Speaker 1: A centeral is the protection of I heard radio. It's
Speaker 1: a song that Ray Anthony played many years ago. See
Speaker 1: if you can remember the tumb just named that to him. Aloha.
Speaker 1: The following is my interview with steel guitar ambassador, teacher, performer,
Speaker 1: and legend Alan Akaca anybody. Portions of this interview appeared
Speaker 1: in our episode titled Kakila, which if you haven't heard yet,
Speaker 1: we'll give more context on the Hawaiian Islands. The lone
Speaker 1: stringed instrument that originated there hint it's not the ukulele,
Speaker 1: but more on that later that also recorded it. Alan's
Speaker 1: abilities are virtuosic. He can play any instrument in the band,
Speaker 1: and his office at the k Kula Mela School on
Speaker 1: Oahu is crammed full of them. But the steel guitar
Speaker 1: is his passion. It's a craft he spent a lifetime mastering.
Speaker 1: By ear, he'll retune in the middle of a song.
Speaker 1: When I asked him about older styles of playing, he
Speaker 1: approximated the sound by swapping his steel bar out for
Speaker 1: a nut raiser to slide on the strings. We're listening
Speaker 1: to our air view. One of the things that stands
Speaker 1: out to me is how similar His musical origins are
Speaker 1: to Joseph K. Kuku, inventor of the stew guitar. Both
Speaker 1: began his children experimentally running objects up and down guitar strings.
Speaker 1: You hear Allen drop a lot of names here, and
Speaker 1: that's because from the time he was a teenager onward
Speaker 1: he studied and played with everyone, contemporary masters of the instrument,
Speaker 1: legends from decades before him, and artists who were rethinking
Speaker 1: still guitar style. During the Hawaiian Renaissance of the nineteen seventies,
Speaker 1: as it proliferated in other genres, most notably country, the
Speaker 1: Sioux guitar became dissociated with Hawaii and fell out of
Speaker 1: the popular imagination. The instrument and its practitioners became an
Speaker 1: endangered species. Alan is the central figure in bringing Kika
Speaker 1: Kila back to prominence, and it's working all across the
Speaker 1: world now. Steel guitar enthusiasm and musicianship are on the rise.
Speaker 1: At his school, Kaku Lamele, Alan trains the next generation
Speaker 1: of Hawaiian musicians, and he teaches lessons in all corners
Speaker 1: of the world via Skype. Mr Akaka is full of
Speaker 1: amazing stories, but the most poignant are his experiences working
Speaker 1: with kids, teaching them about the Hawaii they live at,
Speaker 1: tying them into traditions that very well could have been
Speaker 1: lost if he and the steel Guitar had not found
Speaker 1: each other. Without further ado, here's my interview with Alan
Speaker 1: Akaca and his steel guitar. My name is Alan Akaka.
Speaker 1: I'm the director and owner of the school of wine
Speaker 1: music called Kula Melee, and it's located on the island
Speaker 1: of Oahu in Kailua Town. I've been a teacher for
Speaker 1: more than thirty years. I taught concert band, marching band,
Speaker 1: I started a choir at another school that I worked at,
Speaker 1: and also a Hawaiian ensemble since uh that middle school
Speaker 1: didn't have any of that, and I understand even though
Speaker 1: I'm no longer at the school, that the program still continues,
Speaker 1: which is very good to know. I'm very happy with that.
Speaker 1: I've been playing music ever since I was in elementary school,
Speaker 1: at least learning how to play the kalle i. I
Speaker 1: taught myself how to play that along with all the
Speaker 1: other instruments I know, the upright bass, the guitar, and
Speaker 1: my number one love, the Hawaiian still guitar, and I
Speaker 1: taught myself to play the piano and so on. But
Speaker 1: since since I was into music, I could read music
Speaker 1: and so on, I could say, you know, I could
Speaker 1: play a number of instruments. Plus I could teach it
Speaker 1: as a band director. So um, that's pretty much my life. Still.
Speaker 1: Guitar started when I was going into high school, so
Speaker 1: like from eighth grade to ninth grade around there. And
Speaker 1: the story is that this is back in the Renaissance,
Speaker 1: the new Renaissance period for Hawaiian culture and music, and
Speaker 1: that would be in the midst in the seventies, early seventies,
Speaker 1: and and so um, my brother started learning how to
Speaker 1: play the slacky guitar. He was teaching himself, and so
Speaker 1: I wanted to play another instrument. At the time, I
Speaker 1: you know, I could play the clarinet. You know, I
Speaker 1: took the beginning band and intermediate band in middle school.
Speaker 1: And then, um, so, as he was in the living
Speaker 1: room playing, you know, practicing his slack key guitar technique,
Speaker 1: I grabbed my my father's Martin guitar. I laid on
Speaker 1: my lap and I grabbed the barrel of the clarinet.
Speaker 1: I used that as that as a bar and I
Speaker 1: started sliding across the strings. And I was really fascinated
Speaker 1: with that song. And for some reason, you know, I
Speaker 1: did that. Why. I thought about it later and I
Speaker 1: understood why. But anyway, my my father came up to
Speaker 1: me and asked if I knew what I was playing.
