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neeej
`Olu`olu
USA
643 Posts |
 Posted - 09/27/2005 : 6:22:28 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Karl Monetti
Had to deliver a pup half way across the country last weekend. Had plenty of time to learn a new tune from Ozzie's book; Awiwi. Cool little tune with some degree of difficulty when played at higher speeds, which is the object of the piece, according to Ozzie. Anyway, played it enough in the terminals and on the planes that two different flight attendants ans one passenger asked me to stop! Is that a good thing????
Indubitabobbly!!!! I love to play it faster each time till I fall off the fretboard laughing  |
--Jean S |
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catheglass
Lokahi
USA
312 Posts |
Posted - 09/27/2005 : 8:43:25 PM
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aloha Reid:
not sure if i'm the Auntie C, but well, it's ok den.
having tremendous fun getting used to and comfortable with my beautiful new all koa guitar from dennis lake at po mahina on da big island. whew - awesome guitar.
wishing i was in the islands.
submitted something "completely different" for the taropatch cd; let me know what ya think when it's up....
greetings to sarah, wish our paths would cross again. Auntie |
cathe |
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Peter Medeiros
`Olu`olu
546 Posts |
Posted - 09/27/2005 : 9:01:49 PM
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This is kind of interesting to see how you guys are picking up on this little tune some forty five years plus after it was recorded, and thirty five years after I transcribed it. It is an example of the first instrumental break on Gabby's recording of Maunaloa on a Waikiki Records 45rpm record. I transcribed to teach and it was actually called exercise number three for my advanced classes. It sounds better at a moderate tempo and it is a simple form of Gabby's improvisation when he was playing taropatch.
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Reid
Ha`aha`a
Andorra
1526 Posts |
Posted - 09/28/2005 : 04:17:08 AM
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I have been puzzling over what makes a "style" a style for a lot of years - it is an important issue in lots of undisciplined disciplines - like archaeology, art history, even the "Art of Computer Programming" - there are several computer language style books, and, in at least one natural langage, there is the famous Strunk and White.
Slack Key has been called a "style" by lots of people.
Since Fran did a slack key version of "Grandfather's Clock", Ray Kane (and others) have done "Turkey (or chicken) in the Straw" and "East Side, West Side" and several have done slack key versions of childrens' songs (including John Keawe, I think) and there are several others, it can't be the melody, harmony (both together a rough equivalent of vocabulary) or rhythm. It must have something to do with structure (kind of grammar). Yet, all the things I can think of that are structural are shared by other kinds/styles of songs.
There must be some other kind of "dimension" I haven't fixed on that defines slack key. One I looked at yesterday was the chord choice(s)/intervals of the important "theme" of a song. This one used an A minor chord kinda mixed with a G Major (maybe it is an A minor 7th, all together) that made it sound very unHawaiian, unslack key, even though all the rest of the slack key cues were there. Yet, I know that several slack key pieces use minor chords, at least in passing.
I know, for the accomplished artists among you, that this kinda stuff is sorta beside the point. But, for guys like me, whose bodies don't work right (and are basically untalented anyway) understanding is almost as good as doing.
So, for those inclined: any ideas?
Reid |
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Reid
Ha`aha`a
Andorra
1526 Posts |
Posted - 09/28/2005 : 04:45:28 AM
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About Awiwi (or Excercise #3):
There is something special about that piece. I can sing it in my head at will (I am doing just that right now) and I haven't played it in over a year. Sarah played it last night, not for any special reason, but because it was just good to hear. It never gets boring; it is always fun and interesting. That it was an improvisation and only a part of a larger piece is mind blowing, because it had to have been constructed in milliseconds and because it sounds so complete in itself, no false steps, a gem. Put it down to genius and long experience?
A guy who wrote a good book on composing for guitar, Jon Damian, uses the made-up term "Comprovisation" (improvising *is* composing) and maintains that the mechanics of the process can be learned (or else he wouldn't have written the book :-). But, Awiwi shows that *good* composing requires a brilliance that not many of us have.
Reid |
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Peter Medeiros
`Olu`olu
546 Posts |
Posted - 09/28/2005 : 05:30:26 AM
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Reid,
By the time Gabby recorded this particular piece, he was the complete package. He could play any stringed instrument, sing and arrange. The improv lines that he developed were jazz lines that a trumpet, sax or clarinet might play in a big band arrangement of a Hawaiian song. Within the context of a horn players choice of lines they might not stand out or be that horn musicians choice at that moment, but from the perspective of a traditional slack key guitarist playing in the first position they represent something of a quantum leap.
