The ukulele ensemble didn’t make a world record, but it did set a state record, organizers said.

Under a pounding sun Saturday afternoon, 1,056 participants strummed their ukulele in unison for eight minutes as ukulele star Jake Shimabukuro and his friends played the melody and jammed out solos on stage at the Waikiki Shell. Shimabukuro wrote the song — "One, Two, Three," consisting of three chords — for the attempt, and taught it to the crowd in about 10 minutes.

The event, "Go For Da Record," was an attempt to break the world record for the largest ukulele ensemble, a record set by 1,547 strummers in August in Sweden.

Kaoru Ishikawa, Guinness World Records official adjudicator, flew from Japan to monitor Saturday’s event. Had the group set a world record by playing together for five minutes, it would have been one of about 10,000 world records, of which only about 10 percent make it into the record book, which was just published in September, she said.

For a moment, the musicians onstage stopped playing and let the crowd carry the tune. For a moment, about 65 schoolchildren sang several verses composed for the tune.

"It made us cry, it was so beautiful," said June Higa, one of the participants.

Leo Daquioag, founder of the Music for Life Foundation, organized the event to raise money for two nonprofit causes. The money from a $10 participant fee is going to Rainbow for Japan Kids, a program that helps heal children affected by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan by bringing them to Hawaii, and to buying ukulele for local schools. He said the group would try again.

Before the attempt, Shimabukuro told the group the record of nearly 1,600 would not be beat.

"We may just be a little shy (of) that number today, but I know that we have a lot more heart here," he said.

He glowed afterward about how the event brought people of all ages together and praised the kids’ lyrics.

"It was fantastic," he said.

One of the youngest participants, 3-year-old Rusty Whitlock, tried to keep up on his Shimabukuro-autographed ukulele, though his small fingers didn’t hit all the chords.

His grandmother, Susan Whitlock, 52, of Kailua, said he’s been playing since he was 2, strumming the strings for his family and using a dustpan as his pretend microphone.

Many came for a chance to claim a title that they felt should belong to Hawaii.

"How did they pull that over us?" said Chris Urata, 21, of Kailua. "It’s the national instrument of Hawaii, not Sweden."

Rayse Kawamoto, 10, of Iliahi Elementary School, whose students sang during the performance, said he didn’t mind the failed record attempt because he got to shake Shimabukuro’s hand.

"I didn’t know he was super energetic," said Kawamoto, a fan since age 5. The event, he said, was "awesome." He added, "I didn’t want to stop playing."