Speaker 1: I just said, oh, slide guitar. He says, it's called
Speaker 1: the steel guitar. Really, so he encouraged me to go on.
Speaker 1: My father, by the way, at the time, was the
Speaker 1: director of music at our church, kwai Hold Church, which
Speaker 1: is the mother of Hawaiian churches. Anyway, he had a
Speaker 1: large choir, like a hundred voices it was. It was
Speaker 1: a very good choir too, So so anyway, um, he says, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, you should practice learn how to play this instrument.
Speaker 1: So I did. I took it too hard, and because
Speaker 1: I could read music, I put out a book, a
Speaker 1: Hawaiian songbook, and I started flipping through the pages and
Speaker 1: they said, oh, this one looks interesting. So I start
Speaker 1: figuring it out on a on a slacky tuning. You know,
Speaker 1: I didn't know the tuning, but you know, I just
Speaker 1: kind of figured out the notes reading the music and
Speaker 1: so on. And that first song and they tell a
Speaker 1: lot of People was written by our Alexanderson, who wrote Melicali,
Speaker 1: Kimaka and Lovely Who Has. But this song was what
Speaker 1: Ginger Blossoms, and there was something about it, and I'll
Speaker 1: play you a little bit of it, so as part
Speaker 1: of the song white Ginger Blocks. Of course, it didn't
Speaker 1: sound like that way back then. So anyway, I I um.
Speaker 1: I would listen to recordings I'll try to copy. The
Speaker 1: one that was the easiest one for me to learn
Speaker 1: was by a still guitarist named David Fete Rogers. He
Speaker 1: was in the group called the Sons of Hawaii and
Speaker 1: at that time the Five Faces album by the Sons
Speaker 1: of Hawaii or what many of us called the Red
Speaker 1: Album because of the cover, was released and it was
Speaker 1: quite popular with with the young musicians. It was a
Speaker 1: new sound. It wasn't like the older traditional groups. It
Speaker 1: was different, but they were all traditional songs, but it
Speaker 1: was something about the still guitar. It was such a
Speaker 1: simple style. I could pick up on it a lot quicker.
Speaker 1: And the good thing about that is because my brother
Speaker 1: and his friends what would practice in our living room
Speaker 1: and they were practicing those the songs off of that album,
Speaker 1: and so I could sit in the back and I could,
Speaker 1: you know, practice you know, plugging into you know, one
Speaker 1: of those stereo systems. You know, I could plug in
Speaker 1: and I could play soft least I could hear myself.
Speaker 1: And I didn't know they could hear me, you know.
Speaker 1: In fact, I was wearing a headset because I thought, Okay,
Speaker 1: if I plug in, they won't hear me. But they did.
Speaker 1: They could hear what I was doing. Just so everybody knows.
Speaker 1: Two of my brother's classmates who would come over. The
Speaker 1: bass player is Aaron Mahi, who later became the longest
Speaker 1: serving band master for the Aurora Hawaiian Band, and he
Speaker 1: was an associate conductor or assistant conductor for the Honolululu Symphony.
Speaker 1: And the other classmate was Dennis Kamakahi, who wrote many
Speaker 1: songs that are considered classics today. He's passed done, but
Speaker 1: his music still goes on and many people, many people
Speaker 1: play his songs. I was actually with these people, you know,
Speaker 1: I could play along with them and and so on.
Speaker 1: So so it's like, wow, I played with these legends
Speaker 1: and my brother. I would consider him about a legend too,
Speaker 1: because he's in great demand as um not not necessarily
Speaker 1: for music, although he plays a lot of music where
Speaker 1: he's at at the Mountani. But because he's a ca
Speaker 1: who and a ca who is like a minister, a priest,
Speaker 1: and his services are requested all over the world, including
Speaker 1: by the Disneys. So he's flown to the mainland, He's
Speaker 1: flown to um To, to Asia, to Japan, to China,
Speaker 1: to Korea, um, all over the place. In fact, he's
Speaker 1: in San Francisco right now. Um. He just arrived there
Speaker 1: last night to do a blessing. He does blessings all
Speaker 1: over Hawaiian blessings. Anyway, that was quite a group, you know,
Speaker 1: Aaron Mahi, Dennis Kamakahi, my brother Daniel Kaka Jr. I
Speaker 1: went on with still guitar. I practiced. Um. I remember
Speaker 1: there was a member of the church who said, hey,
Speaker 1: you're you're you're playing still guitared here, I'll let you
Speaker 1: borrow mine. I went, wow, a real still guitar and
Speaker 1: not just a Martin um so, so he showed me
Speaker 1: a few things. So I practiced and so on, and
Speaker 1: I would go to the music shop, uh down at
Speaker 1: our main shopping center, Ala Moana, and the music start
Speaker 1: at that time had a number of LPs that anybody
Speaker 1: could pick up. They were already opened, and we could
Speaker 1: go into the carol and and listen to it. If
Speaker 1: we liked it, I guess we could purchase it. I
Speaker 1: would go there just to listen and I would pull
Speaker 1: an album out, listen to it. They put it back
Speaker 1: next one. What I was seeking was was really, you know,
Speaker 1: different still guitar styles and players. And the people knew
Speaker 1: me there. You know. UM. One of the women there,
Speaker 1: I would call her Auntie. I saw her, I saw
Speaker 1: her all the time. The owner of the shop UM,
Speaker 1: a nice man also recording producer. UM. He would say
Speaker 1: hi along the way and so on. But but you know, UM,
Speaker 1: I I learned a lot of stow guitar just by
Speaker 1: listening to those albums in what was called the household
Speaker 1: music right in the center of the of the shopping center.
