What is "Slack Key"

[William Lake]

I am very new to Hawaiian music and lap guitar although I have been playing PSG for awhile now.
So please forgive a newbee's dumb question.
I did as search on Google and all I could find was slack key tuning meant open chord tuning.
Well that would mean ANY steel guitar tuning. C6 E9 B11 etc. etc.
I am sure this is not what it means.
Please enlighten me.

[Ron Whitfield]

Just means changing the tuning.

When the Hawaiian's got hold of guitars in the mid/late 1800s, they had little clue to tunings and simply twisted the buttons around until they found something workable, and it progressed from there. Spaniard/Portugese cowboys, brought over to teach cattle handling, are credited with introducing the Hawaiians to guitars.

[Doug Beaumier]

Yes, I always understood it to mean "open tuning"... from the Hawaiians turning (loosening) the tuning keys until the guitar is tuned to an open chord, hence the term "slack key". I prefer the term "steel guitar".

[Mat Rhodes]

It's also music that has, for better or worse, contributed to the diminishing popularity of the steel guitar in Owyhee. Some slack key is nice, but I think more steel guitar is better.

Slack key players all sound alike.

[Kekoa Blanchet]

The term normally refers to a style of playing, using conventional acoustic guitar (not a lap steel) with an open tuning, played in a distinctive style: usually an alternating bass, plus a melody line, plus a lot of rhythmic and melodic embellishment, including chimes, hammer-ons, and pull-offs. Though it's usually a very busy sound, it typically has a soothing, almost hypnotic quality. Uniquely Hawaiian, very appealing. There are dozens of slack key tunings, some more common, others unique to a family or to an individual player. A slack key guitar pairs well with a steel guitar, although it is more often a solo instrument.

[Dan Schwartz]

While "slack key" does mean alternate tuning, it really designates a style of music and playing. Slack key guitar is played with "traditional" technique on a "spanish" guitar. It is not played on a steel guitar. Check out players like Raymondd Kane, Sonny Chillingworth, Gabby Pahinui or Keoloa Beamer, they are some of the greats who play slack key guitar.

[William Lake]

Thank you gentlemen. I now understand. I am enlightened
I assumed because it is Hawaiian, it was a steel guitar thing.
I get smarter every day.

[Roger Shackelton]

Hello William,

Here is an example of slack key guitar by LEDWARD KAAPANA.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87S3cUdiX-g

[Derrick Mau]

Slack key can be played using a steel guitar. Benny Rogers recorded a couple on the 49th State Label.

David "Feet" Rogers also wrote a slack key number after him, called Kawika Slack Key and recorded it with his Rickenbacker Bakelite.

I've also seen some people here play slack key by slacking the string on a ukulele.

[Derrick Mau]

Here's an example of slack key using a uke.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWZQG8We ... re=related

[Bob Simons]

Slack key players all sound alike.

MATT!!! THere is no more tediously alike, imitative, and musically unadventurous a group of musicians than the steel players who are members of this forum!

[seldomfed]

Without Slack Key being popularized in the 1860's in Hawaii, steel guitar may never have happened there. Slack Key is the root of Hawiian steel.

Sliding things on strings is not unique to Hawaii. However, without an open tuned acoustic to slide something on - Joseph Kekuku may have played uke instead

The early popular open A tunings (high bass and low bass) for Hawaiian steel use the same intervals as our open G Dobro tuning popular in Bluegrass, and the Taro Patch open G tuning which is a very common Slack Key tuning.

But I've always wondered how the A tunings from the old days, got moved up a step to G? Anybody...? Anybody...?

chris

[William Lake]

Derrick & Roger thanks for the youtube links. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video must be worth the whole library. I now know for sure what slack key sounds like. It almost has a Mexican feel to it.

[Bill Creller]

I agree with Matt Rhodes, most slack key players sound alike, with few exceptions. And they are all over the place in Hawaii. It evidently doesn't take the long learning curve for a slack key player, as it does for learning steel guitar.

[Andy Volk]

Dancing Cat Records specializes in the genre. Here's the explanation from their website .....

About Slack Key Music

Played from the heart and soul through the fingers, and flowing with vivid tropical images, Hawaiian slack key (ki ho'alu) is truly one of the great acoustic guitar traditions in the world.

In slack key, some of the strings are slacked from the standard tuning, with the thumb playing the bass while the other fingers play the melody and improvisation in a finger-picked style. The roots of slack key can be traced to the 1830s, when the guitar was brought to the Islands by Spanish and Mexican cowboys. The Hawaiians quickly adopted the guitar into their culture, creating many ingenious tunings to suit their music, originally to match the key of the vocals.

Historically, most recordings have included slack key guitar only as accompaniment in a group setting. On Dancing Cat Records' HAWAIIAN SLACK KEY GUITAR MASTERS SERIES, producer George Winston brings the solo guitar to the forefront, showcasing the stylings of some of the best players in the Islands.

In developing an individual style, each of these players draws upon family techniques and those of masters past and present. They invent tunings and use others handed down through the generations, furthering the evolution of solo slack key guitar, and introducing this evocative tradition to the rest of the world.

