John Baguley says a ukulele is like a small guitar, but it’s only got four strings.
They come in various sizes, from a sopranino, concert, soprano, tenor, baritone to a bass.
John says: “They are easy to play. You don’t have to read music because what you do is read a chord window and basically what that is is a picture of the four strings.
“If you can play a ‘c’ and an ‘f’ that is virtually all you need to know to play something like Leaving on a Jet Plane.”
The story goes that small guitars were taken by plantation workers in the 19th century from Spain and Portugal to America and Hawaii where they would he played at the end of the working day.
The king of Hawaii saw their fingers flying up and down the little guitars and said “Ukulele”, meaning something like dancing fleas.
The instrument was adapted, given four strings and became the ukulele as we know it today.
The ukulele came to Britain at about the turn of the 20th century.
To book (2014 onwards) or find out more about The Ukulele Orchestra of Spalding, ring 01733 211174.