Speaker 1: When I was in high school, UM, I was an
Speaker 1: independent student. For another what should I call her? I
Speaker 1: would call her a legend. Her name was Winona Biemer.
Speaker 1: She collected to wine music and so on, and so
Speaker 1: I was studying under her. So it was in her
Speaker 1: office where I could collect like three photos of music
Speaker 1: Hawaiian music, three three like two inch photos filled with
Speaker 1: Hawaiian music. And then one day I was sitting there
Speaker 1: to her desk and I saw this book by Jerry Bird.
Speaker 1: I didn't know who Jerry was yet, um and and
Speaker 1: so I flipped through it and there was music, and
Speaker 1: I went, oh, my gosh, his diagram system for still
Speaker 1: guitar is a lot easier to read than all these
Speaker 1: male Babe books that I purchased. And um, the only
Speaker 1: Hawaiian song in the male Baby books was a lohawaii,
Speaker 1: you know. Otherwise there were all these other tunes that
Speaker 1: you know, I didn't relate to. And so in Jerry's
Speaker 1: he he had a lot of Hawaiian tunes. And so,
Speaker 1: you know, she let me borrow the book forever and
Speaker 1: I took it home. I went on my still guitar
Speaker 1: um and started, you know, reading through his music, and
Speaker 1: I didn't believe that I could play more, you know,
Speaker 1: um and and actually sounds so much better just by
Speaker 1: reading that music. I learned so much from that book.
Speaker 1: And then when I got to meet Jerry finally, I
Speaker 1: was so excited. Later on, you know, I was approached
Speaker 1: by a member of the Hawaiian Music Foundation and he
Speaker 1: asked if I wanted to take private lessons with somebody.
Speaker 1: I said sure, especially when he mentioned the name Poor
Speaker 1: al Mada, Poor al Mada, and he was a famous musician.
Speaker 1: He was on what he calls he was a great musician.
Speaker 1: And so I waited, and unfortunately, since he was in
Speaker 1: such demand, he was too busy to even get me started.
Speaker 1: And and and then he passed. Um he had a
Speaker 1: heart attack. He passed, And so I never had a
Speaker 1: chance to to sit down with him. I've heard him
Speaker 1: live and on the still guitar he was. He was
Speaker 1: an animal. Oh my gosh, I was. I was hoping
Speaker 1: to study with him. And so months passed by and
Speaker 1: I was approached again if I wanted to study with
Speaker 1: another person who who just moved to Honolulu, And that
Speaker 1: person was Jerry Bird, And so I said sure. By
Speaker 1: then I knew who Jerry Bird was because I had
Speaker 1: I listened to his Bird of Paradise lp. And then
Speaker 1: my uncle, who was a vice president of the Musicians Union,
Speaker 1: had mentioned to me. He says, yeah, you know, Jerry
Speaker 1: Bird came in with his still guitar and he could
Speaker 1: play two voices at the same time, and and go, wow, gee,
Speaker 1: who is Jerry Bird? And so anyway, everything was set up,
Speaker 1: and I met Jerry for the first time in the
Speaker 1: what he calls office of all places, because I was
Speaker 1: such a big fan of what he calls Still. So
Speaker 1: he sat me down. He says, play me something. I
Speaker 1: was holy the skinny bar, and I was playing the
Speaker 1: still guitar. At the end of the song, he says,
Speaker 1: give me that bar. So I handed it to him reluctantly,
Speaker 1: of course. And then here under wrapped this brand new bars,
Speaker 1: brand new bar. It was wider, and it was to
Speaker 1: his specs. He says, here, I'm going to show you
Speaker 1: how to hold this now, and and and that was
Speaker 1: a start of my lessons with with Jerry. And and
Speaker 1: he was an incredible teacher. He taught me, you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of things, technique musicality, which to me is
Speaker 1: the most important, how to play musically rather than plain notes.
Speaker 1: This is about when I was graduating. Yeah, and the
Speaker 1: year after that. I believe I had lessons for two summers,
Speaker 1: which seems kind of sharp. I wish I could have
Speaker 1: taken more lessons, but my scholarship, I guess had run
Speaker 1: out by then. But I started going out there and
Speaker 1: playing with the others and sometimes I played still guitars.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I played the upright bass, and lucky I knew
Speaker 1: how to play upright bass because I had the opportunity
Speaker 1: to play with many other legends and even travel with them.
Speaker 1: One of them was Billy Hill. An interesting thing about
Speaker 1: Billy hillnn he only had one hand. His left hand
Speaker 1: was severed in the shop accident in high school. You know,
Speaker 1: he was an aspiring musician. I mean, he came from
Speaker 1: a musical family. But luckily somebody was able to develop
Speaker 1: a glove going over his wrist that had a bar
Speaker 1: attached to it, and so so Billy Billy practiced and
Speaker 1: so on, and he became a monster on the still guitar.
