How Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar Got Started
Ki ho ‘alu Hawaiian Slack key Guitar got started and more,
by Bruce Lamb.
If you have ever had a chance to go to a Slack key guitar concert or festival most likely you have heard this interpretation from one of the many performers at the concert.
How did the Hawaiians come to owning guitars and learning how to play them? First off the guitar found its way to the Hawaiian Islands back in the 19th century. The Hawaiian king at that time King Kamehameha the 3rd I believe was given a few cattle as a gift from some Portuguese traders who stumbled upon the islands.
Now there are many different ideas on who actually gave the cattle to him but we do know he liked them and made it a law that no one was to harm them. Well Hawaii is an abundant land and cows being cows all they did all day long was eat and make more cows. The population grew and many of the cows began to eat the homes of the islanders, Grass shacks.
When more Spanish and Portuguese explorers began to discover the islands King Kamehameha employed some of the Spanish cow boys who were on the ships to help with and teach the Hawaiians how to handle the cattle. These Mexican and Spanish vaqueros or cowboys in English brought some of there most prized positions with them.
One thing every one knows is the these people love to sing and play guitar. Because the Hawaiian cowboys or (paniolo) in Hawaiian, has always had their own style and deeply rooted type of traditional music they fell in love with this new instrument and I’m sure they sensed that this could be adapted to there own style. At the end of each long day of chasing cattle the Paniolos and Vaqueros probably began sharing musical ideas around the campfires every night. Boy would I have loved to be around those jam sessions.
After a few years many of the Vaqueros began to head back home. Many of them stayed on and started families in Hawaii, but most longed for their own homeland. Many of the guitars that were brought over were left with their new friends and that seems to be the story on how the Hawaiians got guitars of their own. The Hawaiians began to develop their own unique style of guitar playing and tunings. Using their traditional chants and songs this type of music began to evolve into the slack key style.
The Slack key style is a full sounding music. The Hawaiians figured out that by loosening the strings they could develop full chord sounds by just strumming the guitar and using very few fingering positions. They started playing and experimenting with using their thumb on the picking hand and plucking alternating bass strings. Usually they will hit the sixth string then the fourth string with the thumb then pick a melody with which every finger got to the higher strings first.
Most players only use the thumb and index finger to play but some players have developed full picking patterns. Well that is the story of how the Hawaiians got guitars to the islands. On my next post I will be talking about the many players I have met and got the chance to record with. My fondest time ever spent was with the five days I spent with Uncle Ray Kane at his home about fiver years ago. I have some great video of him playing and singing with his wife Elodia who is an amazing singer with one of the most beautiful voices I’ve heard.
Aloha
Bruce Lamb