“Consequently, at one time slack key was kept secret by particular families. “It took Hawaiians a long time to figure all of this out,” Manoa said. The “pull-off” - when the fretting finger is pulled off (exposing the string either as open or as stopped by another fretting finger lower on the same string) the note playing on the string changes to the new, longer vibrating length of the string.The “hammer-on” - created by sharply bringing a fretting-hand finger down on the fingerboard behind a fret, causing a note to sound.“People in our village demonstrations know it sounds different, and they just love it.”Ī Wikipedia entry also lists other slack key harmonics or chiming sounds characteristics, as well as techniques such as: “These changes give slack key a really nice, fuller sound with a lot of high-string notes,” Manoa continued. Another important group of tunings, based on major-seventh chords, is called ‘wahine,’ and a third significant group is Mauna Loa tunings, in which the highest pair of strings are keyed a fifth apart.” “There are major-chord tunings based on C, F, and D chords. The notes end up at DGDGBD, a G major chord,” he said. Manoa, who also teaches a slack key guitar class next door at Brigham Young University Hawaii, pointed out that today there are literally dozens of personalized slack key guitar tunings, but the most common one, called “taro patch,” starts with the standard six-string guitar tuning - EADGBE: “The high and low E strings are lowered or ‘slacked’ to D and the fifth string from A down to G. That’s why in slack key today you get a syncopated alternating bass with the thumb of the right hand, while the other fingers play the accompaniment and the melody all at the same time on a single guitar.” “While the music those early Hawaiians heard was probably played by several instruments, they tried to recreate it all in one. As those guitars went out of tune after the vaqueros left, the Hawaiians just re-tuned them to an open chord that kind of followed what they heard the Mexican cowboys play and figure out their own fingering,” Manoa explained. “Slack key is the way Hawaiians first played the guitar when when it was introduced by the Spanish and Mexican vaqueros or cowboys in the 1800s. I already knew how to play guitar, so I just kind of taught myself slack key.” I saw some CDs at my dad’s house back then, borrowed them and learned from there. Manoa, our PCC Hawaiian Village “chief” who’s originally from Nanakuli, Oahu, grew up listening to slack key guitar, “because my uncle played, but I never played until about 10 years ago. The popularity of Hawaiian music and instruments such as the steel guitar and ukuleles has spread around the world and so, rightfully, part of the PCC’s cultural presentation in the village focuses on Hawaiian music broadly and in a smaller slice of that part, if you’re really lucky, you might get the chance to hear Kaipo Manoa play what the Hawaiians call kī ho’alu - slack-key guitar. More lessons, podcasts, and sheet music will be added regularly.Listen up for slack key in the Hawaiian Village
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