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Russell Letson
`Olu`olu
USA
504 Posts |
 Posted - 08/15/2002 : 11:57:14 AM
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About George Kahumoku's residency at the Augusta Heritage Center's guitar week in July (in Elkins, WV):
George taught slack key in the morning to a dozen of us and Hawaiian vocals in the afternoon to a smaller, shifting class that hovered around six to eight. Nancy Sweeney taught a hula class in the evenings.
The guitar class was pretty introductory, since all but two of us had heard only a bit of slack key (many recently on the Prairie Home Companion broadcasts) but had not played it, and the two students from the elderhostel side seemed to be beginning guitarists. So George handed out a well-organized set of materials and started with tuning, some chord forms, and turnarounds. He moved along pretty briskly, though, covering one song the first day and promising to do three the next. And, in fact, the class responded well enough that by Friday George said that it was the fastest intro class he'd had.
The climax was our big homework assignment: write a song, including a turnaround. I would have predicted disaster (or at least embarrassment), but everybody managed something--even the elderhostel granny who had taken up guitar less than a year ago. And one student (a music therapist by profession) turned out a pretty polished number literally overnight, complete with a nice (English) lyric. The real surprise for me was a very quiet, reticent guy who produced an absolutely authentic-sounding slack key instrumental, good enough for any CD.
The vocal class had more mixed results--learning songs in a language you don't understand is a tricky business--but I think we made a start at it. George would have us talk/chant through each song, line by line. It was a pretty uneven process, getting the sounds and the meter right, until one student, an ESL (English as a second language) teacher, suggested a technique used in her business: learn each line backwards, phrase by phrase. That, along with George slapping out ipu-like rhythms (especially on "Hi`ilawe") worked pretty well. All the same, the song that the class presented at the student showcase was "Molokai Slide," in English.
I'd say George was a big hit, and not just in his classes. He's a perfect fit for Augusta culture: not just a good musician and teacher, but relaxed, funny, generous, and willing to be part of the whole program--he and Nancy went contra-dancing the first night. His after-lunch presentation (where he played along with Mary Flower's lap steel and some student ukes) and his evening concert set went over very well--I think the story-telling as much as the music. And then he organized a mid-week lu`au that drew just about everybody (100-200 people) for Hawaiian food, a dance from Nancy's hula class, and an impromptu slack key concert by George and his students. I think he'll be asked back next year, and he seemed to have a good enough time that I'd guess he'd accept. This is a big breakthrough for Augusta--they've never had any Hawaiian music of any kind before, and this is the only slack key workshop I know of east of California.
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George Kahumoku at Augusta
