German Guitarist Jan Haasler Has Transformed Into a Soprano Ukulele Master

BY BLAIR JACKSON | PHOTOS BY ROBERT RÖMER | FROM THE FALL 2025 ISSUE OF UKULELE MAGAZINE

For many years now, there have been clubs, workshops, and festivals all over Germany catering to ukulele enthusiasts. However, apart from the popular Bad Mouse Orchestra, the Jazz Age–leaning group covered in the Summer 2021 issue of Ukulele, not much German uke music has made it to America. So it was a very pleasant surprise for me in the fall of 2024 to stumble across the music of Jan Haasler.

He’s an interesting fellow: originally a guitarist, he didn’t take up the ukulele until the pandemic in 2020, but since then he has become a real force in the German ukulele scene. He’s put out an excellent EP and two albums of original, soprano uke–dominated instrumentals—Ukumentals no. 1, no. 2, and no. 3 (all available on janhaasler.bandcamp.com and streaming services). He’s also played at several German festivals, including the popular Berlin Ukulele Festival, and helped start both the ALUHA (Algäuer Ukulele Happening) in mountainous southern Bavaria, and the Thüringer Ukulelefest in Jena, in central Germany.

The music on Haasler’s three releases covers a broad spectrum of styles that showcases his dexterous strumming, deft fingerpicking, and uncanny knack for writing bright, catchy melodies. He adds tasteful overdubbed acoustic guitar to several of the tracks, and Bad Mouse Orchestra’s Charlotte Pelgen sings one tune on Ukumentals no. 3, “ALUHA Rag.” That album also finds Yuko Matsuyama vocalizing on “Torreira (reprise).” Haasler has described no. 3 (my favorite of his releases) as “postcards of memories of enjoyable times, people, and places.”

He lives with his wife and two sons in the city of Erfurt in eastern mid-Germany and makes his living as a social worker in local schools. We asked him a few questions about his road to ukulele and his current musical pursuits.

Tell me a little about your pre-ukulele musical adventures. 

I’ve played guitar since my childhood and am trained in classical, rock, pop, blues, jazz and fusion. After years of electric guitar in neo-classic rock, metal, and also fusion, I stepped more into folk and swing and also fingerstyle guitar, which I always liked as well. My jazz background comes from my years at a conservatory in Berlin studying with Tom Weise. All those skills come together in a new, exciting way doing my music on the ukulele today.

How and why did you choose the ukulele during the pandemic? 

I brought a guitalele on a family vacation because traveling without a car always kept me from bringing a guitar. After playing that for a while, I realized I sometimes picked it differently compared to how I normally would play the guitar, which changed the tone. I realized it is more like a ukulele with six strings. I wanted to find out more about that instrument.

What was the most difficult part of translating your guitar skills to the tiny four-string?

Getting used to the feel of the scale, building the “right” tone—not making the ukulele sound like a small guitar—and thinking in the logic of that instrument, relearning the keys, etc. I started with tenor ukulele because I thought it would help me as a guitar player, but I realized it did not. I sounded like me as a guitarist on the ukulele.

After visiting [uke player] Andreas David in Berlin and picking up my first decent ukulele, he told me to listen to Ohta-San [Hawaiian great Herb Ohta, Sr.]. I became a huge admirer of his work, his tone, and his sound, and felt like I needed to play the soprano ukulele. After some months of practicing daily thanks to the pandemic, I had some time and my family supported me, too. That helped me to get more into the direction of becoming a ukulele player and developing my own musical signature.

What was the first ukulele you owned? I know you played Flight ukuleles early on, but are now quite keen on Brüko instruments. Can you tell me more about them? 

The Flight WUS-3 model was the first “real” soprano I purchased, and later the WUS-4 made in Hawaii. I learned a lot about soprano sound qualities on those models. Those were exciting times.

I bought my first 1980s Brüko No. 4 soprano in a pawn shop in my city and always liked the dry, crisp, and bell-like tone that cuts through in every mix. Those two—the Flight WUS and the old Brüko—were my main sopranos for a long time. I read about Brüko often in forums and Facebook groups and later found out that some famous German entertainers I liked as a kid played them as well.

I visited their factory in late 2021 and have since visited several more times—I can travel there and back in a day—and gained a collection of their models. They build fantastic instruments. They have something special. They do not care too much about marketing, influencers, the big game, and everything. They’re just normal people with normal lives and lots of passion and competence. I compared a 1920s Oscar Schmidt soprano to Brüko models and thought they sounded very similar. [Editor’s Note: Brüko announced in late 2024 it would be ceasing production of ukuleles.]

Were you aware of players like Roy Smeck and George Formby and others from the mid-20th century before you started playing?

