele factory on South Street and tells Sam Kamaka, ā€œI want to buy a flea string for my ā€˜ukulele.ā€ When Sam suggests the kid means a ā€œCā€ string, the little keiki replies, ā€œNo, I donā€™t! When my kumu [teacher] tunes my ā€˜ukulele, she sings ā€˜My-dog-has-fleasā€™ and itā€™s the flea string that broke!ā€ Posted By: UkeKook Date: 9/2/2006 7:32:04 PM I sent an e-mail to the Hawaiian Music Foundation... maybe they'll know something. Posted By: AlanJ Date: 9/3/2006 3:36:28 PM I was researching My Dog Has Fleas origins as well but ran out of resources I could follow up in time available. Shawn is finding out what I did. There is a lot of stories around but no one seems to remember enough to piece even a timeline together. I've tried talking with my parents and others about what they remember but it's hard to pin down when they first heard the phrase. Good luck to you and hope you find more! Posted By: Taco Man Date: 9/3/2006 6:17:11 PM .....UkeKook: Maybe Bill Tapia knows. And whether or not, I'm sure he'd be good for a story that would be enjoyed by you and your professors. Posted By: UkeKook Date: 9/3/2006 7:20:32 PM Thanks Taco... I don't know him. How can I ask him? Shawn Posted By: Taco Man Date: 9/4/2006 6:36:42 AM .....Shawn: Not sure how to contact him but others on this board will know. He's 97 (I think) now and still playing and singing. His voice , his playing and his memory are all still going strong. Good luck. If you're not familiar with Bill just do a web search by name alone and you will find much interesting reading. Posted By: Taco Man Date: 9/4/2006 6:41:34 AM .....Shawn: Correction. He's now 98 and still performing. He's truly a national treasure. Posted By: FranSpain Date: 9/4/2006 8:32:26 AM Nobody have investigated it but there are a few little regional guitars in Spain really similar to machete and uke, perhaps older than portuguese instruments, like Guitarrico aragones, guitarro mallorquin, timple canario... Posted By: UkeKook Date: 9/4/2006 8:53:10 AM Taco, Thanks. I'll look him up! Fran, I have seen the timple mentioned a couple of times. Unfortunately, I'm not concerned about getting older than the Portugese instruments because this is a Theory Thesis, not a History one. I need some minimal historical roots to show that uke wasn't created out of thin air. Other than that, I have to kinda stick with technical musical aspects. But thanks for the info. I'll give those guitars a look and see if they apply. I had considered adding the timple to my paper, maybe I'll reconsider it. Mahalo, Shawn Posted By: UkeKook Date: 9/4/2006 10:07:26 AM I couldn't find a direct contact e-mail for Bill Tapia. I wrote an e-mail to the documentary people listed on www.Bill Tapia.com and asked them to forward it. If anybody knows a way I can contact him, please e-mail it to me at SCharton74@hotmail.com. Thanks, guys... your help and comments are providing some great stuff for me to use. Keep 'em coming! =-) Shawn Posted By: Mark 'JazzUkes!' Occhionero Date: 9/5/2006 12:36:59 PM WOW! I picked the wrong thesis topic and the wrong discipline when I did my PhD in materials science. This sound like fun. Can't wait to give it a read. Posted By: soybean Date: 9/5/2006 8:29:40 PM I don't know where "My Dog has Fleas" came from either, but my father remembered it from when he was a kid. It's a memory device to help people to remember the relative pitches of the ukulele tuning. Sort of like "Every good boy does fine" helps people remember the names of notes on the staff. It seems like whoever came up with MDHF may have known the Hawaiian meaning of ukulele and tied in the word fleas for fun. Interestingly, my dad also remembered the phrases "my car eats gas" and "my cow eats grass" as alternates to MDHF. BTW, there was another master thesis about the ukulele: The Hawaiian Ukulele, by Karen S. Drozd, May 1998. Posted By: UkeKook Date: 9/7/2006 12:09:28 AM that's kinda interesting... I'll look into the other one. thanks soy... does anyone know the Hawaiian for "My Dog Has Fleas??" shawn Posted By: soybean Date: 9/7/2006 4:02:26 AM Shawn, i have a copy of the other one. It doesn't get into the "My Dog Has Fleas" topic. also, no chord chart. Posted By: UkeKook Date: 