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Gretchen
Aloha
USA
9 Posts |
 Posted - 06/04/2012 : 05:51:00 AM
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Aloha, I'm new here. I was working with Mark Shark's book, the Tao of Alternate Tunings, and I noticed as I noodled around with the 6ths intervals in Open G (Taro Patch) that I could finger pick Ahe Lua Makani. Since I've never seen this song TABbed in Taro Patch, nor have I seen simple interval songs for beginners to get a feel for how to play in open tunings, I thought I'd offer it here.
What I mean is that, there are lots of songbooks with TABs for songs, even in workbook style, but they teach you what to play, not how to play. If a new person wants to know how to move around on the neck, they have to practice interval scales and chord progressions, which is boring and only presented in one slack key book which is hard to find. So, this version of Ahe Lua Makani, in the most common beginners tuning, hits every 6th interval and mixes up the progression, which is a fun exercise.
People that have thought about slack key more than I have, could tell us whether this would translate to all songs, or if this was a happy coincidence for this song in particular. I just figured this one out last night.
The thing is, is really doesn't fit into the format with which website requires. So, do people need to e-mail me to see it, or can I post it somewhere here for reference? Also, the song structure is in Word, but if anyone wants the TAB of the particular fingerings, is there a way to digitize that?
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The hills are alive with the sound of music |
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Lawrence
Ha`aha`a
USA
1597 Posts |
Posted - 06/04/2012 : 06:56:53 AM
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Aloha e Gretchen,
First Off: Welcome to Taropatch.net!
There are actually several books that talk about the musical stylings of slack key. Peter Medieros book comes to mind, Mark Hansons book, Mark Nelsons book and others mention the use of sixths and of other things that are characteristics of the "slack key" or Hawaiian sound. Also Ozzie Kotani's exercises in "open" and "closed" positions include a lot these attributes. I am sure others will chime-in here with more precise info and references.
A hui hou...
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Mahope Kākou...
...El Lorenzo de Ondas Sonoras |
Edited by - Lawrence on 06/04/2012 06:59:05 AM |
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DennisC
Aloha
USA
27 Posts |
Posted - 06/04/2012 : 08:08:36 AM
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| Welcome Gretchen, from another fairly new member. I agree with your thoughts. The books on slack key guitar are long on tabs and short on methodical development of the techniques needed. Ozzie Kotani's book is a good basic primer, but where do you go from there? A real method book (vs a collection of tabs with short explanations) with a structured approach, real exercises, and selected pieces from which to build slack key technique and learn its musical elements from beginner to advanced levels would be a blessing. I'd use the method books by Waldren or Noad on classical guitar as an example. Many who want to learn slack key have little or no access to other slack key players, making a solid method book even more of a need. |
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Gretchen
Aloha
USA
9 Posts |
Posted - 06/04/2012 : 10:47:33 AM
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Thanks for the thoughts. I have Ozzie's book, Mark Nelsons book, and Keola Beamers book, plus the Tao of Alternate Tunings, and Keoki Kahumoku's DVD is on the way, with hopefully more elements to learn.
I have the tab worked out and a Word doc of the 6ths progressions. How do I e-mail an interested member? |
The hills are alive with the sound of music |
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DennisC
Aloha
USA
27 Posts |
Posted - 06/04/2012 : 11:53:55 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by Gretchen
I have the tab worked out and a Word doc of the 6ths progressions. How do I e-mail an interested member?
Email sent via Taropatch. |
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Peter Medeiros
`Olu`olu
546 Posts |
Posted - 06/04/2012 : 1:42:11 PM
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Hi Gretchen,
First of all, welcome to the lo’i.
Second, and don’t take this personally. I know that you are not familiar with the Hawaiian language, but you have got to correct the spelling of Queen Lili’uokalani’s song from Ahe Lua Makani to Ahe Lau Makani. Ahe means caress. Lau means to be much, many; very many. Makani is wind Ahe lau makani are winds that are blowing gently and imply (?) affection - the winds caress you. This is a love song.
On the other hand Ahe lua makani, means something else entirely. Ahe means caress. Makani is wind. The word lua has several different meanings, it can be a contraction of ‘elua – the number two; but the more common use of lua is a toilet, outhouse, a pit or hole in the ground, in which one would do their business. More than likely although the breeze from the lua may caress you it might also be hard to take☺. Lua is also a form of hand-to-hand combat where the combatants would attempt to disable or kill their opponent by breaking their bones.
A book that may help you on your journey is He Mele Aloha – A Hawaiian Songbook. A good source is Native Books here in Honolulu. It costs about $25.00 plus shipping. To learn the melody of the songs use this with "He Mele Aloha" book songs on You Tube by Wanda Certo, also Wanda’s Mele Monday postings are another good resource.
Back to slack key technique and pedagogy for beginners. Scales are for the most part a boring but necessary part of learning music in the western classical mode. I teach from the folk tradition point of view. I don’t emphasize scales but do stress learning an efficient fingering technique through them. The primary idea behind learning parallel scales is to help the student develop small muscle memory thereby developing consistent fingering technique and an economy of motion. Hopefully, what evolves from and is most important, is the gradual development of your ear and anticipating chord changes..
