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Absolute
Lokahi
275 Posts |
 Posted - 02/22/2007 : 07:11:43 AM
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"Keola Beamer Teaches Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar"
ISBN: 0-7935-9949-0
Got this from the local library. Hope it's in yours, so you can give it a try. (If not, you can try an interlibrary loan.) It's a lot of fun, and I don't even play the guitar (warning to ukulele players). You might learn a little if you are new to slack key music about how it is constructed on a bar to bar basis, the meaning of the term "arpeggiating", and how to add some shimmer to a note. The "other voice" in the recording has a habit of instructing the famous musician to put down his coffee cup and insisting that she has to go home and feed the kids, so you could get a smile out of it as well!
There are five pieces that are tabbed for guitar. I hope you get a chance to try this one. Its the type of slack key music that I like.
Remember, I'm just suggesting that you look into borrowing it from a library, so don't blame me if you buy it but don't like it.
NOTE: I just moved to D - low G - low B - E tuning ("low" designates in the octave below middle C) with a standard string set on a concert length ukulele. Its the first tuning I've tried that causes even notes that are fretted to linger long enough to produce the tonal layering that is characteristic of slack key music. I'm looking forward to using it more.
Like the famous man says at the start of the CD that accompanies the book: A-LO-HA!
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Admin
Pupule
USA
4551 Posts |
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GUke
Lokahi
188 Posts |
Posted - 02/22/2007 : 07:53:06 AM
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The "other" voice, I believe, is Moanalani Beamer, wife and hula dancer extraordinare. If you got bucks, meet both of them at the Aloha Music Camp in Moloka'i winter-which just concluded- or summer.
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Genaro
Should I? Itʻs only $, and where Iʻm going itʻll burn or melt. |
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wdf
Ha`aha`a
USA
1153 Posts |
Posted - 02/22/2007 : 08:16:03 AM
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Is this it?
Oops... Andy beat me to it |
Dusty |
Edited by - wdf on 02/22/2007 08:18:11 AM |
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Absolute
Lokahi
275 Posts |
Posted - 02/22/2007 : 09:23:50 AM
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| Actually, the publication is from Hal Leonard, and the title of the book I have was typed in as it appears on the cover. You can always confirm by searching under the ISBN number, which is also from the cover at Barnes and Noble or Amazon. ISBN numbers are unique to one publisher's list. It should come up with a book by the title I gave. Of course, if you go via inter-library loan, or from your local, permanent collection, you've got little or nothing to lose, except the time spent on a trip to the library. |
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Absolute
Lokahi
275 Posts |
Posted - 02/22/2007 : 09:25:04 AM
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| The link you gave is the same cover, but the reference you employ is not the title on the copy of the book that I have. |
Thank you. |
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wdf
Ha`aha`a
USA
1153 Posts |
Posted - 02/22/2007 : 10:08:43 AM
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It has the same ISBN number (ISBN: 0-7935-9949-0) that you gave:
Format: Paperback, 40pp.
ISBN: 0793599490
Publisher: Hal Leonard Pub.
Pub. Date: November 1998
Edition Desc: BOOK & CD |
Dusty |
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cpatch
Ahonui
USA
2187 Posts |
Posted - 02/22/2007 : 11:02:12 AM
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| Good grief people! The title given by Absolute is the correct title...the title on the review page is actually the subtitle. |
Craig
My goal is to be able to play as well as people think I can. |
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Admin
Pupule
USA
4551 Posts |
Posted - 02/22/2007 : 11:45:41 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by cpatch
Good grief people! The title given by Absolute is the correct title...the title on the review page is actually the subtitle.
LOL! Thanks cpatch. Mystery solved! We are all spinning our wheels and saying the same thing.  |
Andy |
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Absolute
Lokahi
275 Posts |
Posted - 02/22/2007 : 11:58:59 AM
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| Sorry, Andy. I should have followed your link and confirmed the ISBN, ending the dispute earlier. I wanted to point out that anyone with the internet and the capability to read this post can probably access the web site of their local public library system and e-mail a librarian a request to get this book for them, or there may be a special link and a form to fill out. Either way, you may not even have to make that trip to the library to see if they have the book. Just ask for a letter or e-mail confirming that they can (and will) get it for you, then check back and pick it up when it comes in. |
Thank you. |
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jk93117
Aloha
5 Posts |
Posted - 02/28/2007 : 7:29:17 PM
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| Absolute - I've got a couple of questions I hope you'll answer. Firstly - if the book is written for slack key guitar, how do you play the songs on a ukulele? I'm assuming you're using a 4 string uke and not a D-VI like Daniel Ho plays. Do you just play the bottom four strings of the tab or what? Secondly - the tuning you mentioned. The typical tuning is GCEA (high or low G - I play low G). Anyway, your tuning is DGBE. Correct? The G is a low G and the D would be lower than that. Right? The B is right below middle C and the E is the normal E in GCEA tuning. How do you do that? I tried it on my uke and the strings were so loose they buzzed and seemed to flop all over the place but in your post it sounded like you use standard strings. I know it's called slack key but holy smokes. |
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Absolute
Lokahi
275 Posts |
Posted - 03/02/2007 : 05:46:51 AM
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Quotes with an inherent warning regarding the applicability of this book in my first post:
"I don't even play the guitar (warning to ukulele players)."
