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mike2jb
Lokahi
USA
213 Posts |
 Posted - 02/27/2007 : 10:30:43 AM
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The current “favorite piece” discussion here brings to mind another question I’ve had. So sorry, folks, if this is a repeat topic, but I searched the archives and found nothing.
My teacher recommended I should learn a particular song “because it’s part of the slack-key canon.” (In the end, I learned it because I liked it, a better reason in my book.)
But I’m wondering if anyone here has a notion of what makes up the slack-key “canon,” if such a thing exists. Not necessarily your favorite songs, or the ones that are recorded most or appear most in instruction books. Rather, I’m thinking of songs that you’d expect any slack-key artist to know, without question: the absolute basics.
How many songs would fit that criterion? Ten? Dozens?
Would the list more likely include pieces that are usually instrumentals? Pieces usually sung? “Signature” pieces commonly associated with only one artist?
Would there be more traditional, older songs with no known author? (Hi`ilawe?) More from the early 20th century, from early radio or phonograph days? (Maunaloa? Radio Hula?) How about “renaissance” compositions by composer/performers from more recent decades? (Koke`e?)
I’d probably include Hi`ilawe, Punahele, and `Opihi Moemoe in such a list, but I’m not sure how long the list would grow.
Anyone here have thoughts on what songs you would include and why?
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Puna
Lokahi
USA
227 Posts |
Posted - 02/27/2007 : 10:34:57 AM
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I don't know about this. Slack key is nahenahe, and cannons are usually pretty loud 
Sorry...couldn't resist |
Puna |
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Reid
Ha`aha`a
Andorra
1526 Posts |
Posted - 02/27/2007 : 10:56:08 AM
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Mike, there *are* lists in threads here. Try different search terms and make sure you check the archives radio button. Threads you can see just go back about a month. And, in fact, Mark's new "Old Time" slack key book was a result of that thread. Obviously he had to winnow the pieces to a manageable number, so he doesn't have *everything* or even some of the most famous, but that's just a result of necessary choices. You can find it, and other threads, if you give it another shot. I would help more by searching for you, but my infirmities don't allow it.
...Reid
...Reid |
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mike2jb
Lokahi
USA
213 Posts |
Posted - 02/27/2007 : 11:13:34 AM
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Thanks, Reid. When I got Mark's book, I imagined that his list must have come from many people asking him for "standards."
I'll put these old computer-illiterate fingers back to work searching the archives, with your advice.
And from the other side of the continent I'm sending you my best wishes: less infirmity, more music.
-Mike |
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mike2jb
Lokahi
USA
213 Posts |
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Mark
Ha`aha`a
USA
1628 Posts |
Posted - 02/27/2007 : 2:12:04 PM
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At the February Aloha Camp earlier this month I'd arranged for Sonny Lim and Kevin Brown to give an informal workshop on "Essential Slack Key Repertoire" -- or some such high falutin' title.
As it turned out, I sat in with Sonny and Kevin, kinda as a way to moderate the discussion. (OK, really cuz I was dyin' to play with two of the greatest guitarists I've ever heard...)
So first thing Kevin looks at me and says, "start something and we'll pass it around." I played something, then Sonny played something else, then Kevin, then back to me... all the time the other two guitarists were improvising backups and harmonies..... sweet!
This went on for a looonng time. When we stopped, we tried to remember all the tunes we'd played... Then we did some more playing.
The upshot? Our little jam session set list (at least the ones who's names we remembered) looked a whole lot like the Top 30 or so TPers came up with. Yellow Ginger Lei, E Huli Ho`i Mai, Pauoa Liko Ka Lehua, Maunaloa, `Ulupalakua... and yes, Radio Hula... among many other.
So start memorizing those tunes, gang! You'll have a lot more fun at jam sessions.
BTW: Its not about learning someone's arrangement -- you gotta know the tune so you can drop in it whenever you feel like it. Maybe you can play Keola's lovely setting of Yellow Ginger Lei... but can you play the song in Taropatch, or Drop C or Bb wahine...?
Have fun!
Mark
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Reid
Ha`aha`a
Andorra
1526 Posts |
Posted - 02/27/2007 : 3:05:47 PM
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First, I want to say that you hit it right, Mark, when you said Kevin and Sonny are "two of the greatest guitarists I've ever heard". I would add "the least famous, except, for the last dozen years in a white colonial house in CT - and recently in CA, due to some extraordinary efforts by some extraordinary people."
And, you wrote:
"Maybe you can play Keola's lovely setting of Yellow Ginger Lei... but can you play the song in Taropatch" Yup, that's what I wrote elsewhere. I transcribed it into TP with the help of a spreadsheet that I wrote (a spreadsheet is really a very capable cellular automaton), in which you input a note or tab number and the output range is a staff or a tab that shows the output in the target tuning. It is actually very simple and needs some manual tweaking to optimize the fingering (if I wanted to spend the time, I could write some rules), but the result was a very playable version of Keola's lovely arrangement, with my few changes. I played it about a half dozen times before I tore something. Anyway, it really is possible to do the strangest kinds of transcriptions, and I admire those who can do it off the top of their heads. I wish...
