Slack key guitarist Stephen Inglis’s workshop in Manhattan Beach after the Redondo Beach Slack Key Concert this year was a bit different than most slack key workshops. Instead of focusing on song material, Stephen demonstrated how learning scale positions along the neck can provide the basis for playing melodies and improvising … skills that are essential in mastering the slack key style. Continue reading
A fellow mu
sician asked recently for suggestions regarding the use of finger picks for slack key. He was essentially asking two questions. First, do finger picks create a “better” sound, as opposed to playing with bare fingers and, second, what are the best types of finger picks to use? Continue reading
The Bb tuning — introduced to me by Joe Tate at George Kahumoku’s Slack Key Guitar Workshop last June — is a unique tuning in a couple of respects. First, the tuning should be called BbMaj7 Add 9, if you want to be accurate… the string notes are F-Bb-D-F-A-C, so you have the notes in a Bb major chord in the first three strings – F-Bb-D, and the notes of the dominant chord, F, on the top three strings – F-A-C. Continue reading
By all accounts, the 2013 George Kahumoku Slack Key Guitar and Ukulele Workshop was one of the best yet! We had an amazing instructor staff this year that included George Kahumoku, Keoki Kahumoku, Dennis Kamakahi, Kevin Brown, Ledward Kaapana, Owana Salazar, Jason Jerome, Peter deAquino, Derick Sebastian, Wainani Kealoha, Herb Ohta Jr., Martin Pahinui, and Jeff Peterson. It was a fantastic week, culminating, as it does every year, with the workshop students performing on stage at the Annual Maui Slack Key Music Festival at the beautiful Maui Arts and Cultural Center in Kahului.
Joe Tate, a first-time workshop attendee this year, introduced me to a Bb tuning that Led uses to play Koke’e. I’ll include the tuning in the next edition of the tunings manual, and will post more information about it here in the near future.
Nancy Cook hosted a workshop (and dinner) with Led Kaapana at her house in Manhattan Beach last Friday, and a great time was had by all. Now we can all play Radio Hula just like Led… almost.
Once again — and for the sixth year — Mitch Chang presented an outstanding lineup of talented Hawaiian musicians and dancers at the Southern California Slack Key Festival in Redondo Beach, California. This has become Southern California’s premier event for Hawaiian traditional and contemporary slack key music.
Headliners included Dennis Kamakahi and Steve Inglis, Cyril Pahinui, Jeff Peterson, Makana, Kimo West and Ken Emerson, and Led Kaapana.
I had a chance to chat with Jeff Peterson at the concert and learned that he’ll be headed soon for an “American Music Abroad” tour in South America with Keola Beamer. This program is sponsored by the U.S. State Department Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs, and is designed to introduce a wide variety of American music genres and artists to other cultures, and “communicate America’s rich musical contributions to the global music scene as it fosters cross-cultural communication and people-to-people connection to global audiences.” I’m looking forward to hearing about the experience when I see Jeff at George Kahumoku’s slack key workshop in June.
The SoCal Slack Key Festival is coming to the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center on January 20th. I’ll have a booth there, hawking the Tunings Manual, so if you’re planning to go, stop by and say hello. Also, there will a slack key workshop on the Saturday before the concert in Manhattan Beach given by Stephen Inglis, a very talented slack key musician. The workshop is from 10:00am to 11:30am, $45 per person. RSVP and get address information at kalakoaent@mac.com
Registration is now open for George Kahumoku’s Slack Key Guitar and Ukulele Workshop on Maui, June 16-23. This will be the sixteenth year for George’s workshop, and it promises to be one of the best yet! Instructors scheduled to participate this year include:
Slack Key Guitar
Ukulele
For more information about the workshop, or to register, visit www.kahumoku.com/workshops
Owana Salazar taught this tunings at George Kahumoku’s Slack Key Guitar Workshop on Maui in June. It’s based on an open D6 chord (D A D F# B D) where the sixth note of the scale (B) is played on the open second string. This tuning is only one note different from Open D (D A D F# A D) and D Ni’ihau (D A D F# B E), and is sometimes referred to as Boogie’s D Tuning, after Boogie Kalama. It has been used in recordings by Carlos Andrade (with Na Pali) and Kapono Beamer. A useful G chord with the root note on a bass string (sixth) can be made by fretting the sixth and third strings at the fifth fret.
SoCal slack key fans are looking forward to the Grammy Concert in Manhattan Beach this Saturday (Feb 4), featuring George Kahumoku Jr., Tia Carerre and Daniel Ho, Jim “Kimo” West, and Keoki Kahumoku. For more information about the concert, check this link.
After the concert, there will be a kanikapila at Nancy Cook’s house in Manhattan Beach, and all are welcome. Drop me a note if you need directions.