Speaker 1: I mean I would play bass and I would be
Speaker 1: watching him, and he was incredible. He was he was
Speaker 1: a tiny guy, but he was just a fantastic musician.
Speaker 1: I mean, when when it came to singing parts, he
Speaker 1: could choose to go above or below the melody. I
Speaker 1: mean he was well so cood to his brother, but
Speaker 1: on the still guitar, he was just he had all
Speaker 1: these ideas. He liked to play swing and jazz, you know,
Speaker 1: and incorporated into Hawaiian music. And I love that the best,
Speaker 1: but you know he was he was. He was a
Speaker 1: real perky guy, the first one to wake up, the
Speaker 1: last one to go to bed. But I noticed he
Speaker 1: popped a lot of vitamin E too. He had so
Speaker 1: much energy on the stage. He taught me a few
Speaker 1: things other than me just observing him. But you know,
Speaker 1: like when it came to singing songs, especially if there
Speaker 1: was a trio, every voice counted. You know, he says
Speaker 1: sing I said, I don't know the words. He said,
Speaker 1: follow my lips. And I always remember that, you know,
Speaker 1: because I tell my my students that, you know, if
Speaker 1: they're on the stage and I tell them follow my lips.
Speaker 1: You know, he didn't go to music school or anything.
Speaker 1: Everything was you know, learned in in the back alley
Speaker 1: at home someplace. But yeah, he truly is a legend.
Speaker 1: Uh And and then you know he has a grandson,
Speaker 1: Casey Osen, who also is quite a monster on the
Speaker 1: still guitar. He's really good. Um so, so Billy left
Speaker 1: the legacy, you know, through his grandson. His son in
Speaker 1: law is also a great guitarist and singer. Billy also,
Speaker 1: you know, when it came to rhythm, he was stickler
Speaker 1: for rhythm, so on those occasions when I had to
Speaker 1: play the guitar, he would he would say no, no,
Speaker 1: no like this. You know, he couldn't play it himself,
Speaker 1: but he he showed me what he wanted. I would
Speaker 1: go to the nightclub where he played down in the
Speaker 1: White Kicking. It was called the Blue Dolphin Room, and
Speaker 1: he played with other legends, and really I do mean legends,
Speaker 1: um recording artists and so on. You know, even though
Speaker 1: I was under age, you know, you know, I tried
Speaker 1: to go wherever there was a still guitars. He would
Speaker 1: take his break, his break, not the musicians break. He
Speaker 1: would say, it comes plays still guitar. So he let
Speaker 1: me play his still guitar while he was drinking, you know,
Speaker 1: at the bar and so on. By the way, he
Speaker 1: wasn't the only one that did that to me. They
Speaker 1: were others. They would take a break. Sometimes it's you know,
Speaker 1: one or two songs, and then it would later on
Speaker 1: it would last the whole set while they drinking. Yeah,
Speaker 1: in those days, the musicians drank a lot. Things have changed.
Speaker 1: Times have changed a lot of musicians don't drink nearly
Speaker 1: nearly half as much as what those old timers used to.
Speaker 1: So Billy would nor play a six string fry pan
Speaker 1: by Rick and Becker at gigs, but at that Blue
Speaker 1: Dolphin Nightclub he had a Fender four hundred, which is
Speaker 1: a single neck, eight string pedal steel guitar, but I
Speaker 1: think for uh foot pedals, and so that was my
Speaker 1: chance to figure out, you know, how to get cards
Speaker 1: on that pedal still guitar. I just loved it, uh
Speaker 1: you know, just that opportunity to to to play on
Speaker 1: the pedal still guitar and to play on Billy Hill
Speaker 1: and still guitar. And then um, I remember going out
Speaker 1: to to a spot right along Kla Kaua Avenue, the
Speaker 1: main drag through Wiki and there was a singer, Eddie Kikalala,
Speaker 1: who was selling his LPs right on the street and
Speaker 1: doing very good in fact risk business because he was
Speaker 1: the only one on the street in those days, and
Speaker 1: he had his mike set up and everything, and two
Speaker 1: backup musicians and guitarist and still guitarists. The still guitarists
Speaker 1: was David Kelly, who had returned home. He was living
Speaker 1: in Vegas prior to that, but he was a renowned
Speaker 1: still guitarist and revered by many, including some of the
Speaker 1: famous pedals still guitar players from country music. I mean
Speaker 1: they told me they used to listen to David Kelly
Speaker 1: when they were learning still guitar. So David Kelly wasn't young,
Speaker 1: but I would listen to him, and I remember standing
Speaker 1: and watching him and he was playing, and then I
Speaker 1: would see him turning his keys. By the end of
Speaker 1: the song, he was in a different tuning. So I
Speaker 1: learned that from David. So I do that myself because
Speaker 1: it can be done. I mean, just by watching him,
Speaker 1: I knew it could be done. And then you know,
Speaker 1: when talking to him, um his advice that I'll always remember.
Speaker 1: He said, see your hands, keep them in your pocket.
