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Slack-key guitar is a fingerstyle genre of guitar music that originated in Hawaiʻi. Fingerstyle guitar is the technique of playing the Guitar by plucking the strings directly with the fingertips fingernails or picks attached to fingers as opposed to The State of Hawaii ( or həˈwaɪʔiː Hawaiian: Mokuāina o Hawaii) is a state in the United States located on an Archipelago in the Its name refers to its characteristic tuning: the English term is a translation of the Hawaiian kī hōʻalu, which means "loosen the [tuning] key". Most slack-key tunings can be achieved by starting with a classically-tuned guitar and detuning or "slacking" one or more of the strings until the six strings form a single chord, frequently G major.

Contents

History

In the oral-history account, the style originated from Mexican cowboys in the late 19th century. These paniolo (a Hawaiianization of españoles—"Spaniards") gave Hawaiians the guitars and taught them the rudiments of playing, and then left, allowing the Hawaiians to develop the style on their own. A cowboy is an animal Herder who tends Cattle on Ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback and often performs a multitude of (Musicologists and historians suggest that the story is more complicated, [1] but this is the version that is most often offered by Hawaiian musicians. ) Slack key guitar adapted to accompany the rhythms of Hawaiian dancing and the harmonic structures of Hawaiian music. The music of Hawaii includes an array of traditional and popular styles ranging from native Hawaiian folk music to modern rock and hip hop. The style of Hawaiian music that was promoted as a matter of national pride under the reign of King David Kalākaua in the late 19th century combined rhythms from traditional dance meters with imported European forms (for example, military marches), and drew its melodies from chant (mele and oli), hula, Christian hymns (hīmeni), and the popular music brought in by the various peoples who came to the Islands: English-speaking North Americans, Mexicans, Portuguese, Filipinos, Puerto Ricans, Tahitians, and Samoans. Kalākaua I, born as David Laamea Kamanakapuu Mahinulani Nalaiaehuokalani Lumialani Kalākaua and called The Merrie Monarch ( November 16, 1836 Hula (ˈhuːlə is a dance form accompanied by chant or song It was developed in the Hawaiian Islands by the Polynesians who originally settled there

The music did not receive a mainland audience during the Hawaiian music craze of the early 20th century, during which Hawaiian music came to be identified outside of Islands with the steel guitar and the ʻukulele. The twentieth century of the Common Era began on Steel guitar is A method of playing Slide guitar using a steel. The ukulele (ˌjʉːkəˈlɛɪli from ʻukulele /ˌʔukuˈlele/ variantly spelled ukelele (particularly in the UK) or alternatively abbreviated uke Slack key remained private and family entertainment, and it was not even recorded until 1946-47, when Gabby Pahinui cut a series of records that brought the tradition into public view. Charles Philip "Gabby" or "Pops" Pahinui ( April 22, 1921 - October 13, 1980) was a Slack-key guitarist Gabby During the 1960s and particularly during the Hawaiian Cultural Renaissance of the 1970s, slack key experienced a surge in popularity and came to be seen as one of the most genuine expressions of Hawaiian spirit, principally thanks to Gabby Pahinui, Leonard Kwan, Sonny Chillingworth, Raymond Kāne, and the more modern styles of younger-generation players such as Keola Beamer, his brother Kapono Beamer, Peter Moon, and Haunani Apoliona. The Hawaiian Renaissance (also often called the Hawaiian Cultural Renaissance was the Hawaiian resurgence of a distinct cultural identity that draws upon traditional kānaka Charles Philip "Gabby" or "Pops" Pahinui ( April 22, 1921 - October 13, 1980) was a Slack-key guitarist Gabby Leonard Kwan (1931-2000 was one of the most influential Hawaiian Slack-key guitarists to emerge in the period immediately preceding the Hawaiian Cultural Renaissance Edwin Bradfield Liloa "Sonny" Chillingworth was a Slack-key guitar player from Hawaii and is widely regarded as one of the most influential slack key guitarists Raymond Kāne ( October 2 1925 - February 27 2008) was one of Hawaii 's acknowledged Masters of the Slack-key guitar. Keola Beamer (born Keolamaikalani Breckenridge Beamer in 1951 is a Hawaiian Slack-key guitar player best known as the composer of " Honolulu City Peter Moon (born August 25, 1944) is a ʻukulele and ( Slack-key) guitar master S Haunani Apoliona is a Native Hawaiian elder and Activist for the Hawaiian sovereignty movement.

Many currently prominent Hawaiʻi-based players got their starts during the Cultural Renaissance years: Cindy Combs, Ledward Kaapana, George Kahumoku, Jr., his brother Moses Kahumoku, Dennis Kamakahi, Ozzie Kotani, three Pahinui brothers ([Bla, Cyril, and Martin), the Emerson Brothers and Owana Salazar. Ledward Kaapana is a Hawaiian musician best known for playing in the Slack key guitar style George Kahumoku Jr is a Grammy award -winning musician specializing in Slack-key guitar. Rev Dennis David Kahekilimamaoikalanikeha Kamakahi, Christian minister Hawaiian Slack key guitarist recording artist and music composer Ozzie Kotani is a slack-key guitar player and a well-respected teacher arranger solo performer and accompanist Owana Salazar, formally Owana Kaohelelani Mahaelani-rose Salazar born October 30, 1953) is the current co-ruler of the House of Keoua Nui, through These artists, and slack key in general, have become well-known outside of Hawaiʻi largely through George Winston's Dancing Cat Records record label, which has most often showcased the music in solo settings. George Winston (born 1949) is an American pianist who was born in Michigan, and grew up in Miles City Montana, and Mississippi Dancing Cat Records was a record label founded in 1983 by pianist George Winston to publish both his music and music in the Hawaiian Slack-key guitar

