| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Haolenuke |
Posted - 11/29/2009 : 6:44:01 PM
Hi,
I have been attempting to learn slack key ukulele from Uncle Dave Heaukulani's book, "Ukulele Slack Key Hawaiian Slack Key Styling," and the videos that he has posted. In the text and videos Uncle Dave suggests that many slack key guitar players do not consider the ukulele to be an appropriate instrument for playing slack key music, due primarily to the lack of 2 low pitched strings on the ukes. In the Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar / Hawaiian Music Taropatch forum there is a "Defining Slack Key" topic with 141 replies in which there is no mention of ukuleles being used to play slack key music. Is there a consensus about whether Uncle Dave's music is slack key or not? I sure like the sound of his music, even with a beginner like me playing. |
| 15 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Mark |
Posted - 04/22/2010 : 12:07:52 PM
quote:
So when's your new book coming out, Mark?
Sometime before the next ice age, at the rate I'm working.
That being said, I posted a bunch of new TABs on the website yesterday.
www.mark-o.com |
| olu143 |
Posted - 04/22/2010 : 11:24:21 AM
Thank you sooo much Auntie! I'm blushing over here! =) |
| wcerto |
Posted - 04/22/2010 : 11:09:29 AM
And when Braddah Sam plays `ukulele, it is a thang of beauty. Oh and that velvet voice, ahhhhh. |
| olu143 |
Posted - 04/22/2010 : 09:17:58 AM
Hi everyone!
I kinda think slack key can be played on Ukulele. Although it doesn't have the trademark bass strings that a Guitar has I believe it still can be done. I like listening to slack key On Uke or Guitar. There is a different type of sound when played on a Uke that I kinda like. I usually play slack key Uke to unwind after a long day. =) |
| ongchua |
Posted - 04/02/2010 : 05:54:42 AM
quote:
Originally posted by MarkI've got a few out there on my website & I'm gradually working up a bunch more.
So when's your new book coming out, Mark?  |
| Haolenuke |
Posted - 01/15/2010 : 07:40:39 AM
Aloha Mika ela,
You make a very good point about utilizing the musical score as a springboard to more subtlety than the tabs can communicate. My interest in more communicative tabs is primarily as a means to facilitate a basic understanding of a song, rather than mastery. I need all the help I can get for my fingers to keep up with what my eyes see in the tabs.
For me this brings up a question that I have been wondering about for some time. Are slack key tabs intended to accurately specify a Hawaiian song or to act more like a bare bones fake book version of song that can and should be embellished by the performer? I am struck by Uncle Ozzie Kotani's deliberately vague communication of rhythm information in his masterful "Guitar Playing Hawaiian Style." I don't know if this is because if a performer were to strictly follow the rhythm information in a musical score she/he would play something that doesn't sound like it should, or if Uncle Ozzie Kotani simply doesn't want to pin the rhythm down so precisely allowing the performer more flexibility.
It turns out that the exercises in Uncle Ozzie Kotani's "Guitar Playing Hawaiian Style" can be adapted for ukulele much more readily than the songs in Uncle Leonard Kwan's "Slack Key Instruction Book." I've managed to adapt the first 4 of Uncle Ozzie Kotani's songs for ukulele with my nemesis Power Tab Editor 1.7 and the results don't sound too distant from the original. I think that these songs will be much easier to learn than Uncle Leonard Kwan's Manini.
|
| Mika ele |
Posted - 01/07/2010 : 10:21:14 AM
I lack the disciplied training and instruction from classical guitar -- where you must learn the musical notation first and then decide where to play the note on the guitar that allows easy movement to the surrounding notes. One advantage of standard musical notation only is that you can play the piece the way that best suits you, since there are often many places on the guitar to play the same note depending on string and fret choice. It has also been refined over many centuries to indicate to musicians how the song is to sound (many can sing or hum the notes from the notation).
However, many slack key players learned by watching and listening. The assumption was then, that they could remember what the song was supposed to sound like. Tablature was a way to record the fingering and string choices of what was heard. There was not much flexibility in string choice or fret selection.
I am of the opinion that it is much better to have both notation and tablature to master a song. With the guitar and ukulele, the same note has a different "voice" when played on different strings and frets. I like to add variation to a song by trying to play the same notes but with different voices -- a subtle but effective way of adding a personal touch to the music. |
| rendesvous1840 |
Posted - 01/06/2010 : 7:27:56 PM
The teacher always made me spit out my gum. Is that why my math grades were so low?
Unko Paul |
| Haolenuke |
Posted - 01/06/2010 : 07:46:52 AM
Aloha Mika ela,
I finally picked up on the tail up melody line, and tail down bass line, business while inputting my second Leonard Kwan song into Power Tabs. Attempting to learn some of Uncle Leonard's tunes demonstrated the value of Dennis Ladd's tabbing approach which does differentiate between the bass line and the melody line within the tabs.
