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Kapila Kane
Ha`aha`a
USA
1051 Posts |
 Posted - 03/22/2012 : 08:02:39 AM
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Wrestling with:
C Wahine tuning/liner notes inside Dancing Cat's, "Sonny Solo" cd
booklet...AND my ears.
and since this is one cut used for "The Descendants", it's even more of interest!
On notes after each cuts info, "Hi'ilawe" also after "Hula medley", and "Pua Lilihua", it's listed as C Wahine (C,G,D,G.B,D)
BUT (on last page inside), (last page inside) "Tunings used on this album" it lists..., (C,G,D,G,B, E). --TYPO?
which although closer to Gabby's Hi'ilawe tuning (C,G,E,G,B,E), (also in movie) and doable both ways, seems less likely for Sonny?!
gotta be the more common (for Sonny and Ozzie) "dropped C" (C,G,D,G,B,D)...eh?
I'm 50% sure that I'm 90% sure!
but then again, those high E notes on 1st string could be fretted at 2nd fret...and that tuning seems to be a Sonny and Ozzie tuning "preference".
Isn't wonderful to have arguments with yourself?
Of course, what a great resource of tuning info G. Winston and Dancing Cat stuff has been...and typpoes happyn.
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Edited by - Kapila Kane on 03/22/2012 08:05:51 AM |
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Admin
Pupule
USA
4551 Posts |
Posted - 03/22/2012 : 08:33:07 AM
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On Sonny Solo, I am quite certain that Uncle Sonny plays those songs in C-G-D-G-B-D. Of course, Ozzie or one of his many students like Duke can weigh in with more authority.
On Hiʻilawe, I hear a run that includes the 1st string and 4th string (octaves) played at the same time, suggesting that it is C-G-D-G-B-D.
Keola Beamer taught me Pua Līlīlehua in Keola's C (C-G-D-G-B-E.) However, I have seen Ozzie play it beautifully in C-G-D-G-B-D... and I believe this is how Uncle Sonny played it too. |
Andy |
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Peter Medeiros
`Olu`olu
546 Posts |
Posted - 03/22/2012 : 10:28:54 AM
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Although I have the CD, I haven’t listened to it in years. I spent a long time with Sonny. And although there is no doubt in my mind that he could make an adjustment in tuning and play CGDGBE, I don't ever recall him playing this tuning on Hi’ilawe or Pua Lililehua, that is, when we were just goofing around or performing. But the recording sessions with George may have been a different situation. George takes meticulous notes.
You have to remember; Sonny was a slack key genius. He could play pseudo slack in standard tuning like nobodies business. And I'm sure that if he wanted to give a more authentic slack key bass, but didn't have time or inclination to go full drop C, he would have just dropped the fifth and sixth strings to G and C and played accordingly. This is simply standard tuning with a bias towards the key of C by having a C & G bass.
On the other hand, if the request for the songs had been to do them in a C Wahine tuning, the C Wahine tuning he would more than likely have used would have been CGEGBE because Sonny was a student of Gabby.
Knowing Sonny as well as I did, his general tendencies would have been to go with his favorite tunings G tuning, Drop C, G Wahine and standard.
I think the primary indicator would be how the first string is used. If you hear it used as the middle note of a triplet (D-E-D) where the E is a hammer-on, than the tuning is probably Drop C. If the E is static with no movement, than it is probably CGEGBE or CGDGBE.
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Kapila Kane
Ha`aha`a
USA
1051 Posts |
Posted - 03/29/2012 : 05:47:41 AM
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Hearing open or fretted seems to be harder for me on higher pitched strings.
The low strings usually leap out with the bass lines. But hearing the top one, without an obvious hammer/pull-off, or 'chimes'--well not always so obvious. A guitar (with frets in good condition) can sing with pretty "clear" fretted notes, like an open string.
One of the sections of Peter's book I appreciate (besides all the parts between the covers, is where he gives examples of Hi'ilawe done in different C tunings. What a wealth of stuff in Peter's book--it is, indeed, a LIFETIME of study, not just for Peter, but for all of us!
I swear that when I started, I was like a 16 year old learning rock 'n roll riffs, saying "I can learn this in 6 weeks, start a band, and be on tv in 6 months!"
Slack key has some of that same appeal to our search for 'easy street'!
While it's not so easy as I thought, it is rewarding. When I see how hard working and the incessant touring that the masters do to make a go of it...well guess I'm glad I'm a couch-potato-picker!
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Edited by - Kapila Kane on 03/29/2012 05:48:22 AM |
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Admin
Pupule
USA
4551 Posts |
Posted - 03/29/2012 : 08:15:52 AM
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| Thanks, Peter, for weighing in! |
Andy |
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Sonny Solo, conflicting Liner notes!