9/8/2006 1:53:58 PM In case snyone was curious, Hawaiian for "My Dog Has Fleas" is "He mau uku ka ko'u ilio" so there is no correlation there. Ok... frustration has set in. LOL Aloha, Shawn Posted By: Neil A Date: 9/8/2006 4:27:04 PM I find Soybean's input interesting. Obviously our fleabitten dog (MDHF) has nothing do with remembering the names of the notes since there are no "m" notes and only some German notation uses "h" for naming pitches. Something like "Green Cats Eat Apples" would be a mnemonic for recalling the names of the notes to tune to. And I don't find anything about the spoken phrase that should help one remember the relative pitches or even the sound of a reentrant tuning. To me, "my dog has fleas" works just as well sung to the first four notes of "Frere Jacques" or the ominous opening notes of Beethoven's 5th. Which continues to support my initial belief that there was some popular song in existence way back when that used those GCEA notes with the phrase. But the memory of Dan's dad that there were other similar mnemonics like "my cow eats grass" would argue against the connection to a unique musical phrase already in the cultural consciousness. More and more it seems that there never was anything other than that short phrase sung to the open pitches of a ukulele. But if so, why is it still remembered? For myself, I think it would take a lot of repetition of the notes and phrase together before an average student player would make that link of phrase to pitches. And even if uke instructors were commonly using this mnemonic with their students how did it ever become familiar to people outside the ukulele community? Very baffling. Posted By: AlanJ Date: 9/8/2006 10:40:39 PM Neil, I have a theory on why MDHF is still remembered. I agree that the phrase is only in connection to the 4 strings on a uke and not part of any song. There just doesn't seem to be any evidence, anecdotal or otherwise, to back it up. Why is it still in the minds of uke players? To me, it seems like oral tradition at work here. We all learned it because someone taught it to us. It's short and humorous and I believe that gives it "stickiness" and not subject to change as other oral traditions. It is passed down when the "uke connection" between people is established (i.e. teacher/student, friend/friend, parent/child, etc.). Where it originated? I'm clueless.. but that's my theory on why it persists. Posted By: UkeKook Date: 9/9/2006 11:33:25 AM I JUST received both Ernest and Bobby Kaai's books and neither says anything about My Dog Has Fleas. Actually, the Ukulele: A Hawaiian Guitar suggests that CEGC non reentrant tuning and offers the standard tuning as an option. However, the standard tuning is not even spelled out, He just tells you how to tune to it. He also includes MANY different forms of tablature in it. It's a much more structured approach than I expected. Interesting... Shawn Posted By: Pauline Date: 9/9/2006 12:53:49 PM Just a thought, but MDHF doesn't sound like it's from Hawaii. How 'bout looking east to the British Isles, land of Formby and, I'm sure, others who were famous in their day? Posted By: UkeKook Date: 9/9/2006 1:40:28 PM Pauline, My thought was that it was either translated from Hawaiian (I know now that it wasn't.) or that it was invented as a teaching tool by the missionaries who came to Hawaii. But both of those would imply that there is SOME conection between the saying and the actual notes. Ķf there is a connection , I am not finding it. I am FAST coming to the conclusion that the phrase is just something someone came up with to go with the "jumping flea" translation of ukulele. the phrase is specific to the ukulele so it seems a HUGE conincidence that ukulele means "jumping flea" and the phrase used to teach the tuning is "MDHF"... I WISH someone could produce an old folk song that would explain all of this. LOL... Posted By: John King Date: 9/9/2006 1:43:35 PM Shawn, Good luck with your research. If you look at the Kaai, you'll see that when he says there is more than one way to tune an ukulele he's not refering to scordaturae; (he isn't suggesting tuning the ukulele CEGC but rather demonstrating a practical method of how to tune using