[Doug Beaumier]

...most slack key players sound alike, with few exceptions.

I tend to agree, and I think it's due to the nature of an open tuned guitar... the drone strings that ring throughout the song, the modal sounds. It leads to a lot of "sameness" throughout the song IMO. Some people like that kind of sound, and some find it bland and uninteresting and... dare I say... New Age-ish.

[Erv Niehaus]

Chris,
From A to G is not up, it's down.
I learned on the A, high bass, tuning and I still tune my resonator gutiars to A.
As mentioned, the intervals are the same as a G dobro tuning.
There was a dobro player on the Opry who tuned to A.
Was it Bashful Brother Oswald?

[Dana Blodgett]

Hawaiian slack key or(Ki Ho'alu)is one of the roots of American Country music, since the pedal steel came from the lap steel, which came from the acoustic steel, which came from the slack key guitar.It's been said that slack key has the depth of the blues, but has more emphasis on melody.Slack key was invented by re-tuning the standard spanish guitar tuning(E-A-D-G-B-E) by "slacking" some of the strings to accompany the vocals.Gabby Pahinui was the first to record in this style in 1946. He expanded the the boundaries of slack key guitar creating a fully evolved solo style some of which were instrumentals.
This tradition began back in the early 1830's.The many tunings the Hawaiians invented fall into five basic catagories. Major,Wahine(contains Major 7th),Mauna Loa(the two highest strings are tuned a fifth apart) Ni'ihau/Old Mauna Loa(second and sixth notes of the scale lie on two successive strings with the sixth note of the scale on the lower-pitched string)and Misc.= many other combinations that don't fit into one of these other groupings. Some tunings are protected family secrets. I have seen and heard slack played on six strings,eight string, and 12 string guitars. I all sounds good to me. I usually play in Taro patch (D-G-D-G-B-D low to high)and Wahine which is similar open "G" while slacking the low "D" note down to a "C".

[Mat Rhodes]

It's amazing the number of tunings that are out there for this. I've heard of Wahine and Taro Patch among others. There's a slack key ensemble in Houston called "Houston Slackers" that usually play in one of those tunings. I remember most of the arrangements that I did with them live were in either F, G, or occasionally C.

The predominant chord progression in nearly every slack key selection I've heard or played is I V I V I V I V I V I V I V I V I V I V I V... I might have heard a IV chord in some instances. From a harmonic standpoint, who are some of the less "tradition-bound" players that are venturing outside of this?

[Kekoa Blanchet]

While the stylistic variation in slack key performance is a lot less obvious than in lap steel performance, there's also the element of unfamiliarity that makes it "all sound the same." Much like all jazz (or bluegrass, or classical music, or rock-n-roll) sounds the same if you're not familiar with the genre.

Bill, you mentioned that perhaps the easier learning curve of slack key might be the reason for its dominance over lap steel guitar. But, at least in my (admittedly very limited) experience, slack key is tough to learn. You're keeping three balls in the air at all times: you're the bass, rhythm guitar, and lead guitar all in one. Perhaps another reason for the popularity of slack key is that it uses a familiar instrument that many people already have in the house (an acoustic guitar), rather than a more exotic piece of equipment like the lap steel. Also, a single slack key guitarist can perform solo or can provide a very rich and complete accompaniment for a singer, something that's tough for a solo lap steel player to do.

But I'd still rather listen to a steel guitar!

[Tom Franke]

While the stylistic variation in slack key performance is a lot less obvious than in lap steel performance, there's also the element of unfamiliarity that makes it "all sound the same." Much like all jazz (or bluegrass, or classical music, or rock-n-roll) sounds the same if you're not familiar with the genre.

Excellent point. It might take some listening time to understand the subtleties and variations in the music. I don't listen to this music much, but I remember a visit to Hawaii some years ago when I listened to slack key and other Hawaiian music on the radio and it was magical--just right for the occasion.

[Dana Blodgett]

Queen Liliuokulani/E.S.Achuck(Kapeka)'s song entitled "SANOE" comes to mind. Cyril Pahinui's arrangemernt of "Sanoe" has these chords in his version-D-Em-Em7-F#m7/C#-G/B- G-A7- Asus4-Am6- A- Bdim7. Cyril recorded this song in the key of D6add9 tuning=D-A-D-F#-B-E low to high.
A 1-V-1-V-1...sounds like the common two chord vamps that are used in slack key quite frequently and can be called turnarounds (dom7 to tonic)three chord vamps or turnarounds are popular also( D7-G7-C). It is also very common to see the four chord used also. The chords seem simple but are embellished by 6th's, 7th's,9th's...

[Robbie Daniels]

Chris, transformation from A tuning to G tuning that you referred too have to do more with blending with the fiddle in blugrass, and perhaps banjo, I believe more than anything else. This is the indication I get from fiddle payers I have worked with anyway. Fiddle players can do their best in the key of G, I am told.

[George Rout]

Per Robbie's input, I've been told the same thing over the years. I play both the Dobro and lap steel, the latter in the old timey A Major (both low and high bass) tuning. Much bluegrass is played in the Key of G.

Geo