Speaker 1: Their gold protect him. So all these all these artists,
Speaker 1: these legends had you know a little tip for me
Speaker 1: that that I share with my students. You know. Going
Speaker 1: back to David feet Rogers, whenever I could, I would
Speaker 1: go out in and watch him. I remember he played
Speaker 1: an instrumental um between verses of a song, and so
Speaker 1: later I asked him, do you play the same one
Speaker 1: or does it change, you know, from day to day,
Speaker 1: or get to gate and he says, play from your heart.
Speaker 1: I mean he was, he was, he was a simple
Speaker 1: man to six ft something. Um had one glass eye.
Speaker 1: I didn't know which was to look at, you know,
Speaker 1: when I was talking to him and kind of intimidating looking.
Speaker 1: You know, you wouldn't want to meet him in the
Speaker 1: dark alley. You know, he looks scary. But when he played,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, it was like it was like sweetness.
Speaker 1: We have a Hawaiian word for that. It's nah nah
Speaker 1: soft and sweet. And so he's to play from your heart.
Speaker 1: You know, I understand what he meant by that. But
Speaker 1: I tell my students, you know, the still guitar, you know,
Speaker 1: when you're playing, it's a feel thing. The same idea
Speaker 1: played from your heart. It's a feel thing. Whatever you do,
Speaker 1: you learn my tab. When you got it down pretty well,
Speaker 1: then close the book and to play it. You don't
Speaker 1: have to play every single note I wrote. Just feel
Speaker 1: your way through it. It's a feel thing. David feet
Speaker 1: Rogers was actually my first teacher off of his LP
Speaker 1: and I followed him through the years and and and
Speaker 1: so on. I just loved his playing, and every now
Speaker 1: and then, depending on the style of Hawaiian music, I'll
Speaker 1: kick into his style whatever fits that style and his
Speaker 1: works especially with the more contemporary Hawaiian music because it's
Speaker 1: so simple it fits right between the cracks. Musically, he
Speaker 1: was incredible. I mean, you know, he played only a
Speaker 1: six string, not a h string, not a double neck,
Speaker 1: not a triple neck, just a six drink still guitar.
Speaker 1: And it wasn't even a seventh tuning or minor tuning
Speaker 1: or anything. It was a straight D tuning D major.
Speaker 1: That was enough. That was enough. His uncle, Bennie Rodgers,
Speaker 1: was also an influence on me. Bennie Rodgers um played
Speaker 1: with Genoa Cave, who many years later I played with
Speaker 1: since the eighties until she passed away almost ten more
Speaker 1: than ten years ago. Well he's still guitar, He's on
Speaker 1: many of her albums, and so I would listen to it.
Speaker 1: I'll try to copy so so unlike feet Rogers, Bennie's
Speaker 1: style was a little busier, but but it still had
Speaker 1: that Roger's flavor in there. And so so I studied
Speaker 1: that and everything. I got to the point where if
Speaker 1: I was listening to the radio and I heard a
Speaker 1: turnaround or still guitar vamp, I knew exactly what song
Speaker 1: it was, you know, I just knew. I studied his
Speaker 1: style a lot. So when I started playing with the
Speaker 1: Anti Genoa, I kicked into that Bennie Rogers style. I
Speaker 1: read turned one of my still guitars, and I played
Speaker 1: that along with her along the way too before I
Speaker 1: ended up being her still guitars. I would go over
Speaker 1: to a nightclub called the Aloha Grow. It was right
Speaker 1: in downtown, and so she would play there on the weekend.
Speaker 1: So I would go there. Again. I think I was underage,
Speaker 1: but I would go there and then she would call
Speaker 1: me up the still guitars would step down. He had
Speaker 1: a trip on that. I said, oh my gosh, this
Speaker 1: is my opportunity to try out his two needs. So
Speaker 1: I did. So, you know, at the beginning, it was
Speaker 1: two songs. As time went by, I would be up
Speaker 1: there the whole set and I would be playing with
Speaker 1: the Jena Calvi Anti Jenna Calvi. Oh, by the way,
Speaker 1: that that picture behind my upright base, that's her Anti
Speaker 1: Genoah's great granddaughter. By the way, is uh one of
Speaker 1: my star students. She's what a sophomore in high school
Speaker 1: and she has quite a voice, and she's a demon
Speaker 1: on the still guitar. Whatever I teach her, she soaks
Speaker 1: up and she starts using some of those ideas. I mean,
Speaker 1: and I just watched her. She just keeps on going
Speaker 1: in I rarely hear her play a wrong note. You know,
Speaker 1: she's going all over the still guitar and then going
Speaker 1: WHOA a sophomore? Well, I mean, I mean she was
Speaker 1: playing my still guitar when she could hardly reach it.
