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rendesvous1840
Ha`aha`a
USA
1055 Posts |
 Posted - 10/29/2010 : 7:18:14 PM
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Minor chords are available in any tuning. You have to learn where the third notes of the scale are in the chord and flatten them.It doesn't always leave you a lot of loose fingers to dance around the melody, but it can be done.
Try this in Taropatch tuning: X22212. This is Am. The 3rd of the scale is the 2nd string, here it's flatted from the normal A major chord.It can be moved up the neck to any position, with the 5th string as the root.
Keep in mind that a lot of chords are implied rather than played in slack key. A G and a D imply a G chord, but with no 3rd in it, it's neither major nor minor. It can suggest either one. If you consulted a music theory text book, this is not a chord at all, it's an interval. Metal Heads and Power Chords aside, two notes does not fit the text book description of a chord.
Paul
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"A master banjo player isn't the person who can pick the most notes.It's the person who can touch the most hearts." Patrick Costello |
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noeau
Ha`aha`a
USA
1105 Posts |
Posted - 10/29/2010 : 10:50:53 PM
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| Not trying to argue just clearing up a misunderstanding. Minor key renditions of Hawaiian music is just as traditional as major key renditions. These things were done before most of were born and Iʻm in my 60ʻs. So musical preference is one thing but when defining traditional Hawaiian music one must include all aspects of music in the western tradition. To say that only happy music is Hawaiian is unrealistic. |
No'eau, eia au he mea pa'ani wale nō. |
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Trev
Lokahi
United Kingdom
265 Posts |
Posted - 11/01/2010 : 06:55:43 AM
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This is another interesting topic. I don’t think I’ve heard any Hawaiian music with instruments that is in a minor key. However, I think all the unaccompanied Hawaiian chants I’ve heard definitely have been in a minor key.
To me, the idea of minor keys being ‘sad’ and major keys being ‘happy’ is really an over simplification. This may be partly to do with my listening background. I can think particularly of Irish/Scots tunes in minor keys that I think are absolutely joyous, but people who are not used to it can have a perception that it is ‘dark’ or ‘depressing’.
However, I can think of other, more well known minor key tunes, like ‘Tico Tico’ or ‘Minor Swing’ (Reinhardt/Grapelli) which to me are as ‘up’ and happy sounding as anything I’ve ever heard. Or what about ‘Tidings of Comfort and Joy’?
There are also a number of song and tunes in major keys that I can only describe as positively melancholic. Moon River, Long Black Veil, and I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry spring to mind.
We all tend to think music has innate qualities, and I certainly think it has some – an octave above any note will always be double the frequency of that note, for instance.
But I now tend to the view that an awful lot of what I used to think was natural or innate is really to do with conventions. The majority of Hawaiian music uses majors – that’s one of the conventions. And it’s the mixture of the conventions that makes the style.
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RWD
`Olu`olu
USA
850 Posts |
Posted - 11/01/2010 : 11:16:59 AM
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Good point about Chant Trev, never thought of it but they sound minor to me as well.
My comment on moods that minor keys evoke were a wee bit siplified but I think it is mostly right...ditto on the major key "happy" moods comments.
I can only think of a handfull of mele that are in minor keys but I do not doubt Noeau's comments--just have'nt heard much of it.
Still, one of the quickest ways to get me up and out of an audience would be to play something like Hi'ilawe in a minor key.
I'm not gonna tell you the quickest way to get me out of TP. LOL!
I have too much to learn. |
Bob |
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hwnmusiclives
`Olu`olu
USA
580 Posts |
Posted - 11/02/2010 : 08:04:46 AM
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A few tangentially relevant thoughts...
Many of the songs cited here as being written in minor keys are actually based on chants. The limited melody of many chants is rooted in a scale not unlike the Dorian mode - essentially, a minor key. So it is not surprising that when these chants are performed in a himeni style that the performer leaves these in the original minor keys.
But whether or not the performer chooses to perform a song in a major or minor key is actually an artistic choice that is being made. This may not sit well with those who believe the song should only be performed as written by the composer, but... well, there you go! Performing "Hi'ilawe" in a minor key is an artistic choice, and IMHO, it is a choice that it is in keeping with the very sad message in that mele. I recently saw a home video (and I honestly can't remember where, but perhaps Wanda has seen it, as well) of Kuana Torres, Leimana Abenes, and Kehau Tamure performing "Noho Paipai" alternating between major and minor keys. Now, this is a pretty happy song. (I get happy just thinking about it!) So, why a minor key? It's an artistic choice. Similarly, Helen Desha Beamer's compositon "Ke Ali'i Hulu Mamo" is a perfectly happy song, but she actually wrote it in a minor key. That, too, was an artistic choice.
So, what might cause someone to make such a choice? I would answer this question with another question: Is there another kind of kaona besides the kind we look for between the words of the mele? What if there were a kind of musical kaona where there were some kind of hidden meaning in the tune or the harmonization of the melody? I will give you a purely western example of this. When Bach wrote his "B Minor Mass," in the movement called "Crucifixus," the unusual up-and-down figure sung by the low bass voices is actually a "connect the dots." When you draw a line between the notes in the low bass voice score, you will see appear a series of crosses turned at a 45-degree angle. This is not the kind of symbolism that researchers found after the fact. This was fully intended by Bach. He wanted music that looked like it sounded and sounded like it looked in his head. This is not unlike an acrostic - a type of poem in which the first letter of each strophe spells out a secret message. There is kaona everywhere!
Noelani Mahoe speaks to this - if only briefly - in the introduction to "Na Mele O Hawai'i Nei." I don't have the book in front of me from which I can quote, but the essence of her thoughts on this subject are simply that... The way Hawaiian music sounds often belies the true meaning of the mele. Hawaiians often choose to perform sad songs at a spritely tempo or happy songs extremely slowly. (Personally, I bristle when I hear "Hi'ilawe" played like a march.) Sometimes Hawaiians do their seductions at 180bpms, and sometimes they do them at a slow grind. These are all artistic choices that should not be a reflection of the composer. Perhaps, too, is the selective use of a minor key.
Once the mele leaves the pen of the composer, he/she cannot get it back...
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wcerto
Ahonui
USA
5052 Posts |
Posted - 11/02/2010 : 08:32:22 AM
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Yep, this was on one of my Mele Monday lists - can't remember when.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhNK30nRFQ0 - Na Palapalai "Noho Paipai"
The minor key sure changes the whole mood of what I considered a very playful mele. But these guys so so good no matter what. I love at the end when they say "He mele no ka rocking chair."
Just as the key a mele is played in, the tempo changes the mood of the song as well. Take for instance Kawai Cocketts "Aia La O Pele" vs. Na Palapalai's version. Hoo-eeee. I can sort of dance to Cockett's, but I can't even think nearly as fast as Na Palapala plays it. But it fits the mele so well and shows to me, Pele's power and strength.
Na Palapalai "Aia La O Pele" http://www.youtube.com/user/napalapalaimusic#p/search/0/egxr5dtDDt8
I can't show you Kawai Cockett's version as it is no longer available and I cannot find a sample for you anywhere. Only place I know where it is, is in our kumu hula's iPod.
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Me ke aloha
Malama pono,
Wanda |
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Bau
Lokahi
USA
226 Posts |
Posted - 11/02/2010 : 12:28:45 PM
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that is very facinating about bach I didn't know that! I've experimented with something like this with soundwaves and spectrograms. pictures made from sound.
also very interesting about the sort of approch of the opposites in the tone of the songs with the kaona.
I myself am facinated by all things kaona. and am often full of it myself. |
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Minor key
