Yes, if you take the word of the Disney Channel. Which you certainly would, wouldn’t you? : )
Reuters published an article entitled, ‘Disney preps next high school musical‘. The article says:
‘The network has ordered an original movie based on the novel “Lemonade Mouth,” the story of five Rhode Island freshmen who meet in detention and decide to form a garage band using unusual instruments, including a ukulele.’
I Googled ‘define: unusual’ to see if the ukulele qualified as usual. (My comments are in parenthesis.)
- not usual or common or ordinary;
- “a scene of unusual beauty” (a Uke or its music can be of unusual beauty) ;
- “a man of unusual ability” (this depends on the player -if it is me, then ‘no’);
- “cruel and unusual punishment” (Tiny Tim WAS guilty of this);
- “an unusual meteorite”(I don’t see any relation to this example)
- strange: being definitely out of the ordinary and unexpected;
- slightly odd or even a bit weird (the Uke is probably not as weird as the player);
- “a strange exaltation that was indefinable” (huh?);
- “a strange fantastical mind” (does this refer to ‘UAS’ or Ukulele Acquisition Syndrome);
- “what a strange sense of humor she has”(this could apply to many female ukists I’m sure)
- not commonly encountered;
- “two-career families are no longer unusual” (neither are two uke-families or even two-ukist families)
- Unlike what is expected;
- differing in some way from the norm (that’s a good thing, right? the Uke has a nice bright and cheerful sound)
- unusually – to a remarkable degree or extent; “she was unusually tall” – yes, the uke IS ‘unusually short’
SO after examing the evidence I would agree that the Ukulele IS an unusual instrument, an unusually GOOD instrument. It is unusually portable, unusually easy to learn to play at a basic level, unusually beautiful when played by a master ukist, there are many unusually beautifully made ukuleles, etc.
The name of the new musical is ‘Lemonade Mouth’. THAT is an UNUSUAL name!