Speaker 1: You know, that was seven years ago. I got upon
Speaker 1: the stage. She couldn't her feet didn't even reach the
Speaker 1: floor with the still guitar in her lap. And she
Speaker 1: she played a song. She sang it, and she played
Speaker 1: a solo. I mean, she was in elementary school. Man,
Speaker 1: it's so you know, Yeah, she's incredible. Her name is
Speaker 1: Molly and Lyman. I bring her to my still guitar
Speaker 1: festivals whenever she's available. Oh and and an adult, you know, chaperone,
Speaker 1: either her mother or her grandparents or somebody. Could you
Speaker 1: give me, like as if I had never heard or
Speaker 1: seen a steel guitar before, what is it? What makes
Speaker 1: the stell guitar what it is? What makes it different
Speaker 1: from a guitar? Is that Number one, you play it
Speaker 1: horizontally normally on your lap unless it has legs or stand.
Speaker 1: Then the nut is raised so that the strings are
Speaker 1: not so close to the fret board. It has to
Speaker 1: be that way because we use a metal bar to
Speaker 1: slide across the strings. If we use a standard guitar
Speaker 1: will bump into the raised frets. In the case of
Speaker 1: the still guitar, with the raised nut, um I could
Speaker 1: just glide. I'm not structed. Of course. In the early
Speaker 1: days it was a wooden guitar acoustic and I'm talking
Speaker 1: about the turn of the century. Twenty century later on
Speaker 1: National came out with the try Cone, dough Brow of
Speaker 1: cars came out Worth theirs. Uh. There was a Wisen
Speaker 1: Barn company that came out with their wooden guitars and
Speaker 1: acoustically produced more sound than some of the other guitars.
Speaker 1: The doll Brow and the National with their cones. You know,
Speaker 1: it amplified the sound to a degree, so you know
Speaker 1: it could be heard more. Later on, you know, in
Speaker 1: the thirties the electric amplifier was developed and then the
Speaker 1: electric guitar, and the first electric guitar was a still guitar.
Speaker 1: A big difference was one amplification to sustain. When I
Speaker 1: play on my acoustic, I gotta pick more. There were
Speaker 1: certain things that the acoustic players did besides picking more,
Speaker 1: but they would do rows like this. They would just
Speaker 1: pick more, you know, things like that. Still guitars today,
Speaker 1: you know, you don't have to pick as much. You
Speaker 1: can make each note sing more. Its The sustain is
Speaker 1: so much better. One huge difference with the still guitar
Speaker 1: is the different sounds you can get out of it,
Speaker 1: especially the lisandos. No instrument can do lisando like a
Speaker 1: still guitar. Maybe if you get a pinky slide on
Speaker 1: the guitar, you you can play a card and you
Speaker 1: can slide. But I tell you it's not the same.
Speaker 1: The tone is not the same. Hopefully, if you're doing
Speaker 1: on the one octave slide, you'll reach the octave before
Speaker 1: the violent fades away. Yeah. On the electric still guitars,
Speaker 1: the sound doesn't decay so quickly. Yeah. Well, it depends
Speaker 1: on the pickup, right or maybe the player. What are
Speaker 1: some of the the different styles of steel guitar music. Well,
Speaker 1: you have bluegrass, you have country, you have Indian classical,
Speaker 1: you have Japanese, you name it, getting to Hawaiian. There
Speaker 1: are different styles and it's regional, believe it a not.
Speaker 1: You go to Europe, uh, I find that many of
Speaker 1: them love love to um use the reverb. I mean
Speaker 1: it's really wet, a lot of reverb, and they go
Speaker 1: too much. I'm drowning. And yet you know, when you
Speaker 1: listen to some of the older Hawaiian recordings, you know,
Speaker 1: like the seventy eighth and so on, if somebody is
Speaker 1: playing an electric steel uh, those amplifiers didn't have reverb,
Speaker 1: and and maybe the highs, so you know you have
Speaker 1: this this nice, you know, thick, robust, dark, um, food
Speaker 1: bodied sound coming out of a steel guitar versus nowadays,
Speaker 1: you know, with the amplifiers, you know, you can raise
Speaker 1: the highs up as you know, pretty pretty high uh,
Speaker 1: and so on, you know the mids as well as
Speaker 1: but you know, I I like the darker tone. So anyway, um,
Speaker 1: getting back to styles, then you know there's a different
Speaker 1: substyles of the Hawaiian music genre. There's the more traditional
Speaker 1: and the more traditional again you know that dark, that
Speaker 1: food bodied, rich sounding, and then you get into um,
Speaker 1: more of the more contemporary. Talking after the seventies, yeah,
Speaker 1: the where the Hawaiian music was influenced by another genre
Speaker 1: from the mainland. Okay, from the mainland, Hawaiian music was
Speaker 1: always influenced by what was going on in the mainland,
Speaker 1: from the missionaries bringing over their New England books from
Speaker 1: the Hymn Knows to Henry Berger bringing music from Germany.
Speaker 1: He was from outside of Berlin, so bringing that style
Speaker 1: to the islands, and the Hawaiian Royalty studying under him.
Speaker 1: So there was that. And then you know, at the
Speaker 1: turn of the century into the nineteen hundreds, you know
Speaker 1: that then you have um that style of music come
Speaker 1: in from the mainland. Plus some of the composers actually studied,
Speaker 1: you know in the mainland and then they came home.
