“Moani Ke`ala” with Led Kaapana

Welcome to Kaleponi Records, my musical home on the web. My name is Fran Guidry, and I play kika ki hoʻalu or Hawaiian slack key guitar.

Kaleponi is the Hawaiian word for California, where I live. Ki hoʻalu, or slack key, has a direct link to California history. The guitar was carried to the Big Island of Hawaiʻi by vaqueros from California. You can read more about the history of slack key guitar on the Dancing Cat Records web site.

Slack key guitar is named for the retuning that characterizes the style. Most of these new tunings feature loosened, or slackened, strings which give a deep rich sound.

My personal slack key history goes back to 1999 and my first visit to Hawaiʻi. When we turned on the TV in our Waikiki hotel room I was captivated by the playing of Keola Beamer. I knew in an instant that I had to learn to play this beautiful music. Over the years I've learned from great players and teachers like Ozzie Kotani, Keola himself, Patrick Landeza, Kevin Brown, Cyril Pahinui, Kawika Kahiapo, Raymond Kane, Dennis Kamakahi, and Ledward Kaapana.

Saturday, December 29th, 2018

Moani Ke`ala is a Hawaiian classic from the monarchy era, composed by Prince William Pitt Leleiohoku, brother of King David Kalākaua and Queen Lili’uokalani. I first heard Gabby Pahinui’s uptempo arrangement and that has been my inspiration when I’ve played the tune. I think Ledward is thinking of Gabby when he plays it as well.

We have been doing a bit of recording in my home studio, The Brass Toucan, where I set up the cameras and caught this bit of video.

We are deploying the fancy gear for this one, with Schoeps mics and an RME UFX interface for the audio and three Panasonic Lumix cameras for video.

Led is playing my Martin OM guitar and I’m using my Kathy Wingert Model E. We are both tuned to taropatch open G, spelled D G D G B D from low pitch to high.

Hopefully we will capture another song or two before Led returns to Hawai`i, keep watching here or on YouTube or Facebook for some more slack key!

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 29th, 2018 at 9:12 pm and is filed under Videos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.