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marzullo
`Olu`olu
USA
923 Posts |
Posted - 09/28/2005 : 06:39:47 AM
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how-dee!
the academic year has started, and i'm teaching late on wednesday nights again. makes it hard to go to the ukulele or the SCSKS kanikapilas, aue...
we were on maui a couple of weeks ago, and i got to play with kevin, gerry, sheldon and a fellow new to me (forget da name). those guys are getting a real authentic sons of hawaii sound together. kevin then launched me on working on an instrumental version of radio hula, closer to the original hula version as compared to the swing version that led popularized.
reid, sometimes a hawaiian song really benefits from a minor chord. consider "kuhio bay".
G D7 G
'Akahi ho'i a 'ike ku'u maka
D7 G
I ka nani a'o Waiakea
G7 C Cm
'A'ohe lua e like ai
G D7
Me ka nani a me ka nani
G
A'o Kuhio Bay
i don't think iz plays the Cm, and of course it sounds beautiful when he does it. but that Cm adds a drop of wistful sweetness that fits well with the lyrics. iz does end the song with a Cm - G sequence that has the same effect. i include the Cm when i play a pa`ani.
aloha,
keith
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Fran Guidry
Ha`aha`a
USA
1583 Posts |
Posted - 09/28/2005 : 08:25:08 AM
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My take on this is really simple - if one of the greats play the song, and it sounds like slack key to me, it's slack key. I added "Grandfather's Clock" to my repertoire when I heard it on my $32-on-Ebay-scratched-up-copy-of-the-red-album-(with-a-black-cover) that I bought a week before the complete early works of Leonard Kwan came out on CD. For the same reason, I expect to come up with a "Yellow Bird" someday. I have experimented with other tunes such as "Sloop John B." and ultimately not added them to my song list because they haven't been endorsed by one of "the guys." This is kinda chicken poop, on one level, but on another level it's pure respect. I don't own slack key, I'm strictly a borrower. So I look to the people I consider the owners for guidance.
On the issue of minor chords, I defer to the same source Keith mentions. When I heard Kevin play a C minor in one of his arrangements I added it to my list of valid musical elements. It's the same story as the choice of tunes. I use bluesy slides because Sonny and Led use them. I do bass runs because Leonard and Led do them. I hope to add diminished lines to my toolbox because Gabby used them.
Fran
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E ho`okani pila kakou ma Kaleponi
Slack Key on YouTube
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marzullo
`Olu`olu
USA
923 Posts |
Posted - 09/28/2005 : 09:37:40 AM
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hi fran!
gabby did so much, i gather from his early days playing steel behind andy cummings. gerry taught me one of gabby's cool endings: V#, VI#, VIII. for example, in G play D#, F, G. it's a beautiful way to end a song.
aloha,
keith
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Reid
Ha`aha`a
Andorra
1526 Posts |
Posted - 09/28/2005 : 10:03:49 AM
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Thanks for the thoughts on the minor chords, guys. You have also made three of my (many) problems clearer to me. As I have said before, living 5000 miles away and being isolated, Sarah and I just don't get enough direct experience - a litle more for sure next Feb.. Now that you have brought up Kevin's use of Cmin (and that also means that Waihe`e is still going on, right?), I recall that one song that Uncle Sol tried to teach us at the Bailey House had a recurring Emin in it. (Andy, I think you were there at that session, too). So, the next thing I am not doing right is ignoring what a kupuna tried to get across to me - he generously gave us a copy of his voluminous song book, and I have simply forgotten about it. The third thing is that I clearly have not listened carefully enough to a lot of the recorded music we have. Bass runs we do, but I couldn't do a bluesy slide if my life depended on it(although Sarah does occasionally - BTW, Keith, Sarah is learning Keala's Mele because of how beautifully you did it at Dusty's, and it has a few bluesy slides) and I can't even distinguish a diminished line in Gabby's recordings, but I believe you, Fran, that they are there.
The neat thing about this is that it gives me lots of interesting and fun "work" to do.