Speaker 1: And then later on, you know, there was swing from
Speaker 1: big band to so on. I I love to play swing.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know how what you cause was my thing,
Speaker 1: So I played more of that style. And then you
Speaker 1: know there were the other groups like Genoa, Kava and
Speaker 1: so on. Then later when things started to change, you know,
Speaker 1: around the seventies, the Renaissance, and that was you know
Speaker 1: they hate Ashbury days too, you know, Vietnam War. So
Speaker 1: things were changing in America. So was the style of music,
Speaker 1: and I could hear it in the Islands. Here. Some
Speaker 1: some recordings that are considered classics today. They're from that era.
Speaker 1: In those days, I you know, I didn't want to
Speaker 1: I didn't want to listen to them. I couldn't relate
Speaker 1: to them. They were not the traditional Hawaiian music that
Speaker 1: I grew up with and loved. But today I listened
Speaker 1: to it. I I know the people who sang it,
Speaker 1: you know, um, they're all friends and so and and
Speaker 1: and it's like beautiful, you know. And and yet now
Speaker 1: you know, in in Um there's more music being written,
Speaker 1: but the style is very different from the fourties and fifties.
Speaker 1: The style, you know, the strumming of the guitar, the
Speaker 1: used to ukulele, just you know, even the melody of
Speaker 1: the songs or even even the lyrics in Hawaiian is
Speaker 1: different from before. So when it comes to the still guitar,
Speaker 1: like I said, it's a feel thing, it's like, okay,
Speaker 1: you want to make sure that you enhance the music,
Speaker 1: so you make it. Whatever you do, you make it fit.
Speaker 1: Are you gonna do something like this that might not fit?
Speaker 1: But if I do this just a simple try at
Speaker 1: an archego that might fit better. And and and the
Speaker 1: reason for that is because now some of the rhythm
Speaker 1: instruments are are are busier they're they're playing some of
Speaker 1: their own licks rhythmically, unlike before where the rhythm players
Speaker 1: just played rhythm. Nowadays it's like they're doing that, but
Speaker 1: you know there's a lot of stuff going on or
Speaker 1: maybe the lookal Alan players picking in the background or
Speaker 1: whatever it is, you know, a different times. And so
Speaker 1: with the still guitar, you know, scaling back is is
Speaker 1: a good idea again for for a musician and artists.
Speaker 1: It's it's it's fitting in. Yeah, not not not just
Speaker 1: squeezing in, but fitting in. When you get a news student,
Speaker 1: what are some of the basics that you show them, Like,
Speaker 1: what are the things you need to learn? This first?
Speaker 1: And then this And the first thing is the bar
Speaker 1: the left hand. You gotta learn how to hold the
Speaker 1: bar between your thumb and your middle finger. Then pinch
Speaker 1: it or squeeze it what every bird would say, pinch
Speaker 1: it and flat the bar over, place it on, the
Speaker 1: place it on the strings, and and and hold it
Speaker 1: down and make sure that the bar is even with
Speaker 1: the frets. Now, oh, here's another difference between the guitar
Speaker 1: and the still guitar. We placed the bar over the line,
Speaker 1: not between the lines, over the line. Uh, and then
Speaker 1: when you're sliding the bar, yeah, keep the bar even
Speaker 1: you can hear that, keep it even with the frets.
Speaker 1: And then when you're exercising going from one threat to
Speaker 1: the other, make sure you stop right there, right over
Speaker 1: the fret the second right hand. Eventually I get into this,
Speaker 1: But one of the most important things is palm muting,
Speaker 1: because if you don't palm mute, you're going to get
Speaker 1: what I call ghost notes. For example, got all those
Speaker 1: ghost notes in there, you know what them. Harmonically they
Speaker 1: don't fit. But if I pomute correctly, that melody line
Speaker 1: will come out, big difference. So the right and left
Speaker 1: hand technique very very, very important. I know that there
Speaker 1: are other styles of technique from other players, and you
Speaker 1: know it works for them, but Jerry Bird taught me
Speaker 1: this system, and this is a system I used today
Speaker 1: and it works very well. So that you know, you know,
Speaker 1: people when they're playing they're playing music and not not
Speaker 1: you know, well yeah and savory stuff. So technique hand
Speaker 1: technique is very important. The next thing is they gotta
Speaker 1: they have to learn how to read the tablature. Even
Speaker 1: if they never studied music before. Tablature is quite easy
Speaker 1: to understand. Because it's a system where you know, in
Speaker 1: the staff um there are lines that represent every string
Speaker 1: on the still guitar. I normally go with six lines
Speaker 1: because I teach six strings still guitar. If somebody has
Speaker 1: eight strings, well they can forget about the bottom two
Speaker 1: uh before. Now on the staff there are numbers, and
Speaker 1: the numbers represent the frets. So if I say okay
Speaker 1: in the music, that is okay, put your bar on
Speaker 1: string three, fret three. Okay, Now slide up to fret
Speaker 1: five and pick on string one, same string, fret three,
Speaker 1: same string, fret six. By the way, that's an opening
Speaker 1: line for Beyond the Reef, a classic tune. Can you
Speaker 1: give me the next little bit of beyond? I'll play here.