...Reid |
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Sarah
`Olu`olu
571 Posts |
Posted - 02/28/2007 : 05:59:41 AM
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Mark is absolutely right:
quote:
you gotta know the tune so you can drop in it whenever you feel like it
A jam sessions, guaranz ballbarenz no one is going to play the "arrangement" you know, so you play along the best you can... but when time comes to go 'round the circle and do a pa'ani, you are lost if you don't know the melody of the song. Many a time I've had to pass on the pa'ani because I didn't know the tune and couldn't grasp the it immediately just at the time of the jam.
The majority of slack key tunes are not instrumental originals, they derive from a song with words (not Punahele or 'Opihi Moemoe, but all of the ones Mark listed, for instance). Years ago I learned from Uncle Sol Kawaihoa that the melodic line is called the piko, which is a word that means a number of things, but "center" is a good way to encapsulate the concept -- the song arrangment is built around the melody.
aloha,
Sarah |
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Karl Monetti
`Olu`olu
USA
756 Posts |
Posted - 02/28/2007 : 3:20:12 PM
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I have just a little trouble with a 'canon' or 'standards'. I have found very few albums, very few genres, very few artists where i liked everything included. YOur standards list will be different than mine. Of the "standards" of slack key i must admit i do not like Hi'Ilawe. No offense to anyone, it's just not a tune i like. So, I would suggest you make your own list. If you come up with a few tunes nobody else is playing, maybe you will make a few converts to your own slack key 'canon'. Just as you can interpret any of these songs any way you want (Mark's OpihiMoeMoe treatment is a gem), you can alter the standards to include what you like most to play. Personally i have a few contemporary John Keawe pieces that i prefer to play over almost any of the standards. That's not tooting my horn or anyone elses, just a voice for individuality. No two of us have the same tastes, and i bet very few of us would have the same 20 tunes in their top lists.
Play what you like, from the heart, and others will listen. |
Karl
Frozen North |
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Mika ele
Ha`aha`a
USA
1493 Posts |
Posted - 02/28/2007 : 3:28:34 PM
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quote:
Play what you like, from the heart, and others will listen.
so true
so true
Well said Karl |
E nana, e ho'olohe. E pa'a ka waha, e hana ka lima. |
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Podagee57
Lokahi
USA
280 Posts |
Posted - 02/28/2007 : 7:59:56 PM
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I'd have to agree with Karl also. I learn songs that appeal to me. If I do it for any other reason, I tend to loose interest in that song and it slowly fades from my repertoire. I don't have an opportunity to play with others so I'm learning for my own enjoyment.
Karl, have you tried playing Iz's version of Hi'ilawe? The guitar work is fun to listen to and even more satisfying to play. I first heard it played this way when someone from our table requested the song one night at the local restaraunt where Bill Keale was playing. I didn't even recognize it at first. I went home and checked my data base of songs in the computer (there are many I haven't listened to yet) and found Iz's version. Bill had played it in a very similar way. Until then, I really had no interest in learning this song. Now, I love to play it. |
What? You mean high "E" is the TOP string. No way dude! That changes everything! |
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Trev
Lokahi
United Kingdom
265 Posts |
Posted - 03/01/2007 : 06:38:21 AM
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I'm pretty new to the Hawaiian music in general. For this reason I reckon the idea of a 'canon' is pretty useful. In order to understand a style it's well worth looking at the 'foundations'. This to me would be not necessarily the most dazzling tunes, but the ones that were the most influential. The ones that inspired other people. The ones that shaped the style and helped make Hawaiian music what it is now. If not to learn to play, at least to know what they sound like.
I was at the session that Mark described above. The music sounded beautiful, but I reckon I'd have got a lot more out of it if I'd known nore about the tunes. Because of my ignorance of the music, I couldn't tell one thing from another, where one tune started and another began etc. However, this did have the effect of increasing my already present desire to find out as much as I can about the music.
If a teacher said to me that he was giving me a tune which was part of such a 'canon' I reckon I'd definitely take some notice of this. I've never had a guitar 'teacher' as such, but I imagine that if a teacher brings you something to learn, there'll usually be a reason for it - there'll be something in there that'll take your playing a bit further. And I'd be working on the premise that the teacher probably knew stuff I didn't, which is why they are the teacher. I agree that liking the tune is a better reason (actually the best reason) for learning it, but the teacher doesn't know whether you like it or not until he introduces it to you. |
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mike2jb
Lokahi
USA
213 Posts |
Posted - 03/01/2007 : 07:48:27 AM
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Hey, Trev-
I’m pretty new to Hawaiian music, as well, at least to the playing part. I didn’t grow up listening to it so I don’t have an imprint of basic tunes in the back of my mind, so I agree with you that the idea of a “canon” is useful. First, as Mark said and as you apparently found out at AMC, you have to know the tunes if you’re gonna jam. (Sure wish I could have been at that session!)