Reid |
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marzullo
`Olu`olu
USA
923 Posts |
Posted - 09/28/2005 : 4:17:29 PM
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hi reid,
yup, the waihe`e kanikapila are still going on. it's still a big slice of real paradise and aloha spirit.
i'm sure sarah's version of ke`ala's mele is going to sound beautiful. she has such great technique. the part that i can't get down as well as i wish is the variation in which he slid from the C on fifth fret up to the F on the tenth fret, and then back down to the C. to my ears, his version makes it sound like the guitar takes a big inhale sliding up the F and then an exhale down the the C. i've not yet figured out how he got that effect.
aloha, and greetings to sarah,
keith
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Julie H
Ha`aha`a
USA
1206 Posts |
Posted - 09/28/2005 : 7:52:41 PM
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Julie checking in here 
I've been drooling over steel guitars but not practicing the cheap one I have. Last week I was lucky to be the high bidder on a vintage Rickenbacker. (Sadly, not a frying pan.  ) And since I'm semi-retired, I now have no excuse for not practicing. Still plunk my uke now and then.
The "funnest" thing I'm doing now is decorating stages for Hawaiian shows. I have some bamboo props, live plants, some tropical pareos and I try to get that tropical feeling as a backdrop for the musicians. So far I've had a great time doing it and I think the musicians appreciate the ambience. (Herb Ohta Jr. was commenting on that on his post.)
And what makes "Slack Key"? I think it's the aloha that permeates every song. It's what makes me homesick for those balmy breezes and the whispering coco palms, it's the love shared between the musicians and the listeners, etc...
Can't wait for February and being surrounded by all that loveliness.
Aloha, Julie |
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MahinaM
Lokahi
USA
389 Posts |
Posted - 09/28/2005 : 8:00:32 PM
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Reid: "Yo-ho-ho"
1) I'm still here too, 2) I'm still posting, 3) I'm not a newbie, 4) I'm going to attempt to put something on the TP CD, 5) Who are all those Aunties? 6) How could you forget cpatch, karl from the frozen north, and kiwini from the garlic capitol of the world (glad some of 'em "checked in!").
Maggie |
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jlsulle
Lokahi
USA
284 Posts |
Posted - 09/29/2005 : 06:03:39 AM
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Sulle checking in,
Be sure to check my review of Ledward Kaapana's first workshop in the "camps and workshops" catagory.  |
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Reid
Ha`aha`a
Andorra
1526 Posts |
Posted - 09/29/2005 : 06:45:30 AM
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Hi Maggie,
“2) I'm still posting”
Yup, that is part of the point of this little exercise in agitprop theater – you were posting, as I was not (except for the odd question) and as many others were not – and I missed them a lot. These things go in cycles and it felt as if we were in a slump - at least, I was, and I wanted to get off my butt and do something and learn somethings about what all of my TP friends were doing and thinking. I suppose some people get annoyed by my method, and some don’t. Either way is OK by me, because of the result. Look: a big bunch of people are talking to each other in one thread (as if we were all in one big room) about a lot of differrent things. Isn’t that neat?
I haven’t flushed out some other people yet, like Slackkey Bill who is a very good friend and who I haven’t heard from in too long a time. Bill is here, because he posted in two unrelated threads recently, one of which Sarah responded to. So, Bill, come talk story with us, yeah!
“4) I'm going to attempt to put something on the TP CD”
That is great; I wish my progressive joint and tendon problems would have let me embarrass myself in public. As it is, I have been content to act as Sarah’s MixMaster.
“ 5) Who are all those Aunties?”
There are, or were, lots of them. Do an archive search. One, Auntie D, flashed through here for a while and then disappeared (maybe back to her own web site, but I don’t want to go there to talk to her – I want to stay here). There is also some kind of tendency, which I find amusing, for women TP members to call themselves Auntie (or Aunty) “something” while no guy here has yet styled themselves “Uncle”. Please don’t start with Uncle Reid; I would be sillier than I naturally am – but, “Uncle Chunk” would be a hoot. And "Auntie jwn" is just as good.
“ 6) How could you forget cpatch, karl from the frozen north, and kiwini from the garlic capitol of the world (glad some of 'em "checked in!").”
There was nothing exclusive intended – in fact, just the opposite as I have already suggested.
For me, the question should be “How could you remember anything?” Forgetting, at my age, is trivially simple. (Now, where did I put my glasses? And I ain’t kidding.) And, I, too, am glad they checked in – Karl’s mention of Awiwi brought out some very interesting things, and the news that Craig is getting back into playing was real good to hear
Karl – did those FAs *really* ask you to stop playing and, if so, what did you tell them? :-)
So, Maggie, my motive was to be a burr under everybody’s saddle (AKA stimulant). Did I succeed?
...Reid (with ellipsis, which, as an antecedent, gives me a moment to remember my name) |
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