As a young boy growing up on O’ahu, I was immensely blessed to learn from some of the key practitioners of Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar. My first kumu (teacher) was Bobby Moderow Jr, a protégé of Nānākuli’s premiere Slack Key master, Raymond Kaleoalohapoinaʻoleohelemanu Kāne. Bobby would sometimes take me to Raymond’s hale (house) in Nānākuli for kani ka pila (backyard jam sessions), and I also had the good fortune to learn directly from Raymond. At the age of 13, after two years learning Uncle Raymond’s nahenahe (sweet sounding) style, I met Sonny Chillingworth, another legendary master of the art of Slack Key. Through a grant from the Hawai’i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, I was privileged to study under Uncle Sonny for almost a year, learning his complex style (very different than Uncle Raymond’s). I became Sonny’s final protégé; the following year he passed away.
Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar is a rare art form; among the traditional Hawaiian arts, it ranks as one of the least known and practiced. Why? For a few generations (late 1800s through mid 1900s) much of Hawaiian traditions were “frowned upon” by the emerging “ruling class” of foreigners. The ‘ōlelo (language), hula (dance), oli (chant and oral histories and genealogies) as well as healing arts were all threatened with complete loss. At one time, Hawaiian language was even outlawed! Hawaiian Slack Key was, in its origins, a personal folk music expression- not for performing. It was so personal that a father might come off the ranch, grab his guitar, sit on his lanai (porch) and play Kī Hō’alu for himself, to relax, soothe his nerves, and express his love for his environment.. until his own keiki (kids) ran up to him, excited to hear his kani (playing)- and suddenly he would stop playing, detune his guitar and put it down- for it was his music- not to be played for anyone else, not to be shared, not to be “leaked”, lest it be taken away, like so many of the other beloved practices of the Hawaiian people.
This changed in the 1950s, when a man named Gabby “Pops” Pahinui recorded and released an old song attributed to Sam Li’a of Waipi’o on Hawai’i island. The song, “Hi’ilawe”- named for a glorious waterfall in Waipi’o Valley, and a love affair that took place there- was performed in Gabby’s signature style of Slack Key. It became an instant classic. Soon thereafter, more slack key guitarists began to publicly share, perform and record their music. During the 1960s and 70s- the height of the Hawaiian Renaissance, when Hawaiians reclaimed their cultural identity from the imperial colonization of their homeland- many slack key recordings were made. Players like Leonard Kwan, Leland “Atta” Isaacs, Fred Punahoa, Nedward and Ledward Ka’apana, Auntie Alice Namakelua, Peter Moon, and of course, Raymond, Sonny and Gabby, created a legacy framework for Kī Hō’alu, one that brought this beautiful and relatively unknown folk art into the spotlight, sharing both its humble roots as a personal folk expression as well as its artistic potential to serve as a high art in the oeuvre of Hawaiian music.
Many of the aforementioned practitioners have since passed away. But, their legacies live on. There are a few of us who have accepted the kuleana (responsibility) to carry on this treasured folk art. And, there is yet much to be explored: as George Winston, the renowned pianist and founder of Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar recording label Dancing Cat once said, “Hawaiian Slack Key is the final frontier of the acoustic guitar.”
This is just a brief glance at the art of Hawaiian Slack Key. The music is best shared in person, accompanied with the stories of its players, their adventures throughout Hawai’i and the world, sharing this rare music. Come to a live performance and I’ll tell you a story…
And for those interested in a more technical description of Slack Key, please read on.
“Slack key” is a way of tuning combined with a specific way of playing the guitar. Changing the tuning changes the relationship of the open string notes to allow for new melodic and chordal possibilities on the fretboard. There are literally hundreds of tunings. When combined with a picking approach that simultaneously simulates bass, rhythm and melody, the result is a unique and full resonance that sounds like “3 guitars in one”.
Different cultures have “Slack Key”. It’s a colloquial phrase that basically means playing in open tunings. The strings are usually tuned down, or “slacked,” but they can also go up. It is a way of tuning (or slacking) the strings to a chord so the player doesn't have to use a whole hand just to hold a chord. This frees up the fretting hand for movement while the picking hand establishes an alternating bass pattern over which a faux rhythm and lead melody are played. Essentially, it is the art of simulating multiple instruments simultaneously on a single guitar. It's like having a mini-symphony at one's fingertips.