solfege). With the exception of the Spanish Fandango which has the tuning GCEG (Taropatch!) the uke is tuned GCEA re-entrant. John King Posted By: Neil A Date: 9/9/2006 3:05:12 PM Shawn, I may have found that hoped-for folksong. Or at least a leading candidate. When I was doing some websearching last week I encountered references to a song called "Nero, my dog, has fleas" in a collection of children's camp songs. Having already learned that the song I first proposed was written recently by Richard Hefner I assumed the Nero song was also something modern. But further research reveals that "Nero" is parody of "Nearer my God to Thee" and was a popular drinking song in the late 1800's. Right era!! : ) BUT.. alas, the wrong notes. : ( Assuming the modified lyrics overlay the opening notes of "Nearer My God" the MDHF phrase would be sung to C-C-A-A (in the key of G).Not even close to what I hoped for. However, (and here's where you'll need a stretchable imagination) the next phrase of the original song repeats the words "nearer to Thee" and it is easy to expect a repeat there of the words "my dog has fleas" in the parody. The four notes there? G-C-E- and D. Oops, almost had it. But 3 outta 4 ain't bad, huh? And that mismatched fourth note might actually be the key to this mnemonic. IF you can imagine a teacher comically pantomiming his reaction to a surpising flea bite received just as the last note is sung. The unexpected higher inflection at the end of a familiar musical phrase might have given this line the punch it needed to make it memorable. There is one other fly...er, flea in the ointment I need to acknowledge though. The GCED quoted above does use a low G and therefore does nothing to support remembering a reentrant tuning. But still...? Posted By: soybean Date: 9/9/2006 6:19:35 PM That is very interesting. I don't know much about popular drinking songs of the 1800s, but maybe the folks at www.tinfoil.com have a recording of the Nero song. Posted By: Taco Man Date: 9/9/2006 6:50:43 PM ....I think there is something "organic" about pentatonic. Some little kid said "Mom, how do you tune this", and she sang: "My Dog Has Fleas." (S,D,M,L.) It just falls out of your mouth that way. Childhood chants on the playground nearly always are pentatonic. "Johnny's got a girlfriend." Now sing that to yourself without thinking. I bet 9 out of ten of you sang S,S,M,L,S,M in four/four time. Or try "Here Kitty,Kitty,Kitty,Kitty." Bet you sang "S,MM,MM,MM,MM." I think we have about as much chance of finding the true origin as these well known chants as the MDHF memory tool. Posted By: Taco Man Date: 9/10/2006 10:11:44 AM .....Correction: (...of these well known chants....) Posted By: Kāneipu Date: 9/10/2006 1:42:27 PM I asked the "my dog has fleas" question once and got some interesting answers. Search for the thread called: "My Dog Has Got No Fleas" Posted By: UkeKook Date: 9/10/2006 5:38:46 PM This actually seems possible to me. What do you guys think?? Posted By: Guest_Pauline Leland Date: 4/6/2004 In a recent thread about MDHF, Granpa Bob gave the definitive answer. I want to believe it, so I do. Bob Pickett said, "This is my remembrance, and I was there. Shortly after talkies came along, when ukuleles were a rage, George Burns and Gracie Allen appeared in a movie in which Gracie played a uke and tuned it by singing my dog has fleas. Then the incredible teacher of the time, May Singhi Breen, put the phrase in some of her truly excellent instruction books. The rest, as they say, is history. Grandpa Bob" I'm gonna follow up on this and see what I can find. Does anyone know if there is a movie with George and GRacie where she tunes to MDHF?? Shawn Posted By: Neil A Date: 9/10/2006 7:26:42 PM I know it didn't happen in "College Swing" (1938). I remember viewing it and watching for that scene. There were some ukes but no tuning scenes. Other good candidates might be "Honolulu", "College Humor", "College Holiday", or one the the "Big Broadcast" films from the 30's. I love Gracie and would watch any of her films gladly, but few are available in my neighborhood. Not buying my "Nero, My Dog, has Fleas" theory, huh? Oh well, it was worth a shot. I'll be visiting my 87 year old