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The ukulele, with its relatively tiny size and four strings, could be thought of as a simple instrument, but it has a rich history within the Hawaiian islands. And native Hawaiian Jake Shimabukuro continues to take the instrument to new heights with his many collaborations across a variety of genres.

In 2006, his version of George Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” went viral on YouTube, leading him to international notoriety and gigs ranging from the Hollywood Bowl and Lincoln Center to Sydney Opera House and the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. He has collaborated with a host of renowned musicians who span genres, including Yo-Yo Ma, Béla Fleck and The Flecktones, Jimmy Buffett, Willie Nelson, Bette Midler and Ziggy Marley.

“Those are all my heroes, so to have the opportunity to learn from them and be taken under their wing is unbelievable. It’s been so inspiring and so joyful,” he said. “Every time that I get to collaborate with an artist like that, it really inspires me and pushes me to try to do different things and put myself in search for those different sounds and explore different styles and concepts, and that’s what I truly love. I always love learning new things, and through collaboration, I feel like that’s when you really expedite that process.”

His most recently released album, “Blues Experience,” features a collaboration with Mick Fleetwood.

Shimabukuro met Fleetwood in the late 1990s at the Hawaiian Music Awards ceremony. A few years ago, they reconnected at a Fleetwood Mac reunion concert in Nashville. That’s when Fleetwood suggested they team up for a blues album, which they recorded in Maui, along with Shimabukuro’s touring bassist Jackson Waldhoff and keyboard player Michael Grande. Mark Johnstone from The Mick Fleetwood Blues Band also plays keys on two of the songs.

“(Fleetwood) was such a pioneer of that style of blues drumming — that’s one of his favorite styles of music to play,” Shimabukuro said, adding that the blues share close ties to the roots of the Hawaiian steel guitar, considered the first electric string instrument before the Stratocaster and other electric guitars.

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The blues standard “Rollin ‘n’ Tumbiln'” fades in with a psychedelic ukulele over Fleetwood’s tribal drumming, showcasing why Shimabukuro is often referred to as the Jimi Hendrix of the ukulele. Other standout songs include “Whiter Shade of Pale,” “Rockin’ in the Free World” and “Songbird,” the latter of which they recorded in one take shortly after Christine McVie passed.

“I remember Mick took a moment of silence after the song ended, and you could see that he felt Christine’s presence,” he said.

For the album, he wrote “Kula Blues,” fulfilling his long desire to write something bluesy.

He and Waldhoff will perform some of the songs on that album at the Vilar Monday, along with covers of favorites from such bands as The Beatles and Queen.

“I’ve always been a huge Beatles fan and a Queen fan. I grew up listening to a lot of classic rock and things like that, so we’ll be incorporating some of those things,” he said.

Although Shimabukuro has expanded the boundaries of the ukulele, he still gets by with a little help from his friends, especially bassist Jackson Waldhoff, who handles the low end of the musical equation.

“He’s such a great player,” Shimabukuro said. “You get such a beautiful sound on his electric bass. The ukulele is tuned very high, so the lowest note on the ukulele is actually middle C on the piano. I don’t have any notes below middle C, so the nice thing about playing with bass is that they complete each other. The ukulele is the right side of the piano, and the bass is the left side, so it’s a nice, full sound, and we can really experiment a lot because we get a full spectrum of sound.”

In true community spirit, Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” often turns into a sing-a-long.

“I love those kinds of moments because the most important thing in live performances is we all get to experience something unique together. That’s what I love most about pop music is how it just brings people together. Music is not just the universal language, it’s the language of human emotion. It’s the language of how we feel, and I think when we’re in a live concert setting, we get to all feel the same thing, the same energy, the same vibes collectively. To me, that’s important because when where we’re all on the same page with our feelings, that’s empathy.”

He also appreciates how live music generates a sense of community, especially among kids. At the end of all of his shows, he encourages kids to find their passion — be it artistic endeavors, science or other fields. He also advocates a drug-free life.

“I’ve been very fortunate because when I was growing up, there were a lot of people who reminded me to live a drug-free life. I’m proud to say that I’ve been drug-free my whole life, and I think sharing that with kids and reminding them that they don’t need that is very important, as well.”

Being born and raised in Hawaii, the true aloha spirit naturally comes through in his performances — and his overall being.

“It just naturally resonates in the music that I play or the way that I speak or just the way that I behave. Growing up in a small community mindset, it’s unique. The culture here, if you trace it back historically, was such a place of innovation,” he said, explaining how it was the first in the U.S. to receive electricity at the queen’s palace (even before the White House) and how the Hawaiian steel guitar is indigenous to Hawaii.

And, of course, the ukulele is a traditional Hawaiian instrument. It’s a hybrid of the machete, a four-stringed instrument, and the rochelle, a 30-button anglo concertina that Portuguese immigrants brought to the islands when they worked in the plantation fields. Hawaiians blended the size of the machete with the tuning of the rochelle, creating the ukulele a little over a century ago.

His mom taught him how to play the instrument when he was 4.

“The ukulele is a big part of the culture here,” he said. “After begging her for a long time to teach me how to play it, she finally sat me down when she felt I was old enough to handle the instrument properly. I just totally fell in love with it. It’s very easy on your fingers because the strings are made of nylon, and then the other thing is it’s only four strings, and it’s a smaller size so for a child. It’s really easy to hold and to handle, so I gravitated toward the instrument quite naturally.”

His next project, a Christmas album titled “Tis the Season,” debuts this holiday season. It includes songs with Yo-Yo Ma, Buffett and Michael McDonald.

A more meditative album, “Calm Seas,” is due out later this year or early next.

“It’s a meditative, healing style of music that came about because someone asked me a while back what I do to relax, and I told them I like to play the ukulele,” he said about “Calm Seas,” a project unlike he has ever recorded. “It’s very therapeutic when I can sit with my instrument — especially when I’m just playing for myself. A lot of times, I’m playing these very slow, very mellow (songs) to go with your breathing, and it’s all very meditative.”