“Open tuning” is a colloquial term for tuning the guitar strings to create a chord, as explained above. But tuning the guitar is only part of the picture. There are a myriad of guitar styles performed in open tunings that are not Slack Key nor Hawaiian Slack Key. Slack Key Guitar is generally played in open tuning, however, playing in open tuning does not infer one is playing Slack Key Guitar. History and culture must serve as a framework in order to understand the art form before exploring any technical approaches to this rich and varied music. Slack Key Guitar, in the Hawaiian style, can not be performed simply with mere technical knowledge or prowess- it must come from the soul. What I mean is, a direct knowledge of the values, a direct experience of the sheer mana (power) and beauty of Hawai’i Nei, the influence of kupuna (elders), a heart filled with aloha- not intending to garner praise, but rather to express love for Hawai’i, some place within her, some feeling for another- the expression of aloha- this is interwoven into the very fabric of the music.
Without this, slack key becomes mere technique, something the old timers would never approve of, nor recognize as Kī Hō’alu. As Uncle Ledward once said, “Slack Key is the way we love each other, the way we share our Aloha with each other.”
The Hawaiian style contains three essential elements:
An alternating bass line, what I call “faux rhythms” where you throw in a little brush stroke to simulate a rhythm strummer, and the melody. Playing the melody on the top two strings with lots of sliding up and down the fretboard is a huge part of what we do—as well as open chord voicings and syncopated variations on the bass theme. If you compare it to, say, Travis Picking, you’ll find a lot more syncopated things going on simultaneously. It gets highly complicated. You really have to separate like a drummer. That’s why there’s a steep learning curve for Slack Key.
“Kī Hō’alu” means “to slacken or relax”. It is of interest to note that “alu” also infers the kaona (hidden meaning) of “combined or acting together”, which signifies an aspect that is crucial to defining Slack Key.
Why do we tune, or “slack” the strings? Tuning to a chord and not having to hold chords is what really gives Hawaiian Slack Key its unique sound. The reason is that it allows us to touch the strings less. When we touch the strings, they stop ringing- fingers act as dampeners.
The beauty of Kī Hō’alu is that when we are playing in the root key (i.e.: tuned to “G” chord and playing in key of "G”), we don’t have to hold a chord to make the guitar sound beautiful- and that means the strings, when struck, ring and resonate! They create a droning effect, and that conveys the magical resonance, the illusion that there is more than a single instrument playing. It truly is beautiful and unique to Slack Key.
Many Slack Key songs have the player only fretting the two high strings (i.e.: Gabby’s " Kī Hō’alu”, PURE GABBY). This is common and allows the bass strings to ring constantly (without being fretted) while the high strings are quickly fretted and released to mimic bird sounds, and other uplifting mimicries of nature.
Once tuned, or slacked, the picking hand undertakes the action of self-accompaniment generally executed via the following means:
1) Thumb performs an alternating bass line (there are variations) generally utilizing the top 3 thickest (bass) strings. This is an essential element to Slack Key in its pure form. This is what makes the guitar sound like multiple guitars, and it is very difficult to do because it requires training the thumb to act independently from the fingers. Many players learn the melodies of Hawaiian mele (song) but fail to master the bass part. Influential masters Raymond Kane and Sonny Chillingworth, who made very deliberate efforts to teach and pass down the art of Hawaiian Slack Key to the next generation, were very strict about this.
Now, when you listen to Peter Moon (Sr), and the Gabby Pahinui Hawaiian Band (not solo) recordings, the two of them aren’t playing the bass a lot of the time.. that is because they had multiple instruments accompanying them. This is still considered “Slack Key” as they used the tunings and the melodies of classic Hawaiian mele, however, for the sake of defining the genre, we must include the alternating bass accompaniment with thumb. And of course, when we review Gabby’s solo recordings, he presents his mastery of this bass technique in a myriad of ways.
2) Fingers of picking hand execute the primary melody of the piece. This usually occurs on the two or three highest pitched strings, but of course varies broadly.
3) Both thumb and pointer finger occasionally impart what I call a “faux” rhythm, to infer the illusion of an accompanying background strumming rhythm guitar. This is more apparent in styles like Gabby’s solo work as well as that of Atta Isaacs. It is a technique that is very difficult to articulate/teach, therefore it is rarely incorporated, but it is witnessed in the playing styles of the legends.
The combination of these 3 parts played simultaneously on a single guitar in slacked or “open” tuning is what comprises the basic approach to guitar know as Hawaiian Slack Key.