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Jeff Au Hoy
Aloha
USA
17 Posts |
 Posted - 05/26/2005 : 5:28:39 PM
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Hi Everybody,
My name's Jeff Au Hoy. I'm 25 years old and my home is in Honolulu. Susie Kagami of Landeza Productions turned me on to this forum.
I'm really a steel player but enjoy slack key music and making music with slack key players. I like lots of different styles of music, but my real interest is in pre-1975 Hawaiian.
Aloha,
Jeff
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hapakid
Luna Ho`omalu
USA
1533 Posts |
Posted - 05/26/2005 : 7:50:58 PM
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E komo mai, Jeff!
Welcome to the forum. We hope you find the company worth coming back to. And since you're a steel player, feel free to help us beginners whenever you can. What tunings do you play? What style and songs do you like?
Many of us like the same kind of music as you and try to spread the aloha for the older music when we can.
Jesse Tinsley |
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Kiwini
Lokahi
USA
203 Posts |
Posted - 05/26/2005 : 8:11:53 PM
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Aloha Jeff,
Welcome to da Patch Bruddah,
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Me Ke Aloha,
Steve |
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Admin
Pupule
USA
4551 Posts |
Posted - 05/27/2005 : 01:38:18 AM
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| Welcome. I've heard your name mentioned here before from people very impressed by your playing. Great to have you. |
Andy |
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Mainkaukau
Lokahi
USA
245 Posts |
Posted - 05/27/2005 : 05:56:20 AM
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| Howsit Jeff, I met you at the UH when you were playing in the Hawaiian studies's Ho'okani series. I was doing the sound. Good to see you in the taropatch. Everytime I hear you play I put down my guitar and pick up my steel. Thanks for the inspiration. Alohas... |
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Jeff Au Hoy
Aloha
USA
17 Posts |
Posted - 05/27/2005 : 10:58:19 PM
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Mahalo for the kind words guys. Hi Eric, I remember you!
Although I started on C6, my primary tuning is now A6. David Keli'i and Billy Hew Len are my biggest idols--Billy used the A6.
Come to think of it, it's hard for me to name a "style" I like best because Hawaiian bands have historically been so diverse. But some of my favorite sounds are that of 1) Andy Cummings' Troubadours and 2) Genoa Keawe's Hawaiians.
As far as steel goes, I think the instrument has a stigma as being a major component of that cheesy Hollywood-meets-Waikiki sound which pandered to the likes of tourists back in the old days. I purposely avoid tunes like Little Brown Girl or Grass Shack except as maybe tongue-in-cheek novelties. I also don't strum many 6th chords. I also rarely do the octave gliss at the end of a song.
I am not a huge fan of chord-style steel guitar, although I will play it to complement certain styles. (I feel the steel's greatest asset is its ability to gliss like the voice... that tends to be diminished when the player forces the bar to chord positions, rather than letting the melodic line push the bar.) But certain styles of music, I feel, require certain styles of steel playing. The sparse Feet Rogers' style wouldn't sound right with Hawai'i Calls. Conversely, Jules Ah See type jazz chording wouldn't sound right with the Sons of Hawai'i.
But those are just my opinions, and I'm kind of a square. Wow I also talk too much. |
Edited by - Jeff Au Hoy on 05/27/2005 11:01:00 PM |
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Karl Monetti
`Olu`olu
USA
756 Posts |
Posted - 05/28/2005 : 10:18:34 PM
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Hi, Jeff.
If you think you talk too much, just hang around a whoile and listen to the greats on the patch.
I hope to be tuning in to the steel forum within the year...presently trying to make some headway on building my first, and prabably only ever guitar.. Just for slide.
I like your take on the style thing.....the melody notes are what i like most, as well.
You will find this site very helpful, and from teh sound of your post so far, yo will be a big part of giving of your own knowledge to help the rest of us struggling along on the path. I just love the struggle:) |
Karl
Frozen North |
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hapakid
Luna Ho`omalu
USA
1533 Posts |
Posted - 05/29/2005 : 8:15:06 PM
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Thanks for the words about the steel guitar. Do you play a six string? Can you tell us which A6 tuning you use and what the string guages are?
Mahalos!
Jesse Tinsley |
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Jeff Au Hoy
Aloha
USA
17 Posts |
Posted - 05/29/2005 : 9:30:23 PM
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I usually play a 7-string and the A6 I use is, top to bottom (gauges in parenthesis):
E (.014 plain)
C# (.016 plain)
A (.018 plain)
F# (.022 wound)
E (.028 wound)
C# (.034 wound)
A, sometimes G (.038 wound)
The Robert Mugge documentary "Hawaiian Rainbow" has some good footage of Billy Hew Len playing this tuning, albeit on a 6 string steel sans the lowest note I listed.
