Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Cowboy Heritage
Spanish and Mexican cowboys first introduced the guitar to Hawaiians in the 1830s.
Fifty years later, Oʻahu-born high-school student Joseph Kekuku started experimenting
with playing a guitar flat on his lap while sliding a pocket knife or comb across the
strings. He invented the Hawaiian steel guitar
(kika kila),
which lifts the strings off the
fretboard using a movable steel slide, creating a signature smooth sound.
In the early 20th century, Kekuku and others introduced the islands' steel guitar
sounds to the world. The steel guitar later inspired the creation of resonator guitars such
as the Dobro, now integral to bluegrass, blues and other genres, and country-and-western
music's lap and pedal steel guitar. Today Hawaii's most influential steel guitarists include
Henry Kaleialoha Allen, Alan Akaka, Bobby Ingano and Gregory Sardinha.
The Jumping Flea
Heard all across the islands is the ukulele, derived from the
braguinha,
a Portuguese
stringed instrument introduced to Hawaii in 1879. Ukulele means 'jumping flea' in
Hawaiian, referring to the way players' deft fingers swiftly 'jump' around the strings.
The ukulele is enjoying a revival as a young generation of virtuosos emerges, including
teenaged Nick Acosta, who plays with just one hand, and genre-bending rockers led by
Jake Shimabukuro, whose album
Peace Love Ukulele
(2011) topped Billboard's world
music chart when it debuted.
Both the ukulele and the steel guitar contributed to the lighthearted
hapa haole
(Hawaiian music with predominantly English lyrics) popularized in Hawaii after the
1930s, of which 'My Little Grass Shack' and 'Lovely Hula Hands' are classic examples.
For better or for worse,
hapa haole
songs became instantly recognizable as 'Hawaiian'
thanks to Hollywood movies and the classic
Hawaii Calls
radio show, which broadcast
worldwide from the banyan-tree courtyard of Waikiki's Moana hotel until 1975.
To find out more about slack key guitar, visit George Winston's Dancing Cat music label
website (
www.dancingcat.com
)
to listen to sound clips, browse bios of celebrated island
guitarists and download a free e-book.
MODERN MELE
Ideally, this guidebook would come bundled with a CD and a ukulele. Instead here's
a list of essential Hawaiian music albums, past and present:
