Another One from the Beach

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.

Tuesday, October 23rd, 2012

It all started innocently enough, Lynn suggested heading down to the Kailua Beach for a splash. I grabbed the GoPro, mounted on a little Gorillapod, just to goof around. I captured a “going out” shot, some “out here” shots, and a “coming in” shot. We had a great time bobbing in the refreshing water, watched a few kiters, then headed home.

Once I got the clips loaded Lynn asked for something to share with our buddies back home. Once I started combing through them I decided we should add a little background music, so I cranked up my new default recording rig. I’m going direct from the pickup through an effects box into an audio recorder, instead of trying to mic the acoustic sound of the guitar. The first “sea” song I thought of was Kai Hanupanupa, the Emerson Brothers tune we saw in this video from our Walnut Creek kanikapila.

After a little more fiddling around with titles and edits, I realized I had created another slack key video, so here it is:

No shots of me playing guitar at all, I just realized. But let’s face it, there’s more to life than guitar playing, and beach time is a worthy alternative.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 23rd, 2012 at 8:06 am 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.