I was aware of Smeck—who also played guitar—and Jake Shimabukuro. Jake performed with Tommy Emmanuel, who I adore. I love what he expresses on the guitar and what Jake expresses on the ukulele. I learned about all the other famous uke players later, after starting on the ukulele in late 2020. I learned about the other mid-20th century players later.

How did your Ukumentals series come about? Is it just from the process of practicing different things on the instrument and seeing that certain “song” structures emerged? Or did you sit down and try to write ukulele pieces?

This is a really interesting question, because I think it is a mixture of both. I wrote many tunes for guitar before as well. With the ukulele, every time I reached a new level or learned something new, I’d let things flow and come up with a riff, a song idea, or something that I kept developing in my head and on the instrument, too. It is kind of my own therapy sometimes. 

Also, some tunes from Ukumentals no. 1 were guitar pieces originally that I translated onto the ukulele, which really was exciting and helped me to understand the instrument better both theoretically and then technically.

My current pieces are completely written on the ukulele. The process is usually a riff or idea I stumble across while noodling and then developing the idea further until I think it is a finished song. But even “old” tunes keep developing. I play them slightly different today than I did a few years ago because I’m still developing as a player.

I started following the idea of bringing out my own ukulele music in the form of Ukumentals no. 1 when I had my first handful of original tunes together in early 2021.

I believe you mentioned that some of the “bass” on the tracks is from the low strings on a guitar? But there’s also actual electric bass, correct?

No, on my Ukumentals recordings I only used steel-string acoustic guitar for single bass lines, and my resonator [guitar] for the same purpose on Ukumentals No. 3, which may sound a bit like a double bass.

When you have two or three tracks of ukulele on a song, are they different models so the “voices” are distinct?

Generally, I try to avoid having more than one ukulele track by myself for a recording. There are very few overdubs for short sections in Ukumentals No. 1,
I guess. But yes, “ALUHA Rag” from Ukumentals No. 3 is a good example: I played an old 1950s Martin style 0 for the main track and added some second voices with a maple Brüko model; the rest is a bit of resonator guitar and of course Charlotte Pelgen’s fine voice.

Does the ukulele dominate your musical life now, or do you still play more gigs as a guitarist?

I rarely play the guitar these days. I am still capable of playing it, and every time I pick it up I feel fresh and also far away from it, which is kind of inspiring. But I use it more as a tool for recordings, and some gigs, too. But I would say I chose to let the ukulele dominate my musical life. It has become my instrument of choice for what I have to say in that big world.

What is the next skill on the ukulele you want to master? Or style of music?

There is a lot out there to learn! Since I focus on mostly thumb and thumb-index playing—and sometimes three or four fingers—I could try to get a more classical approach like the great Elisabeth Pfeiffer, who I think is Germany’s best player, researcher, and performer in that area.

But I do want to learn more jazz vocabulary, which I get a bit from listening to Ohta-San’s playing. Other than that, I often try to get other
musicians’ ideas onto the uke—like [jazz guitarist] Pat Metheny. [Ukulele contributor] Christopher Davis-Shannon is also a musician I highly recommend listening to. He has supported me and he also runs a wonderful lesson channel on Patreon and social media.

Who are some other German players you admire that we should know about?

I love the style, tone, and also the educational approach of Iso Herquist, who is a fantastic musician. Of course, I am a fan of Charlotte Pelgen, Stefan Pöessiger, and Peter Jung from Bad Mouse Orchestra, who are absolutely brilliant at what they do. Larissa Kastner—alias Larissa Leaves—is also a very talented and profound young German ukulele player who focuses a lot on percussive playing and entertains with different skills. I think Patrick Ranft is one of Germany’s finest players and teachers. He is very much in [contemporary Hawaiian great] Kimo Hussey’s style, and also knows a lot about music and the instrument.

There are many others I know not only as players but also as people: Andreas Rottmann, Julian Maruschke, Philipp Schäffler, Hardy C. Lugerth, Peter Funk, Roland Prakken, Sabina Saracevic, Angela Gobelin, Andreas David, and many more. Finally, I count Ukulelezaza, Sage Harrington, and Peter Moss as “German” players due to their strong connection to the German scene.

Have you listened much to Hawaiian uke players—greats like Eddie Kamae and, of course, Jake?

Absolutely. I’ve listened to many. I have a big collection of Hawaiian ukulele masters. One of my slide guitar heroes, “King” Benny Nawahi, was not only a delicate reso-slide player but a ukulele master. Since Eddie Kamae was, as far as I know, Ohta-San’s first teacher, I listened to what he did and took some of how he strummed the ukulele with thumb and index, so I feel connected to that Hawaiian ukulele, too. My tune “Smeckelidu“ on Ukumentals no. 2 is a fine example for that. 

I also listen to Herb Ohta, Jr., Andrew Molina, Neal Chin—he is a fantastic overall genius musician—and Kalei Gamiao and Corey Fujimoto.