Slack Key and Tiple Featuring Ledward 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, February 9th, 2013

We’ve been staying pretty busy playing shows and jamming so it took a while to get Ledward up to Digital Duck Studio for a recording and video session. I was especially anxious to capture some of his playing on my recently acquired 1949 Martin T-18 Tiple. This unusual instrument is tuned like an `ukulele but has ten metal strings arranged in four courses. It’s quite a challenge to play well, but I knew Ledward would be the guy for the job.

We’ve been jamming a lot on Lili`u E lately, and I really like what Ledward came up with on the tiple for this one.

I’ve been opening my shows with Nanea Ko Maka I Ka Le`ale`a for several years now, with an arrangement based on Uncle Ray Kane’s instrumental stylings. It’s just the essence of slack key to my ear. Once again Ledward has a charming way of playing the tune, echoing and responding in places, taking the lead in others, adding some jazzy licks here and some deep Hawaiian over there. It’s really a joy to play music with this gentleman.

We still have about a week before Ledward and Sharon Kaapana head north to Oregon and Washington. I hope to capture another clip or two that I can share.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 9th, 2013 at 12:41 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.