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akartans have discovered a new hobby to alleviate their stress — playing the ukulele.

The small guitar-like instrument is relatively easy to play and carry around, allowing people to even take it to their offices.

The four-stringed instrument, which hails from Hawaii, is growing in popularity in the city where the majority of residents spent their time working, according to a recent Statistics Indonesia survey as reported by Kompas.

A ukulele community called Ukuiki, for instance, has signed up over 420 members since its founding in 2016.

Many people have discovered the benefits of playing the instrument, even beginners. Playing the ukulele is believed to relieve stress, especially after an exhausting day at the office.

“It’s really helpful in fighting stress because as you know Jakarta is a stressful city,” said 30-year-old Dewi Prawita who has been playing the ukulele for two years. “It is easier to navigate four strings to get the chord than the six strings of a guitar.”

Its small size enables the Ciracas, East Jakarta, native to easily carry it around especially to her office in South Jakarta or other work-related activities outside the city.

Dewi developed a passion for the ukulele after seeing a video of a musician playing it on Instagram in 2017 and decided to join a community, which taught her how to play it.

“Even now, I still consider myself a newbie since I’m not an expert on fingerpicking, but I always play it at least an hour a day to relax,” said Dewi whose favorite songs include those sung by Bruno Mars.

For Ronny Preslysia, 36, who works for a mining company and teaches French on the side, learning to play the ukulele has given him an effective tool to teach the language to his students through songs.

“The ukulele is more suitable for Jakartans’ mobility because you can’t carry a guitar around in this packed city. It takes up a lot of space on public transportation,” he said, adding that the ukulele’s smaller size meant that he could take it with him when doing fieldwork in rural areas.

Ronny added that the number of people who had developed a passion for the ukulele had grown significantly recently.

“We have more than one WhatsApp group and our memberships is increasing,” he said. “In fact, one of my French students is now also learning how to play the ukulele.”

Gratia Suwu, the founder of Ukuiki, said she attributed the growing membership to the openness of the group, which welcomed people who had zero knowledge of playing the instrument or music in general.

To register to be a member, each person must pay a registration fee of Rp 10,000 (70 US cents) to show his or her commitment, Gratia said.

“Many of them are newbies, including children and the elderly. There are some other ukulele-based communities in Jakarta but they mostly consist of experts,” she added.

As the community grows in size, stage performances are held each weekend with the latest one being conducted on Sunday at the MRT’s Dukuh Atas station in Central Jakarta in cooperation with the Taufan Community, which is a charitable organization that assists cancer patients.

“We are committed to hold a charity event at least once a month,” Gratia said.