“Kaula `Ili” Tutorial

Welcome to Kaleponi Records, my musical home on the web. My name is Fran Guidry, and I play kika ki hoʻalu or Hawaiian slack key guitar.

Kaleponi is the Hawaiian word for California, where I live. Ki hoʻalu, or slack key, has a direct link to California history. The guitar was carried to the Big Island of Hawaiʻi by vaqueros from California. You can read more about the history of slack key guitar on the Dancing Cat Records web site.

Slack key guitar is named for the retuning that characterizes the style. Most of these new tunings feature loosened, or slackened, strings which give a deep rich sound.

My personal slack key history goes back to 1999 and my first visit to Hawaiʻi. When we turned on the TV in our Waikiki hotel room I was captivated by the playing of Keola Beamer. I knew in an instant that I had to learn to play this beautiful music. Over the years I've learned from great players and teachers like Ozzie Kotani, Keola himself, Patrick Landeza, Kevin Brown, Cyril Pahinui, Kawika Kahiapo, Raymond Kane, Dennis Kamakahi, and Ledward Kaapana.

Saturday, April 15th, 2023

Every now and then I get a request to help someone learn a slack key piece. It’s actually something I like to do, it fits well with my mission to spread the love for slack key – as long as I don’t have to create tablature for the song. For me, playing guitar is fun, shooting video is a delight, but creating tab is just tedious work (grin).

After I posted the duet version of Kaula `Ili I got a request for help learning the piece and I thought it would be a good candidate for a video tutorial. Since the song is done in waltz time or 3/4 time it’s a little different from the more usual 4/4 time rhythm. Led and I both really enjoy playing waltz time tunes but they can take a bit of practice to get the feel.

Hopefully this demonstration will help folks get the feel for playing slack key in 3/4 time.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 15th, 2023 at 4:40 pm and is filed under Videos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.