|
Eynowd
Lokahi
Australia
181 Posts |
 Posted - 10/24/2016 : 6:50:35 PM
|
This past weekend, I was lucky enough to go to the Newkulele Festival, here in Australia. It was the first time I'd actually gone to a music festival of any sort, so that was an experience in its own right.
A couple of months ago, I decided - more or less on a whim - to go to one of the local uke groups in town here. It's been fun, even though the music is pretty much exclusively rock/pop stuff. One night, I checked out the website for the other uke group in town and found a link to the Newkulele Festival site. Now, because I used to live in Newcastle, and still have family there, I surfed across just to have a look.
I got one hell of a shock when I discovered a "Hawaiian Slack Key" workshop on offer, being taught by Mark Nelson. I've been learning slack key for about two years now, and Mark's videos (both on Jamplay.com and YouTube) and his Oldtime Slack Key book have been really helpful in that regard.
The highlight of the festival for me - even more so that seeing James Hill perform live on the Friday night - was the informal kanikapila session I got to have with Mark and Lucy and Sam Lemann. Lucy and Sam had also performed at the Friday night concert and were hosting the "Melodies Hawaiian Style" workshop that I'd also signed up for.
Originally, I'd asked Mark if I could catch up with him to ask some slack key questions and play some guitar together (despite the fact I've been learning slack key for two years, I'd never actually met another slack key player, let alone played with them). I've done OK with learning from tab, but the whole improvising thing had still been throwing me.
Sam had apparently also spoken to Mark before the festival and he invited them to join us. So, having Lucy and Sam come and play as well was a treat. I will admit that I got hopelessly lost a few times while trying to keep up with everyone else, but it really opened my eyes and filled in quite a few of the gaps in my knowledge. I've got a lot to think about and practice in coming months. But it was a lot of fun and we played some sweet music for a couple of hours.
After that, I had the two workshops. Mark's slack key uke was a lot tougher than I expected, mainly because my thumb kept searching for the two bass strings that weren't there. It was a fun class. One of the women from my local uke group had also taken Mark's class and is now apparently hooked on slack key (I'd played her a couple of tunes on my guitar before the workshop, and she kept asking me how we could incorporate slack key into what the group does, so something interesting might come of that in the longer term).
Lucy and Sam's Hawaiian melodies workshop was also a lot of fun and they gave us a couple of really sweet tunes and riffs that I'm going to have to spend some more time practicing (when I can drag myself away from my guitar  ).
I didn't spend much time at the festival on the Sunday, as I had to catch up with my family (I don't get up there much any more, so I hadn't seen them since Easter). We did visit my Mum's memorial though, and I spent a bit of time playing ki ho'alu for her while I was waiting. I did make it back to the festival in time to see Mark play his solo set in the afternoon, which included a slack key guitar duet with Sam at the end. (I was secretly very pleased about that, because so few people here in Oz have ever heard of slack key music).
It was a real treat for me to see slack key actually played live, and I'm very grateful to Mark, Lucy and Sam for letting me join in the fun on the Saturday morning, even though I'm not in their league yet. It's certainly given me an incentive to practice more for the next time.
The next Newkulele Festival isn't on until 2018, so I've at least got some time to get some more practice in  Next time though, I definitely spend more time playing music at the festival, and far less time worrying about having to go paint walls (long story).
|
Geoff - g'day from Canberra, Australia. |
|
Newkulele Festival, Newcastle, Australia