"There are five pieces that are tabbed for guitar."
I have never attempted to use this book with my ukulele. I listen to the recording and try to learn what I can about slack key structure and concepts. (I even enjoy the banter.) If you play a guitar, I'm sure you can get a lot more out of it. I presume that a decent number of people here play both. (I don't.) If you are willing to forego copyright restrictions, you could, I believe, easily transcribe some of the works for the ukulele. I was tempted to use my MIDI and music writing software from Cakewalk and do just that, so I could get more out of the book, but I've got enough stuff of my own that I've written to permit me to resist the urge. In truth, the works in the book fairly beg for a ukulele treatment for GCEA tuning. I make no assertion whatsoever that music written for a guitar can be played on ukulele. I make no claim that merely retuning a standard ukulele permits one to play guitar music.
I'm using my own, homemade ukulele with concert length strings. I tune my ukulele to D-low G - low B - E when I want a more legitimate, slack key sound and longer duration tones with a STANDARD string set (not your "low G" string set). The "low" references designate notes in the octave below middle C. I agree that I don't see how you could stop a "low D" tuned string in a standard string set from "flopping" around. Mine don't. They buzz a bit, but nothing like what you describe, and in the instance of the worst case (the only one that I gauge to be problematic in an aesthetic sense, but that is according to my sense of aesthetics and perspectives with regard to playing for my own amusement), due to a slot in the nut that needs to be narrower. That was proven by putting one finger on the top fret and plucking the string, which eliminated the buzz, thereby pointing to the nut. (I also have a twin of this design that I built at the same time, and found that it's strings don't buzz with the same tuning, essentially at all. I ultimately determined to leave the twin tuned to D-low G - low B - E, and use the one with the problem nut tuned to G-C-E-A or G-C-E-G, depending on the piece.) To reduce troubles on a temporary basis with the problem nut, I doubled a piece of scotch tape so the sticky side stuck together, lifted the string out of the slot, and slipped the tap underneath it as a temporary fix, pushing the string gently down into the slot so that the doubled tape cradles it and holds it more firmly in place without having tape stick out over the fingerboard - THIS IS WHAT I DO. DON'T BLAME ME IF YOU ENCOUNTER A PROBLEM IF YOU TRY IT. (What is superglue, after all, other than a polymer that hasn't hardened in the tube - hopefully - with tape being a polymer that has solidified.) One of these days I'm going to take the super glue and the small set of files I just ordered from Harborfreight and fix the nut once and for all. I think that one only begins to grasp the limits of one's ukulele and the nut that one is using with it when one attempts to alter tunings to lower ranges that require that the strings be tightly held in place by the nut in order to avoid buzzing. A somewhat loose slot can be rendered imperceptible with higher tension and G-C-E-A tuning. I think that manufacturer's should be required to designate whether they maintain ISO-9000 (or Six Sigma) quality standards with regard to nut manufacturing that permits use of D-low G-low B - E tuning with their products without nut induced buzzing, as an indicator of how slipshod their production standards are. A simple acoustic analysis of the related audio spectrum would permit the harmonics due to buzzing and their magnitude relative to a standardized limit to be detected in a manned test cell. (I haven't been able to merely replace my ukulele nuts, because I was new to ukulele construction, had never held one in my hands before, and didn't know better than to make a wooden nut and glue it firmly into place with superglue, which forces me to resort to putting glue in the slots and recutting the slot, instead of just replacing the nut. I'm thinking of taking the next step in my design approach, and producing a more advanced version of my cigar box ukulele with the improvements that I have learned would be useful to reduce buzzing noises relative to the design of the nut, making a nut slot so the nut would be removable and replaceable, and modifying the bridge to insure that it holds the strings more firmly in place.)
WARNING TO ALL: THE REFERENCED BOOK IS FOR GUITAR PLAYERS, UNLESS YOU JUST WANT TO LISTEN TO THE CD AND LEARN A BIT ABOUT HOW TO PLAY SLACK KEY MUSIC FROM A RECOGNIZED EXPERT. REMEMBER - YOU CAN USE YOUR LIBRARY TO ATTEMPT TO GET THE BOOK.
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catheglass
Lokahi
USA
312 Posts |
Posted - 03/06/2007 : 10:17:05 PM
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Aloha kakou:
How to use the book for slack key 'ukulele? <giggle>
Play a baritone!!!! We are tuned D-G-B-E. I drop the E down to a D and voila! Tatopatch G tuning.
Of course it's hard to play the alternating base line with just four strings, but challenges are good, right? |
cathe |
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