|
Fran Guidry
Ha`aha`a
USA
1579 Posts |
 Posted - 08/14/2004 : 10:28:09 PM
|
Thanks to Indy and Auntie Maria for alerting me to the slack key workshops at the Outrigger Waikiki. Uncle Ray Kane was having trouble walking and played the same song twice in a row a couple of times, but he's singing and playing and teasing the girls and trying to trade guitars and filling the room with that aloha feeling, so life is very good indeed. Watching him play it all seems so simple and obvious, but then when I try it the sound just doesn't come out the same. The session was scheduled for an hour and a half, but Uncle got a little tired about half-way through and had other folks play their stuff. He brought along one of his long time students, who played some sweeeeeet stuff, such as a "Blue Hawaiian Moonlight" that was full of smooth clever melodic moves between chords. One of the students was a young lady of about 12 who pulled out such an inspiring version of "Yellow Ginger Lei" in the style of Leonard Kwan. Once again, she made it look easy but sound so fine!
We were supposed to break for half an hour, but we just hung out and jammed until Jeff Peterson came in for the second session. His teaching was much more structured, with tabbed scales, chords, licks and an arrangement of "Morning Dew." Jeff's playing has a pyrotechnic side, such as his original compositions that frame slack key themes in virtuosic classical style. In this class as well, there were several fine local players who added a lot to the experience.
Milton Lau, organizer of the Slack Key Festival series, told me that he's working with Ledward to do an acoustic Hawaiian music workshop series at the Outrigger Waikiki next year. As in Maui and Moloka`i, the workshop participants will take the stage at next year's O`ahu Slack Key Festival.
Fran
|
E ho`okani pila kakou ma Kaleponi
Slack Key Guitar in California - www.kaleponi.com
Slack Key on YouTube
Homebrewed Music Blog |
|
Outrigger Waikiki Workshops
