![]() ![]() "Hey, sometimes it makes me cry too," Ray says. Kane peppered his performances with humor, an engaging counterpoint to the soft, romantic music he performed. They'd just sit there and listen, then applaud after each song. All kinds of people came to those concerts. Maybe that's why, but the next thing I knew people were asking me to play all over the place. I was just trying to stick to the style I learned back in the 1930s. ![]() "I don't know why they picked me," Ray says. It brought the music and musicians to an entirely different audience. In 1973, the newly created Hawaiian MusicFoundation asked Kane to perform formal concerts, something new for slack key. "I had a family, you understand, so I just played out a little on the weekends.: The new attention the 1970’s brought to traditional artists in Hawaii, elevated Kane to the position of media celebrity and a role model for the young. ![]() "It was a great experience, but there was no money in it," he says. In 1961, the Tradewinds label invited Ray to make his first recordings. Kāne developed a deceptively simple and distinct style across many open tunings by plucking or brushing the strings with only the thumb and index finger of his right hand and performing hammer-ons and pull-offs with his finger moving up and out, instead of down and in. I'd sit and play and watch the moon shine down on the waves." "Back then I used to take my guitar everywhere," Ray says. I gave him fish and he gave me lessons." Ray also credits the radio with teaching him songs in the early days. "But I was a good diver, so I made a deal with Albert Kawelo. "Back then people wouldn't teach you unless you were family," Ray says. Despite a these musical roots and a father, Herman "Manu" Kane, who was an extraordinary slack key player who left the family when Kane was two, Kane’s desire to learn slack key forced him to look beyond his family for lessons at the age of nine. can be traced back to a deep family tree of famous Hawaiian musicians, including Andy Cummings, Genoa Keawe, Marlene Sai, and Mekia Kealakai. His outgoing personality, which earned him status as one of slack key's most beloved and colorful characters. "That almost happened once, so we have to watch out." "If we don't share slack key, we'll lose it," he says. Slack key guitar was an honored tradition that players were hesitant to share with outsiders, and Kane’s willingness to perform in documentary films and teach broke from that tradition as he began witnessing the erosion of his culture. Uncle Ray was one of the first slack key masters to play public concerts and tour internationally, bringing the music of the islands to all corners of the globe. Widely considered the original slack key ambassador, Ray Kane opened many doors for this beautiful and unique guitar style. Tunings have wonderful names like Taro Patch (D-G-D-G-B-D low to high) Drop C (Also known as Leonard’s C, after Leonard Kwan) (C-G-D-G-B-D), and Double Slack (a.k.a G Wahine or Namakelua’s Tuning) (D-G-D-F#-B-D).Īll of which brings us to Uncle Ray Kane. There are hundreds of slack tunings-most players stick to a few that define their personal style. Ki ho`alu means “loosen the key”-it refers to retuning some of strings to create a harmonious sound. As one Hawaiian musician said, “I don’t care what notes you play, I just want to feel your aloha.” Melodies, often harmonized in sixths trills, slides and chimes (harmonics) are varied by each player in highly individualized styles. It’s a fingerpicking style characterized by a strong, steady bass played with the thumb. Slack key artists regularly tour North America, Europe and Japan and players from all over the world are discovering how satisfying it can be to play.Īlthough most players prefer steel-string acoustics, slack key may be played on any guitar. Since then the style has bloomed, thanks in no small part to pianist George Winston and his Dancing Cat Records. In the early 1970’s a young musician named Keola Beamer wrote the first-ever slack key instruction book. A series of ground-breaking recordings in the late ’40s by Gabby Pahinui changed all that. By day, the paniolo taught the Hawaiians to rope and ride, by night they serenaded them with the soft sounds of Spanish guitars.īy the mid-20th century slack key had almost died out- no one wanted to hear this quiet, back country music. Legend has it the first guitars were brought by cowboys imported from Alta California to deal with wild cattle. Called ki ho`alu in Hawaiian, it developed in the 19th Century. ![]() Hawaiian slack key guitar is one of the world’s great guitar traditions. Uncle Raymond Kane Style Hawaiian Slack-Key Guitar Techniques by Mark Nelson ![]()
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