Prior to this year I had been playing gauges about .001 or .002 thicker, but kinda like the lighter strings because they demand a lighter touch and seem to enhance sustain... although artificial harmonics or "chimes" are a little trickier.
I like the A6 over the traditional C6 because it affords a 5th on the top and a slightly "deeper" timbre. But really, the timbre part is pretty subjective. I think it is noticably different, though. Bobby Ingano gets a 5th on top by adding a G atop his C6 tuning (essentially the A6 I use transposed to C). The traditional C6 which David Keli'i, Jules Ah See, Joe Custino, Gabby Pahinui and Barney Isaacs and others played has an E (i.e., a 3rd) on top. |
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hapakid
Luna Ho`omalu
USA
1533 Posts |
Posted - 05/30/2005 : 05:36:30 AM
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Mahalo, Jeff!
I have dabbled in C6, and I like the sound a lot. But the A6 is very close and now I have to try it. I enjoyed Billy Hew Len's work in "Hawaiian Rainbow". What amazing accuracy he acheived with the bar attachment he had to use.
Jesse Tinsley |
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Jeff Au Hoy
Aloha
USA
17 Posts |
Posted - 05/30/2005 : 2:13:16 PM
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I am shamefully ignorant about the subtleties of slack key so please forgive me for assuming... I feel the A6 might indeed be a more comfortable tuning than C6 for slack key players to use on the steel. The main reason being that it contains a lot of the same intervals (in the same inversions) as the G Taropatch tuning. If we tune the 8-string A6 down a whole step, we get (low to hi):
D-G-B-D-E-G-B-D
A lot of those notes match the Taropatch tuning, especially the top three which are exactly the same. Or maybe a slack key player could visualize the A6 as a modified Taropatch capoed up 2 frets?
*****
Hmm... after saying all that, I sat down and thought about things... I think it would work out just as well to tune the steel to G Taropatch, if a person so wanted. They just wouldn't have all the jazzier chord substitutions "right under the bar"... but who needs those for the more classic styles anyway. |
Edited by - Jeff Au Hoy on 05/30/2005 4:05:04 PM |
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Konabob
`Olu`olu
USA
928 Posts |
Posted - 05/31/2005 : 01:47:02 AM
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Hi Jeff,
I live up mauka of Kailua-Kona, in Holualoa. Ken Emerson got me started playing acoustic steel guitar in Taro Patch. I appreciate your comments above, especially about not doing Grass Shack, heavy 6th chords or the octave slide. Occasionally, I raise my middle D string up to E and play in G6th... but the novelty wears off after a couple of songs and I go back to Taro Patch. I make it over to Oahu a couple times a year and wondered who you play with, and where? I will be at the Ukulele Guild of Hawaii Exhibition in Waikiki in November. I make an open G tuned bass and enjoy backing up uke groups with it.
Aloha,
-Konabob |
Konabob's Walkingbass - http://www.konawalkingbass.com
Taropatch Steel - http://www.konaweb.com/konabob/
YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=&search_query=Konabob2+Walkingbass |
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Jeff Au Hoy
Aloha
USA
17 Posts |
Posted - 05/31/2005 : 7:37:23 PM
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Konabob!
I visited your weblink and it hit me... You're thee creator of the Kona Walkingstick! I had the pleasure of meeting you at the last 'Ukulele Guild exhibition. I was there with Kama Hopkins, the 'ukulele player in my regular group Holunape (formerly known as Kilinahe). We sampled the Walkingstick a bit. I remember the little extention that helps keep the stick anchored. Too cool! |
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Darin
Lokahi
USA
294 Posts |
Posted - 06/01/2005 : 10:42:17 AM
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Hi Jeff,
It's Darin Leong (Puns 95). Nice to see you on the web! Hope things are good back in Hawaii. |
Darin
http://www.hawaiiguitar.com/ |
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slkho
`Olu`olu
740 Posts |
Posted - 06/01/2005 : 2:14:36 PM
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Welcome to the TP Jeff
Aloha,
-slkho |
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JeffC
Lokahi
USA
189 Posts |
Posted - 06/02/2005 : 03:36:06 AM
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Hi Jeff
Welcome. I've been focused entirely on slack key and don't really know squat about steel, but it's probably not too late for another guitar obsession.
The other new Jeff |
Jeff
Making Trout Country safe for Slack Key! |
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