The most common two note fingerings used in slack key are the open and closed positions (a musical interval of a sixth) i.e., G tuning and Drop C – strings 1 & 3, 4&5, as well as the closed and even positions, G tuning and Drop C strings 2&4. Musical intervals of a third are also common and give the music a Spanish feel and use the closed and even positions in G tuning and Drop C – strings 1&2, and 2&3. Every traditional slack key tuning uses the two-note chord.
Understanding and mastering the two note chords (as in open-closed or closed even sequences) becomes an important part of your musical vocabulary and allows you to easily improvise within a song. However, relying solely upon parallel movement is amateurish and limiting. This is only one technique of several techniques utilized in playing slack key. To avoid sounding pedantic you shoud incorporate any number of techniques to keep the music fresh and moving forward.
An alternating bass or a pedal bass will establish continuity in the key, timing, and tempo of the piece. Rhythmic changes are good. The chord progressions are simple enough, normally incorporating movement between chords I, IV and V7. Chord arpeggios, chord substitution, the many different kinds of appoggiatura, right hand techniques, etc. should keep your music interesting.
PM
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Retro
Ahonui
USA
2368 Posts |
Posted - 06/04/2012 : 2:07:28 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Peter Medeiros
A book that may help you on your journey is He Mele Aloha – A Hawaiian Songbook. A good source is Native Books here in Honolulu. It costs about $25.00 plus shipping.
Check also to see if there are any local independent shops in your area that would get it - maybe one of the guitar dealers like Madison Music, Spruce Tree or Greg Ginter's? |
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Gretchen
Aloha
USA
9 Posts |
Posted - 06/04/2012 : 4:44:35 PM
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Thank you for your informative and thoughtful postings. Very informative post on word use, and I have to say, I laughed at my mistake. No dishonor meant to the Queen. I love her compositions the best. But yes, I am apparently the only person in my state attempting to learn slack key, though I've looked for a teacher for two years. So, I appreciate the helpful references listed; I have not heard of some of them.
I think something that proficient players forget is what it feels like to be a beginner. Obviously a person doesn't want to play in pure intervals and sound like a midi machine with no style, but a person cannot be proficient without first a level of communion with his instrument of communication, in this case an open tuned guitar.
What I offer is simply a helpful way, to feel comfortable navigating a new city, new language, new instrument, new tuning, not a be all and end all, but a friendly introduction, to start to play with your instrument in slack key, rather than master it. I can't sit in front of a book of TAB and tensely try to imitate others art and play nehenehe with aloha. I want a platform to create my own voice, and I think we all want to play what's in our hearts in our interpretation of that. I need some foundation to sit outside on the grass with the kids and spontaneously recognize the patterns and correlations within the tuning. I think this little exercise is a lovely way to be introduced to some associations in fingerings. Plus, I simply love this song.
Anyway, if you are experienced, you might not find value in this posting, so just pass it by, but some newbies might, so let's allow that too.
Thank you for hearing me |
The hills are alive with the sound of music |
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thumbstruck
Ahonui
USA
2168 Posts |
Posted - 06/04/2012 : 5:05:58 PM
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| Gretchen, another important thing to do is listen. Listening during household tasks can make you hear nuances that you might miss while concentrating on a particular song. (Diverting the L half of the brain so the R half can take over, sort of). YouTube is good to watch various techniques. Peter Medeiros' book is worth getting. Always remember that you can hear better than you can play. |
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Gretchen
Aloha
USA
9 Posts |
Posted - 06/04/2012 : 5:41:16 PM
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Okay, for those of you whose learning style this fits:
Ahe Lau Makani Lyrics and translation The Soft Gentle Breeze or There is a Zephyr,
composed by Queen Lili'uokalani around 1868
Play this waltz in Taro patch with open 6ths in fingerpicking style
2nd and 4th strings parings: 0/0, 1/2, 3/4, 5/5, 7/7, 8/9, 10/10, 12/12
Progression:
0 1/2 7 8/9
0 1/2 7 8/9
8/9 5 7 8/9
0 1/2 (7 5 3/4 ) 8/9
0 1/2 3/4 12 10 7 3/4 1/2
0 1/2 3/4 12 10 (12 10) 8/9
The TAB is nicely arranged in PDF format, but I can't post it here, so if you want it we'll have to work around that. Hint, sometimes an additional pinky finger easily placed makes all the difference. I also put in an intro/bridge 0, 1/2, 3/4, 1/2, repeat once. Most of the time I pluck the 2nd and 4th strings together and then add others for the 2nd and 3rd beats of the measure.