One indication of slack key's increasing visibility beyond the Islands is that when The Recording Academy instituted a GRAMMY Award for Best Hawaiian Music Album, the first three winners were slack key collections produced in Hawaiʻi: Slack Key Guitar, Volume 2 in 2005, [2] Masters of Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar, Volume 1 in 2006, [3] and Legends of Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar—Live from Maui. [4] Players from outside Hawaiʻi have also taken up the tradition, for example, Chet Atkins (who included slack key pieces on two of his albums), Yuki Yamauchi (a student of Ray Kane's and advocate of Hawaiian music in Japan), and Canadian Jim "Kimo" West (perhaps better known as guitarist with "Weird Al" Yankovic). Chester Burton "Chet" Atkins ( June 20, 1924 &ndash June 30, 2001) was an influential Guitarist and Record producer James "Jim" "Kimo" West (born December 18, (year unknown in Toronto, Ontario, Canada) is a Guitarist best Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic (ˈjæŋkəvɪk born October 23 1959 is a Grammy Award winning American singer Musician, actor satirist

Techniques and Tunings

Kī hōʻalu is often characterized by the use of an alternating-bass pattern, usually played by the thumb on the lower two or three strings of the guitar, while the melody is played on the three or four highest strings, using any number of fingers. In Music, a melody (from Greek μελῳδία - melōidía, "singing chanting" also tune, voice, or Many kī hōʻalu players incorporate various embellishments such as harmonics (chimes), the hammer-on, the pull-off, slides, and damping. In Acoustics and Telecommunication, the harmonic of a Wave is a component Frequency of the signal that is an Integer Hammer-on is a Stringed instrument playing technique performed (especially on Guitar) by sharply bringing a fretting-hand finger down on the Fingerboard A pull-off is a stringed instrument technique performed by plucking a string by "pulling" the string off the Fingerboard with one of the fingers being used Damping is any effect either deliberately engendered or inherent to a system that tends to reduce the amplitude of Oscillations of an oscillatory system Slack key compositions exhibit characteristics from indigenous Hawaiian and imported musical traditions. The vamp or turnaround (a repeated figure, usually at the end of a verse) is descended from the hula tradition, and other harmonic and structural features are descended from hīmeni and from the hula kuʻi encouraged by King David Kalakaua. In Jazz, gospel, soul, and Musical theater, a vamp is a repeating Musical figure or Accompaniment. In Jazz, a turnaround is a Passage at the end of a Section which leads to the next section [5]

Nearly all slack key requires retuning the guitar strings from the standard EADGBE, and this usually (but not always) means lowering or "slacking" several strings. The result will most often be a major chord, although it can also be a major-seventh chord, a sixth, or (rarely) a minor. (There are examples of slack key played in standard tuning, but the overwhelming majority of recorded examples use altered tunings. ) The most common slack key tuning, called "taro patch," makes a G major chord. Starting from the standard EADGBE, the high and low E strings are lowered or "slacked" to D and the fifth string from A down to G, so the notes become DGDGBD. As the chart below shows, there are also major-chord tunings based on C, F, and D.

Another important group of tunings, based on major-seventh chords, is called wahine (Hawaiian for "woman"). G wahine, for example, starts with taro patch and lowers the third string from G to F#, making DGDF#BD. Wahine tunings have their own characteristic vamps (as in, for example, Raymond Kāne's "Punahele" or Gabby Pahinui's 1946 "Hula Medley") and require fretting one or two strings to form a major chord. A third significant group is Mauna Loa tunings, in which the highest pair of strings are a fifth apart: Gabby Pahinui often played in C Mauna Loa, CGEGAE.

There are many slack key tunings—George Winston has identified fifty[6]—with some tunings only commonly used for a single song, or by particular players. The most common tuning is Taro Patch, which is a G-major tuning. Mike McClellan and George Winston have developed schemes that organize the tunings by key and type. The chart below follows their categories and naming conventions.

Common slack key tunings

Common Slack Key Tunings Notes Used
G Major or Taro Patch D G D G B D
G Wahine D G D F# B D
D Wahine D A D F# A C#
Open D D A D F# A D
C Major or Atta's C C G E G C E
Mauna Loa C G E G A E
C Wahine or Leonard's C C G D G B D
C 6 C G C G A E
Old Mauna Loa C G C G A D
Open C C G C E G C
F Wahine C F C G C E
Open F C F C F A C
Double Slack F C F C E A C

Notes

  1. ^ For example, Elizabeth Tatar, "Slack Key Guitar," in Hawaiian Music and Musicians, ed. Leland "Atta" Isaacs Sr (1929-1983 was a Hawaiian Slack-key composer known for his C major Tuning ("Atta's C" C-G-E-G-C-E and for George S. Kanahele, University Press of Hawaii, 350 - 360. ISBN 0-8248-0578-X
  2. ^ [1]"Slack key wins first Hawaiian Grammy," by Tim Ryan, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, February 14, 2005
  3. ^ [2]"'Masters' of the Grammy," by John Burger, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, February 9, 2006
  4. ^ [3]"Slack Key Snags Third Hawaiian Grammy" by Derek Pavia, Honolulu Advertiser, February 12, 2007
  5. ^ Tatar, "The Technique" and "The Chant Tradition" sections of "Slack Key Guitar" in Hawaiian Music and Musicians
  6. ^ [4]George Winston's on-line Short History of Slack Key Guitar, "Chart of Recorded Tunings"

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