Slack-key guitar is a fingerstyle genre of guitar music
that originated in Hawaii. Its name refers to its characteristic
tuning: the English term is a translation of the Hawaiian
ki hoalu, which means "loosen the [tuning] key".
Most slack-key tunings can be achieved by starting with
a classically tuned guitar and detuning or "slacking" one
or more of the strings until the six strings form a single
chord, frequently G major.
History
In the oral-history account, the style originated from
Mexican cowboys in the late 19th century. These paniolo
(a Hawaiianization of españoles—"Spaniards")
gave Hawaiians the guitars and taught them the rudiments
of playing, and then left, allowing the Hawaiians to develop
the style on their own. (Musicologists and historians suggest
that the story is more complicated, but this is the version
that is most often offered by Hawaiian musicians.) Slack
key guitar adapted to accompany the rhythms of Hawaiian
dancing and the harmonic structures of Hawaiian music.
The style of Hawaiian music that was promoted as a matter
of national pride under the reign of King David Kalakaua
in the late 19th century combined rhythms from traditional
dance meters with imported European forms (for example,
military marches), and drew its melodies from chant (mele
and oli), hula, Christian hymns (himeni), and the popular
music brought in by the various peoples who came to the
Islands: English-speaking North Americans, Mexicans, Portuguese,
Filipinos, Puerto Ricans, Tahitians, and Samoans.
The music did not receive a mainland audience during the
Hawaiian music craze of the early 20th century, during
which Hawaiian music came to be identified outside of Islands
with the steel guitar and the ukulele. Slack key remained
private and family entertainment, and it was not even recorded
until 1946-47, when Gabby Pahinui cut a series of records
that brought the tradition into public view. During the
1960s and particularly during the Hawaiian Cultural Renaissance
of the 1970s, slack key experienced a surge in popularity
and came to be seen as one of the most genuine expressions
of Hawaiian spirit, principally thanks to Gabby Pahinui,
Leonard Kwan, Sonny Chillingworth, Raymond Kane, and the
more modern styles of younger-generation players such as
Keola Beamer, his brother Kapono Beamer, Peter Moon, and
Haunani Apoliona.
Many currently prominent Hawai?i-based players got their
starts during the Cultural Renaissance years: Cindy Combs,
Ledward Kaapana, George Kahumoku, Jr., his brother Moses
Kahumoku, Dennis Kamakahi, Ozzie Kotani, three Pahinui
brothers (Bla, Cyril, and Martin), the Emerson Brothers
and Owana Salazar. These artists, and slack key in general,
have become well-known outside of Hawaii largely through
George Winston's Dancing Cat Records record label, which
has most often showcased the music in solo settings.
One indication of slack key's increasing visibility beyond
the Islands is that when The Recording Academy instituted
a GRAMMY Award for Best Hawaiian Music Album, the first
four winners were slack key collections produced in Hawai?i:
Slack Key Guitar, Volume 2 in 2005, Masters of Hawaiian
Slack Key Guitar, Volume 1 in 2006, Legends of Hawaiian
Slack Key Guitar—Live from Maui and "Treasures of
Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar - Live in Concert from Maui." Players
from outside Hawaii have also taken up the tradition, for
example, Chet Atkins (who included slack key pieces on
two of his albums), Yuki Yamauchi (a student of Ray Kane's
and advocate of Hawaiian music in Japan), and Canadian
Jim "Kimo" West (perhaps better known as guitarist
with "Weird Al" Yankovic).
"Slack Key" In Use
Ki ho'alu is often characterized by the use of an alternating-bass
pattern, usually played by the thumb on the lower two or
three strings of the guitar, while the melody is played
on the three or four highest strings, using any number
of fingers. Many ki ho'alu players incorporate various
embellishments such as harmonics (chimes), the hammer-on,
the pull-off, slides, and damping. Slack key compositions
exhibit characteristics from indigenous Hawaiian and imported
musical traditions. The vamp or turnaround (a repeated
figure, usually at the end of a verse) is descended from
the hula tradition, and other harmonic and structural features
are descended from himeni and from the hula ku'i encouraged
by King David Kalakaua.
Nearly all slack key requires retuning the guitar strings
from the standard EADGBE, and this usually (but not always)
means lowering or "slacking" several strings.
The result will most often be a major chord, although it
can also be a major-seventh chord, a sixth, or (rarely)
a minor. (There are examples of slack key played in standard
tuning, but the overwhelming majority of recorded examples
use altered tunings.) The most common slack key tuning,
called "taro patch," makes a G major chord. Starting
from the standard EADGBE, the high and low E strings are
lowered or "slacked" to D and the fifth string
from A down to G, so the notes become DGDGBD. As the chart
below shows, there are also major-chord tunings based on
C, F, and D.
Another important group of tunings, based on major-seventh
chords, is called wahine. G wahine, for example, starts
with taro patch and lowers the third string from G to F#,
making DGDF#BD. Wahine tunings have their own characteristic
vamps (as in, for example, Raymond Kane's "Punahele" or
Gabby Pahinui's 1946 "Hula Medley") and require
fretting one or two strings to form a major chord. A third
significant group is Mauna Loa tunings, in which the highest
pair of strings are a fifth apart: Gabby Pahinui often
played in C Mauna Loa, CGEGAE.
There are many slack key tunings—George Winston has identified
fifty—with some tunings only commonly used for a single
song, or by particular players. Mike McClellan and George
Winston have developed schemes that organize the tunings
by key and type. The chart below follows their categories
and naming conventions.
Common Slack Key Tunings
This exercise will use the G Major, or "Taro Patch",
so you'll need to tune to D, G, D, G, B, D
Though much of this passage looks the same, it has rather
intricate movements that will really work up your slack
key playing. I've included a PIMA chart below the tablature
to help you. In all actuality, here you are only using
your thumb and index finger to play this passage. For now
let's not worry about the low or high melody notes. This
fingerstyle in slack key guitar should be plenty to work
with for now.
Measures 1 - 3
* Remember to tune to: D, G, D, G, B, D (lowest to highest)
You play Measure 1 twice. You then play Measure 2 once.
Then you play Measure 3 twice. Don't forget the eighth
rest at the end of Measure 3. Remember that these are all
eighth notes, except for the "4 to 5" (not a
hammer on - just a note change) which is in 16th notes.
Measures 4 - 6
The same information from above applies here, but now
we're playing on a few different strings. Everything else
applies.
PIMA Legend:
As with any PIMA legend, you can always work with what
you are most comfortable with. However, since all of these
are "P's" and "I's" I would recommend
trying it as you see it. You can always add a few open
notes here and there. I did because it felt comfortable.
The only thing I made sure of was that when I added a few
open notes, they were played in conjunction with another
series of notes instead of played on and off beat. That
keeps the passage from getting too confusing.
