In Hawaiian, “ukulele” means “jumping flea” – that is what your fingers look like when you play this rare but fascinating string instrument. Something that looks so unglamorous has been appreciated by artists like George Harrison, Tom Jones, Brian May and Elvis Presley. Listen to Gabriel Skitaniak, The Ukulele Man, demonstrating some of his skills live in the studio. Some fascinating ukulele stories follow in his conversation with Jurek Chyb. Don’t miss Gabriel playing his own composition used in his classroom practice with third-graders who think they are pirates, but in fact they learn English without realising it.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.