parents next weekend. Maybe I should poll them and their neighbors in the senior housing unit to see if anyone remembers anything regarding MDHF from their youth. Posted By: soybean Date: 9/11/2006 2:14:14 AM If George and Gracie used it, i'll bet they got it from May Breen, not the other way around. Posted By: Jim T. Date: 9/11/2006 12:16:37 PM It might have been "Honolulu." From Jim Beloff's "Visual History": "In one scene [Gracie] is shown having a hard time tuning her uke, finally admitting to her friend, 'You see what's wrong, Dorothy...the dogs are all right, but the fleas are out of tune.'" Posted By: UkeKook Date: 9/12/2006 10:46:29 AM LOL... ok, that's just funny. The Dog's alright but the fleas are out of tune... AH the old days... when humor wasn't based on the number of explicatives you could fit into 5 minutes. It's not that I'm not buying the Nero, My Dog Has Fleas... Just thought that sounded possible. I'll look for "Honolulu" and see what I can make of it. Shawn Posted By: alex.jang Date: 11/26/2008 7:43:03 PM Go for it, UkeKook! Posted By: Ernie Date: 11/27/2008 3:29:38 AM I've wondered about this since I first took up the uke, and I sure hope you can find some answers! An itunes search of "My Dog Has Fleas" turned up several songs- only one of which matched the words of that phrase to the proper relative note sequence of a re-entrant ukulele. That song was on an album called "Dog People", by FREEBO. The recording is decidedly modern, and I don't know if it was an old song, given a modern spin or not. On the other hand, "Nero, My Dog, Has Fleas" also turned up, and the notes bear no connection whatsoever, so I think you can rule that one out. Posted By: hoaryhead Date: 11/27/2008 4:03:14 AM Isn't it possible that the instrument and tuning system had separate roots? Certainly re-entrant tuning systems in other instruments would be a place to go--I'm thinking banjo, specifically. There should be a lot of background information on the evolution of re-entrant tuning on that instrument. I don't think it's altogether unlikely that there isn't some sort of connection. Posted By: Bill1 Date: 11/27/2008 7:07:11 AM Try Ella Jenkins on Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, and in the wikipedia. Posted By: jeanadriane Date: 11/27/2008 7:37:26 AM There are similar phrases for the tuning of the Venezolean cuatro, tuned in D and also reentrant but with the outer strings one octave lower than the ukulele. In Venezuela the phrase is "cambur pinton" ([ka:m'bu:r pi:n'ton] - ripe banana) and in Curacao they sing "pastor tin pan" [pa:s'to:r ti:n pa:ng] - (Papiamento for: pastor has bread). Here vowel pich seems to be the give-away for the tuning, in Venezuela, with the sharp "ee" in the middle and the darker "oh" in the end, in Curacao mainly with the bright "ee" in the middle surrounded by darker tones. MDHF has that same "ee" sound at the highest pitched string too. The cuatro phrases have more (semi-)plosives that to my ear match well with the sound of plucked strings and with the percussive nature of Caribbean music. I too will love to read your thesis, UkeKook! Posted By: Dutch Date: 11/27/2008 8:18:01 AM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IN3aETNaThI When the uke exploded as a fad the first time in the US, it produced a phenom similar to the hula-hoop, rubics cube, pogo stick, etc. ad infinitum. The difference between the uke as a fad and as a musical instrument is the choice by MANY practitioners over a period of time and through several generations. We are merely ratifying an experience shared by those who've gone before us. The clarinet developed; the chalameau died. The violins thrived; the viols (except for the bass) fell into disuse. But both the clarinet and violin have lagged behind the sales of cheap guitars (acoustic & electric)from Wal-mart. In fact, more people perform on guitar for money than on ukulele. More people hear piano performances in church (in the USA) than in concert halls. There are more uke bars in Honolulu than in Toad Suck Ferry, Arkansas. These are happenings beyond our control. The uke phenom in the "jazz age" (1st or 2nd wave, depending on how you count) had a magnitude far beyond our imagination. The