Learning a slack key song is a bit like chewing gum and solving an integral calculus problem at the same time. Tabs are certainly much more helpful than the musical score, and a combination of both a tab and a score is currently the most informative way to transcribe a song, but improvements seem possible. It is difficult to split one's attention between the fretting and technique information in the tabs, and the rhythm and melody/bass line information in the score. I can't help but imagine that some clever musician(s) could come up with a standardized tabbing system that would include rhythm and melody/bass line information within the tabs. To the best of my limited knowledge nobody has ever taken advantage of color, or text font, variability in the transcription of complex musical ideas. |
| Mika ele |
Posted - 01/04/2010 : 2:14:52 PM
Usually the melody notes have the "tail" extending upwards and the bass notes have the "tail" extending downward (in music notation). Most tablature is no help here. |
| Haolenuke |
Posted - 12/31/2009 : 2:43:55 PM
Aloha,
Tabbing Leonard Kwan's Sase for baritone ukulele and bass guitar worked well, but I tabbed myself into a corner trying to work out a ukulele only version. Not only did I create tabs that my fingers can't do no matter how much coffee I drink, the resulting mess is a far cry from the original. And Power Tab Editor now crashes each time I try to play the MIDI player with these modified tabs. Power Tabs doesn't seem to be able to handle the deletion of a bass line, nor revising a bass line to contain measures of whole rests. I suppose that you get what you pay for, and I am getting closer to paying for the G7 Kontact tabbing software.
I managed to get an email off to Dennis Ladd asking about the copyright holder for Leonard Kwan's Slack Key Instruction Book, but I haven't heard back. After working with Mr. Ladd's tabs it is apparent that his approach makes it much clearer which notes are in the bass line and which notes are in the melody line.
Its time for me to work a bit harder improving my renditions of the songs in Uncle David Heaukulani's Slack Key Ukulele book. |
| Pmahany |
Posted - 12/24/2009 : 07:19:06 AM
OH well, I must confess. I was drafted by the Medieval Music Teacher, handed this thing that looked like an anorexic bassoon and that's what I thought it was. I didn't really care what it was called, I just played it. What attitude. Now the Contra Bassoon was really something else again! |
| Mark |
Posted - 12/22/2009 : 09:18:34 AM
Hey Pete-
quote:
Sackbutt is a Renaissance double reed instrument that is a precursor to the Bassoon. I played it 35 years ago.
Far be it from me to correct you--since you play the dang thing, after all--but a sackbutt is indeed a brass instrument & the forerunner of the trombone. I've recorded many a sackbutt when I worked with the Terra Nova Consort.
And there is a very old, and very weird, sackbut-dulcimer confusion/connection. 
quote:
sackbut (săk`bət), Renaissance name for the slide trombone, probably derived from the old French word sacqueboute, which means "pull-push. ...
And here: http://www.earlymusic.i12.com/general/prod_14.htm br /
So, what the heck are you playing? Could it be a dulcian?? Pix here:
http://www.roberthcronin.com/bassoons.htm
I've recorded a pile of these, too. Plus shawms, crumhorns, cornemuse and, my all time favorite, the Rackett: http://www.music.iastate.edu/antiqua/rackett.htm
So, what is it you have??? |
| Haolenuke |
Posted - 12/22/2009 : 07:55:48 AM
Aloha Mika ele and Pete,
It sounds like I will need to give G7 at try. If I am not mistaken Power tab editor allows up to seven stringed instruments that can be assigned a variety of voices, but I just haven't figured out how to get the MIDI player to put out more than a standard synthesizer voice. I've been working on tabs for Leonard Kwan's version of Sase (Sassy) split up to be played on ukulele and bass, though I will probably try tabbing up a version for ukulele only to hear how it sounds. Just transferring an existing tab into another tab program is a lot of work. Leonard Kwan and Dennis Ladd must have must have spent a tremendous amount of time creating the original tabs back before any tabbing program existed.
A Sackbutt is a double reed instrument that is a precursor to the Bassoon? Wow, this is the first time that Google has led me so far astray. Virtually all the sackbut/sackbutt references are for a precursor to a trombone or slide cornet. And I was imagining a hula troup dancing in front of a whole bank of expressive trombone players enjoying the view. |
| Pmahany |
Posted - 12/21/2009 : 9:19:04 PM
Sackbutt is a Renaissance double reed instrument that is a precursor to the Bassoon. I played it 35 years ago. I'd have to say that playing Bassoon back then greatly influences how I play Uke now. Well one plays what one experiences so Slack Key has created an interesting amalgam. Good comments. |
