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Peter Medeiros
`Olu`olu
546 Posts |
 Posted - 02/13/2003 : 1:13:36 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by cpatch
A quick plug for Peter's CD:
http://www.mele.com/v3/info/2340.htm
Slack key guitar, ukulele, bass, mandolin, tiple, and accordion, all apparently played by Peter (except for some slack key by Ozzie on two tracks).
Craig:
This is what happens when you have too much time on your hands. Thanks for the plug.
Peter M |
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cdyas
Akahai
67 Posts |
Posted - 02/14/2003 : 01:08:08 AM
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Hi Peter,
Thank you for joining the forum. I would be very interested in hearing your comparison/opinion of the slack key development in Hawaii vs the mainland. Do you think that the published materials on the market are slanted to the mainland market since they have printed by mainland corporations for their market? I am working my way through the taro patch section Ozzie's book and Ron Loo's 1st book and of all the songs that I have been working on, Awiwi has been the one that frustrates me but has also been the most rewarding, and based on what you have written it makes more sense to me now. The transitions (I think that is what they are)are challenging me. I can hear the song but my fingers are just not there yet.
If you don't mind me asking, how would you define your slack key style and who was your Kumu?
How has your style evolved over the years?
Mahalo |
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Peter Medeiros
`Olu`olu
546 Posts |
Posted - 02/14/2003 : 11:12:34 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by cdyas
Hi Peter,
Thank you for joining the forum. I would be very interested in hearing your comparison/opinion of the slack key development in Hawaii vs the mainland. Do you think that the published materials on the market are slanted to the mainland market since they have printed by mainland corporations for their market? I am working my way through the taro patch section Ozzie's book and Ron Loo's 1st book and of all the songs that I have been working on, Awiwi has been the one that frustrates me but has also been the most rewarding, and based on what you have written it makes more sense to me now. The transitions (I think that is what they are)are challenging me. I can hear the song but my fingers are just not there yet.
If you don't mind me asking, how would you define your slack key style and who was your Kumu?
How has your style evolved over the years?
Mahalo
Geez!
You ask a lot of big questions and hard ones at that. As I remember Boulder and the front range at this time of year you must be freezing your butt off, don't you have anything better to do than ask questions like this? Anyway I'll try my best.
I cannot answer the first question, it is not a good question or a fair one -- it invites more interest than it actually deserves. Also, it is realistically beyond my limited capabilities, because it would require trying to get an accurate sample of an unknown number of people who play slack key or are trying to learn in both Hawaii and on the mainland. It would be impossible to get an accurate picture with good facts and draw any kind of meaningful conclusion about the development. Furthermore, my point of view should not be interpreted as a Hawaii versus the mainland issue. The only constant that we have is that change is inevitable -- nothing remains the same, I accepted this paradox decades ago. Leave this one alone, its already been beaten to death. What I do as a teacher is open the door for students, that is what I do, I pass on what I know about slack key -- it doesn't matter where students come from. I just get my class lists at the beginning of every semester and we start from there.
Your second question is not as dangerous as your first, but is still not an easy one. Out of all the instruments played in the world it is the guitar that is the most popular, and it is the amateur guitar player that makes up the largest potential market. Slack key is the one form of guitar that is under represented in all of the guitar method catalogs. If you are one of the world's largest publishers of guitar methods, slack key as a niche market is going to represent substantial sales. In regards to whether the materials published are slanted to the mainland market the answer can be yes and no. It may determined by both the individual author and the publisher, usually those decisions will be driven by the market. One scenario would be the local author's original manuscript and materials of the first edition may have been written for Hawaii, with the ultimate goal being to have subsequent editions released on the mainland -- sometimes through assignment, license or through a buyout-- at any rate the opportunity to reach a bigger market is presented. Another scenario would be a collaboration between a Hawaiian artist and a mainland writer and publisher with the same goal in mind to reach the largest market. Still another scenario would be a talented guitarist and author from the mainland transcribing what he hears of island artists and publishing the transcripts on the mainland. At any rate if one is involved with business it is normal to try and exploit opportunities and try and make as much money as possible.
I don't have Oz's book in front of me now, but as I had mentioned earlier, the original exercise was one of a number of transcriptions from one of Gabby's 49th State singles (remember those?) at 45rpm. Right now I don't remember whether it was from "Waihu`i`okeaniani", "Ahulili"or "Maunaloa", because sections were interchangeable. But one of the things that distinguished Gabby's taro patch style from other contemporaries in the late 40's and 50s was that there was more movement in the melodic line and it was not overly dependent upon movement by sixths, but when he did use them they were executed beautifully, and are the model that I use to teach from -- basic open and closed positions on strings 1&3 and 4&5, or closed and even positions on strings 2&4.
Before you could always figure out who my students were because they would articulate terms that made sense only to the player, and only if, the player would look down at his fingers. Anybody else listening would go what? It is a visual description of harmonic movement by sixths. And I learned this terminology from Peter Moon who learned it from Gabby. And now that Peter is teaching again, I would expect his students to be using it also.
The thing is though I had learned the movements much earlier from my Dad, but he did not conceptualize it or articulate it, he just played it like many old timers.
I cannot help you with Ron's books, because I have never seen them -- I was going through sticker shock. I would think that they are competent methods for the price. I do know Ron, he studied with me in the spring of 1975 as a private student, then went on to Sonny and then Aunty Alice.
In regards to your last question my father was my first teacher, then Peter Moon -- I was probaly his first student and I learned a lot from him, then the other artists I played with, then my students, then Sonny Chillingworth, then my other students, then my other other students. I've learned from everybody. I don't think the idea of the pedigree of a teacher or a student is good for slack key -- it can be divisive and elitist and marginalize learning. The important thing is that you are going to learn something in any situation -- so just learn to appreciate even the smallest contribution made by anybody.
I approach slack key as basically Hawaiian folk music -- in other words it's the music of the maka'ai'nana - the common people. But I approach it primarily as an accompaniment to singing. I'm not into it as a virtuoso instrumentalist, nor am I into it as art music, although it is now in many cases being presented that way -- I find that approach a little too anal retentive. For me I hear it playing somewhere in my mind at all times of the day. I like to play it with an edge -- kind of rough, and especially with others -- that was the way I was raised. I had always heard good Hawaiian music in my house when I was growing up because of my father. He was such a good singer. He would serenade my mother and the rest of the family at anytime. He could play uke, banjo, mandolin and guitar and there were always well known and good musicians or composers coming in to either just visit or to party and everybody knew the stories and the words to the music and would sing. I was lucky.
Good luck with "Awiwi"
Peter M
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Edited by - Peter Medeiros on 02/15/2003 06:10:20 AM |
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