variety of instruments, performance skills, practice levels, money in play, music performed, etc. were more varied than the many yo-yo resurgences during the first half of the 20th century to name one example. MDHF is probably a popular (ratified by players) device to get you close to the right pitches so you could read the tabs that came with the sheet music so you could serenade your sweetie or play a pop tune for your friends. It was probably part of the ukulele explosion and its origins were rapidly evolved into a tuning tool that spread too rapidly to chronicle. Although it might be stated more elegantly, academically, or prosaicly than this, MDHF as a tuning aid for the ukulele has its beginnings lost in the rapidly developing ukulele fad in the early 20th century. It was used by practitioners who neither had nor wanted the skills developed by understanding ut, re, mi developing into movable or fixed do solfeggio, diatonic scale relationships, reentrant tuning, string physics (harmonics), or even the letter names of the notes they were playing. ("Just show me the chord!") Musicians discovered fifth tunings gave you range and flexibility for a wide variety of instruments for musical expression (violins, mando, banjo, etc.). But fourth tuning is still with us (guitar, bass viol, electric bass). And people discovered slack key, scordaturae, slide guitar, and different uke tunings. When I pick up an instrument I am preparing to play, I strum it. If it sounds like MDHF, I commence. If not, I check tuning by frets, maybe check the harmonics, then play a scale or primary triads to see if I'm close enough for what I need at the time, and launch out into the deep of the magic of music. MDHF is a tool my ear uses to make the magic, not the magic itself. I wish you good fortune with this ethnomusicological mystery. I await the solution to the mystery with bated breath. But not with held breath (LOL). Keep on tunin' Dutch Posted By: Aaron Keim Date: 11/27/2008 1:05:33 PM When I was doing my master's thesis on hawaiian guitar I came up with some decent resources, but nothing was as complete, scholarly and up to date as John King's stuff. He also has traveled back to portugal (I think) with Dan Scanlan to do some research on the old instruments. Remember, almost every culture settled by Portugal/Spain has a small 4-10 string guitar-type-thing. They were all just modified and adapted to fit the local situation: timple, quatro, tres, requinto, cavaquino, charango... I thought that "mdhf" might have been from a pop song and people kept using it because everybody new the song and could sing those pitches. The May Breen things seems more likely, it sounds like an bit of early jazz age wit. Aaron Posted By: lecky Date: 11/28/2008 3:29:30 AM The twist in the idea that May Breen might have popularised MDHF is that she popularised D tuning (aDF#B), rather than using gCEA. Posted By: jeanadriane Date: 11/28/2008 5:54:26 AM What's the twist there, Lecky? First time I heard MDHF was in the Caribbean when they told me how to tune the ukebanjo - in D. Posted By: lecky Date: 11/28/2008 8:19:04 AM You're quite right jeanette, it's just my lazy assumption that MDHF might be gCEA rather than that relation of notes in different pitches. Posted By: AlanJ Date: 11/30/2008 2:12:31 PM A few pages back was a reference to Gracie Allen singing "My Dog Has Fleas" while tuning her uke in the film "Honolulu" (1934). The clip can be found on YouTube. This is the earliest reference I've found for the phrase. It's not in any ukulele instruction book I've looked at and not in any reference to May Singh Breen. Posted By: Dasher Date: 11/30/2008 4:12:10 PM   (Updated: 11/30/2008 4:14:45 PM) Admittedly I haven't read all the posts in this thread so someone may already have mentioned it; but the Gracie Allen link to the movie "Honolulu" was posted on this board on October 31st. That crazy song has been going around in my head ever since and now you've made me look it up and start it going around all over again. Here is the link: http://tinyurl.com/5tks9z The movie was made in 1939. Posted By: AlanJ Date: 11/30/2008 6:03:37 PM Thanks Dasher!

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