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Haolenuke
Lokahi
USA
117 Posts |
 Posted - 10/27/2010 : 08:36:26 AM
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Aloha,
I just finished inputting the musical score for Opihi Moemoe available from Dancing Cat Records into my annotation software. See:
http://www.dancingcat.com/recordings/LeonardKwanCord.php
When I played in on the MIDI player, which unfortunately plays much better slack key than I do, it seemed quite different from any recorded version that I have heard. This score works well with a taropatch tuning and it has a section in the key of C like the second cut of The Legendary Leonard Kwan CD, but it is nonetheless quite different. The score is much longer and has many more measures with harmonics than any of the various Opihi Moemoe cuts on the Legendary CD, or the New 'Opihi Moemoe #3 cut on the Ke'ala's Mele CD.
Is there a recording of this version commercially available?
The score contains a repeated section nested within another repeated section. Does this typically get the smaller repeated section played four times, or is the fourth repeat usually left out?
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thumbstruck
Ahonui
USA
2173 Posts |
Posted - 10/27/2010 : 6:03:20 PM
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| I've never heard any 2 people play it quite the same way. Uncle Leonard used "Leonard's C", CGDGBD and used his left thumb on the 2nd fret of the low C to play "D" when in that chord. George Kuo does the same. |
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Mika ele
Ha`aha`a
USA
1493 Posts |
Posted - 10/29/2010 : 09:01:33 AM
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Aha
This is where musical score and tablature should be included together. With just the musical score and without a swing beat added, the score would sound off. The tablature would show you that many of the "triplets" are actually played as slides, hammer-ons, pull-offs, and other techniques that add a distinct quality to Opihi Moemoe. The neat thing about this song is that it lends itself to improvisation and style differences in each performer. The opening is as distinctive as the triplets in the middle of Radio Hula. Once you play those parts and stay within the established chord progressions and turnarounds == people will applaud your inventiveness to this classic. |
E nana, e ho'olohe. E pa'a ka waha, e hana ka lima. |
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Haolenuke
Lokahi
USA
117 Posts |
Posted - 10/31/2010 : 06:58:36 AM
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Aloha,
I have an old copy of the red book that has Dennis Ladd's tab for Opihi Moemoe, so I think that I was able to identify most of the effects that are not apparent from the musical score. I was mostly surprised about how different this version was from anything that I have heard. This version uses what I think are referred to as pedal tone bass notes, rather than an alternating bass pattern. There are natural harmonic notes incorporated into this version that I don't think are used in this way in other versions. This is not to say that this score is not immediately recognizable as Opihi Moemoe, it is. And yes, most of the covers of Opihi Moemoe that I have heard are quite distant from the version that Dennis Ladd tabbed, yet they are easily recognizable. I am rather perplexed about why a score that is so different from the versions of Opihi Moemoe played on The Legendary Leonard Kwan CD is offered with the liner notes for that CD. |
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Mark
Ha`aha`a
USA
1628 Posts |
Posted - 10/31/2010 : 08:36:53 AM
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quote:
I am rather perplexed about why a score that is so different from the versions of Opihi Moemoe played on The Legendary Leonard Kwan CD is offered with the liner notes for that CD.
In the first place, it isn't tab, it is standard notation, so there is no indication of fingering.
You might infer that the whole note "pedal" tones on the bass clef are intended to be played with your thumb and everything else with your fingers---but I defy anyone to play it that way. OK, someone might make a go of it... but it's pretty dang awkward.
If you use your ears, it is pretty easy to tell which notes Kwan played with his thumb. And that makes the notation not all that different from the TAB in Ladd's book. Or at least the few measures I played through.
Notice that, while Ladd wrote it in 12/8 and this is in 4/4, the melody notes are (mostly) the same. I chock up the differences to the chance that the transcriber is working off of a different recording---as pointed out, nobody ever plays this the same way twice.
Or, in my case, the same way once.
And whoever transcribed this does not seem to know what a repeat sign looks like...
But the key words here are "use your ears." TAB and notation are tools, period. If you cannot play folk music by ear, you aren't playing folk music. (Note the word "folk"-- you may certainly play music off a page, but by definition folk music is an aural tradition.)
Or, as I tell my students, "Notation has the same relationship to music as a road map has to a journey..."
I love maps, but I wouldn't want to live in one. |
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thumbstruck
Ahonui
USA
2173 Posts |
Posted - 10/31/2010 : 6:17:33 PM
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| I learned the tune by jamming. The jams included rice, poi, portagee sausage, hulihuli chicken, li'dat. Sort of immersion style. I played the tune before I heard the record. |
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wcerto
Ahonui
USA
5052 Posts |
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Haolenuke
Lokahi
USA
117 Posts |
Posted - 11/03/2010 : 08:08:12 AM
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Aloha,
Auntie Wanda thank you for the link to Leonard Kwan Jr. playing Opihi Moemoe with his brother and his dad playing backup. This version does sound a lot like the score at Dancing Cat score, or at least I can hear some chimes used about like they are used in the score. I have not seen/heard any other recordings of Leonard Kwan Jr. playing slack key. Does anyone know if he still plays publicly?
Mark, I wish I had the ears of a professional folk musician rather than those of an aging slack key dilettante. I can't discriminate which notes Leonard Kwan is playing with his thumb and which he is playing with his fingers. I just listened to Opihi Moemoe again and I definitely can't tell which notes Uncle Leonard played with his thumb. Perhaps someday I will be able to transition from playing by the numbers to playing by ear, but I certainly need to hold onto a daytime job. This score really is an interesting lesson in how poorly a musical score captures a slack key mele. I had thought that I had a fair handle on what effects were being used from Dennis Ladd's tabs, but I now realize that I don't. I do not infer that the bass whole note in each measure is the only note played by the thumb, though I wonder if it can accurately be inferred by the direction the note tails point in the score.
I also wonder whether tabbing software can accurately communicate all slack key mele with one melody line and one bass line. In this Opihi Moemoe score the tabbing software only allows the whole note into the bass line. If the song's bass line is actually more complex it would need to be communicated in an additional bass line in the tab.
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jimscottjr
Aloha
USA
38 Posts |
Posted - 11/21/2010 : 08:31:18 AM
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| From where I sit, and it is a long way from Hawaii, the doing is in the playing, not in the "how" it was played. Thumb, finger, all same same. If you like it, and it sounds good, then it is good. |
Old Haole
http://www.haoleslackkey.com/ |
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Opihi Moemoe score at Dancing Cat Records