But I’ve never yet had the chance to jam with anyone and I still think the idea of a “canon” of standards is important. Here’s why:
It’s fine for me to “play what I love,” and I do. But if I want to be an informed player (or listener) I think it makes a difference: is the tune I’m playing one that every other accomplished player or listener knows, or am I in unfamiliar territory?
So, for example, if I’m learning from Ozzie’s book and I notice that his first piece sounds a bit like a riff from “Whee-ha Swing,” or that the fourth piece resembles parts of “Nanea Kou Maka I Ka Le`ale`a,” then I’d like to know whether those are songs another player would likely know, or if they are relatively obscure. To me, if nothing else, that just makes learning (and playing) more enjoyable.
If I get his fifth piece (“Maunaloa”) under my belt and can finally break free of his arrangement enough to play along with others playing or singing, then I’d like to know: is this a piece everybody probably knows by heart? Chords? Tune? Words? Are they going to send the kids out of the room before I get to the naughty bits or is this just a pretty melody they’ve never heard before?
I guess I’m saying that in general it’s important to me to know what knowledge (in this case songs) is already shared by people I’m communicating with (in this case playing or singing with). Makes communication a lot more fruitful, in my experience, and a lot more fun.
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Mark
Ha`aha`a
USA
1628 Posts |
Posted - 03/01/2007 : 08:07:49 AM
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I think the issue isn't so much "you have to learn these tunes because everyone else is playing them" as "these are the tunes everyone else is playing." Subtle? Not really.
It's like with other forms of music that's played informally in jams sessions. Trevor is a bang-up bluegrass mandolinist. I'd bet he can name at least 20 "standards" that he can play with any one, anywhere (at any time, with no reason.. to quote that great bluegrasser Frank Zappa.) Cripple Creek, Sally Goodin, Jerusalem Ridge, In The Pines,... am I getting close?
In the old time music world, the current standard is "The Portland Book," an effort of some musicians in Oregon to come up with, well, a group of standard fiddle tunes everyone can play. I don't own a copy, and my repertoire is quite a bit out of date -- but at least I'm familiar enough with what's current today to be able to annoy the hell out of people with my banjo-mando.
Ditto the Celtic music scene -- in fact, the first time I played with Trevor at camp, I'd assumed he played music out of that world (sorry, Trevor, it's something about the accent...Fairport Convention and all that) so I offerred up some O'Carolan tune or other.
As Trevor pointed out, all slack key tunes sound pretty much the same until you know them. Hence the idea of a "canon," I suppose. If you can hum the most common melodies, you'll be able to play 'em.
It gets back to what you want to do. I happen to think playing music informally is the best thing since sliced bread, so I want to have the ammunition to do that.
But I also whole heartedly agree that one should find the music that speaks to your heart.
Traditional music persists throough time because some small subset of all of songs get sung and played over and over down through the generations. It evolves, sure 'nuff. But Turkey in the Straw, or The Ships are Sailing, or Rolling and Tumblin' or Henehene Kou Aka are likely to be around long after we are gone.
cheers,
Mark |
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Reid
Ha`aha`a
Andorra
1526 Posts |
Posted - 03/01/2007 : 09:04:29 AM
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I think its is pretty clear that Trevor and Mike are talking about wanting to learn more about slack key as a form or style (and maybe Hawaiian music in general) and they are *not* necessarily, or mostly, concerned with learning or playing a song that appeals to them, at this instant. It's the difference between intellectual inquiry and aesthetic choice. The latter might come during or after their listening and learning. It seems eminently sensible to me. And, maybe I am just decoding Mark's first sentence.
...Reid |
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RJS
Ha`aha`a
1635 Posts |
Posted - 03/01/2007 : 09:40:14 AM
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I think if you don't call it a "canon," it might be easier to "swallow." In my experience, most slack key players like to think of themselves as pretty individualistic. And we are not very far away from when slack key was still in the realm of family secrets. Getting things too formal makes some of us, well, at least me, a bit edgey. - Still there are songs which get played more frequently than others, and for different reasons. Sometimes 'cause they are easy, sometimes because instruction/notation/TAB for them is readily available, and sometimes because they are the "classics." (In fact, that's the term I use more than "canon.") Mark's latest book is an excellent starting place.
However, slack key is only a part, some would argue a small part, of Hawaiian music, and I don't think you can really get slack key without an appreciation of Hawaiian music in general. You don't have to be an expert. Intellectually, you can read a few of the survey articles in Kanahele's Illustrated Dictionary of Hawaiian Music. Then you need to start listetning, and as you do, you'll notice that you hear some songs covered more frequently than others.
As to many songs sounding alike - well, yes. Also, a lot of the slack key you hear on recordings and around campfires, etc, is background picking/strumming. It is true that in Hawaiian music the word reigns supreme. But it is also true that there is a place for instrumentalists, just a smaller niche. Even when I teach people very new to slack key, they can hear the difference between Keola, Ozzie, and Jeff (Peterson). I'm getting lost here, so I'l go back to the topic.
As to jamming - if you're going to do any jamming beyond "just checking it out" you need to have He Mele Aloha - won't give you the melodies, but it will give the chord progressions, and it sound like both of you can go from there. |
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