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The hills are alive with the sound of music |
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thumbstruck
Ahonui
USA
2168 Posts |
Posted - 06/05/2012 : 4:01:04 PM
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| Gretchen, before anything like 3/4 time, it's good to get 2/4 time down (Peter Medeiros' book has a great section on time signatures). The guy who showed me wouldn't let me see him do anything until I had got my right thumb action in line on the lower strings. It took 3 weeks. I'd see him and ask if I could watch him play and he'd say, "Not 3 weeks yet." The exercise can seem "boring" but muscle memory is what is required for slack key. The thumb moves like a metronome, the fingers play melody and harmony slightly out of sinc. |
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Gretchen
Aloha
USA
9 Posts |
Posted - 06/05/2012 : 4:30:21 PM
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Thanks, that's interesting about the time signature. I've actually been learning slack key for two years, so I have some songs down pat in 2/4 and before that I was a fingerstyle player in standard tuning, so my fingering is ok. I had never tried a 3/4 time piece, though, so I wasn't sure how to make the bass line work in 3/4. I'm happy with the sound of the song, but if you have any suggestions on fingering in 3/4 time, that would be really helpful.
Its so interesting, I posted with something to offer and I've gotten 10 fold back in advice. What a great group! I think I was really happy to share the 6ths exercise song because it was the first time in two years of plunking out TABed work by others that something actually clicked for me, and I just figured out something on my own. |
The hills are alive with the sound of music |
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Gretchen
Aloha
USA
9 Posts |
Posted - 06/05/2012 : 4:49:43 PM
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Dang, Thumbstruck, that book looks great! Why isn't there a review of it in the learning section! It never came to my attention before, and it doesn't come up for sale on any sites. Well, I'll have to wait till after fathers day to order that one, it'll be pricy with shipping and I just got a big family hammock on the way with lots of new old slack key albums to go with it.
You know, I dismissed your earlier post about listening, since we play slack key almost exclusively around the house and the car and even in the kids rooms at bedtime. But what you said about diverting your left brain to listen better with your right brain was really something. I'll have to process that idea more. My son has sensory processing disorder, and one therapy for concentration is to keep them moving or busy while getting instruction, like you say, the interfering half of the brain is occupied, so the other can focus on the task. |
The hills are alive with the sound of music |
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Gretchen
Aloha
USA
9 Posts |
Posted - 06/06/2012 : 08:33:23 AM
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Well, look at that, Dennis Kamakahi plays this in 6th interval in a different tuning, so I guess that's why it sounds right to me- from Dancing Cat Records website liner notes on the Pua 'Ena Album:
Ahe Lau Makani
Composed by Queen Lili'uokalani in 1868, Ahe Lau Makani (The Breeze That Wafts Through the Leaves) poetically describes someone's yearning for a loved one. As Dennis says, "In the figurative Hawaiian, this breeze is actually the breath of one who I admire, carried by the wind. Whoever the Queen wrote about, she got right into that person and conveyed it through the whole song."
Dennis first heard Ahe Lau Makani performed by The Sons of Hawaii on the album THIS IS EDDIE KAMAE. "I loved that version. It's a lively feeling. To me, the treatment sounded like mariachi. Eddie said he got the idea of mixing 3/4 time against 6/8 from going to Mexico. What I did was take the same 3/4, 6/8 meter and slowed it down to medium tempo."
Dennis plays the song in the C Mauna Loa tuning on the 6 string guitar, tuned down two half steps to the key of B flat, a common practice in the slack key tradition and one he uses frequently on this album. Mauna Loa tunings are based on a major chord with the top two thinnest strings tuned a 5th interval apart. This way, these two strings can be played in 6th intervals, producing a distinctively sweet sound. "That's probably my favorite tuning," Dennis says, "because of Gabby. There are different names for it. On Ni'ihau they call it Ki Malie. Slack key guitarist Malaki Kanahele says when he was a boy there, they played in that tuning to lullaby the kids to sleep." |
The hills are alive with the sound of music |
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wcerto
Ahonui
USA
5052 Posts |
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walterotter
Aloha
United Kingdom
20 Posts |
Posted - 06/10/2012 : 09:31:05 AM
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rnjoyed reading your post Gretchen and sent you an email to see if you could send me the pdf, I think if you have access to a website or storage on the cyberwires you might be able to put up a download link.
Like you I'm very much a beginner with a load of books on ukes and Queen Lil's tune well from Mark Nelson's wonderful Uke Buke, my girlfriend made me a beautiful present of a steel strung guitar made by a luthier in Vietnam finding six strings a whole new game after the low g uke and waiting for Ozzie Kotani's slack key book in the meantime I found a flamenco book for beginners is helping me to shape up on the guitar, like yourself I want to move from copying note for note tabs to improvising.
that's a slow process for me, we get together with friends here and hold picking parlor's and slowly that process of being around good musicians is bearing fruit, may take me a lifetime but like my favourite slack key tunes there is no hurry!
Mike
quote:
Originally posted by Gretchen
The thing is, is really doesn't fit into the format with which website requires. So, do people need to e-mail me to see it, or can I post it somewhere here for reference? Also, the song structure is in Word, but if anyone wants the TAB of the particular fingerings, is there a way to digitize that?
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'the lights in the sky are stars . . .' |
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Ahe Lua Makani Beginners 6ths Exercise in Taro Pa