Speaker 1: So that's the first verse. That is that one of
Speaker 1: those songs that if you're a still guitar player you
Speaker 1: just have to know it. What would be good to
Speaker 1: know it? But it's one of the one of the
Speaker 1: first songs I teach because with that one we can
Speaker 1: work on what I call the patta. The patta is
Speaker 1: when you're going from one string to another string on
Speaker 1: two different threats. If I don't do the pata, it's
Speaker 1: going to sound like this. Remember I mentioned ghost notes.
Speaker 1: But if I do pata, which is pick, slide the
Speaker 1: bar to your target, freat then mute, or if I
Speaker 1: do it in temple, the important thing is having that
Speaker 1: slide between the two notes. It's like what people sing,
Speaker 1: you know, the great singers, their notes are all connected.
Speaker 1: We have to do the same thing with this voice
Speaker 1: on the still guitar. Is it the sound that drew
Speaker 1: you to the instrument in the first place? Alan, The
Speaker 1: sound did draw me there. You know, growing up, I
Speaker 1: would go to functions, you know, parties with my parents,
Speaker 1: you know lou Ow's, you know, the Hawaiian fees. There
Speaker 1: would be the you know the baby baby loue Oh,
Speaker 1: there would be whatever, you know, wedding and so on
Speaker 1: birthday party. You know. Being a child, you know, I
Speaker 1: didn't really focus on the music, but it was there.
Speaker 1: It wasn't there. It was you know, ringing through throughout
Speaker 1: the hall. And so I remember hearing you know this,
Speaker 1: hearing all of that, and and I wish I you know, today, yeah,
Speaker 1: I wish I had paid attention. But you know, as
Speaker 1: a kid, you know there are other things going on,
Speaker 1: including you know, the food and and playing with the others,
Speaker 1: you know, you know, music is is was not on
Speaker 1: my mind. But anyway, hearing also, you know recordings my
Speaker 1: parents would play, you know, their LPs at home or
Speaker 1: you know, in the car, my dad would switch on
Speaker 1: the radio to the Hawaiian station. We didn't have very
Speaker 1: many stations, but the Hawaiian station, and so I went
Speaker 1: to hear that. And in those days, almost other recordings
Speaker 1: had still guitar on them, compared to today where you
Speaker 1: hardly hear still guitar. I sort of absorbed all of
Speaker 1: this and learned drasmosis. So when I when I first
Speaker 1: started playing you know, the slide guitar as I called it, um.
Speaker 1: You know, it's like wow, I recognized the sound. So
Speaker 1: I started sliding all over the place, and you know,
Speaker 1: then my father you know, approached me and said, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're playing the still guitar, you know. And it was
Speaker 1: at that point, you know, um, I said, why, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm so intrigued by this, you know, I just want
Speaker 1: to learn this, you know, And so so you know,
Speaker 1: you could tell those who do really well, they seem
Speaker 1: to have this this passion from within, this passion, this drive,
Speaker 1: and I had it, the passion and drive I mean
Speaker 1: to the point where I would go down to the
Speaker 1: shopping center by myself for hours. I would listen to
Speaker 1: LPs um just picking up on whatever I could, or
Speaker 1: going to the state library and barring some LPs and
Speaker 1: going home and sticking them on the the record player,
Speaker 1: you know, the old silvertone record player, silver toned by
Speaker 1: Sears anyway, so and and and just listening to it.
Speaker 1: At times, I would even just to slow down so
Speaker 1: I I could you know, catch that that that riff
Speaker 1: or that fill. I would place my hand on on
Speaker 1: on the record, somewhere on the label and and I
Speaker 1: would just slow it down so I could pick it up.
Speaker 1: And I would do several times. Yeah, as Jerry Bird
Speaker 1: told me what in his days of listening to seven eight,
Speaker 1: you know, I've done war out the grooves, you know.
Speaker 1: I mean I kept picking up the needle and putting
Speaker 1: it down, picking up the need putting it down, and
Speaker 1: so on. Or I would even um. I remember I
Speaker 1: had a cassette player. I would call it the radio station.
Speaker 1: In those days. You know, you could call in your
Speaker 1: requests and I would say, could you play this song?
Speaker 1: Because I couldn't find that song in the music star
Speaker 1: so I knew the radio station had it, so I
Speaker 1: would be ready to hit the record button on my player.
Speaker 1: Um so the announcier, you know, DJ would come on
Speaker 1: and says, oh, here's one for alan Okaka. It's a
Speaker 1: Milo Lei, or it's Hawaiian Cowboys whatever, and then or
Speaker 1: it's hit oh no, and then I would press that
Speaker 1: record button, get the whole song, and then um at
Speaker 1: the end, I would play it back and try to
Speaker 1: pick up you know, try to learn some of those uh,
Speaker 1: some of those notes that you know, the solo or
Speaker 1: or even fails, you know, and you know I wasso
Speaker 1: in gross and all of that, you know, just learning
Speaker 1: how to play the still guitar and did I was
Speaker 1: very lucky to be at the end of end of
Speaker 1: an era where I could play with so many different
Speaker 1: still guitarists, so many. Um. I remember Merle Kikuku, who
Speaker 1: is a grand nephew of the originator of the still guitar,
Speaker 1: told me he says, learn one tuning, well, learn one tuning. Well.
Speaker 1: I always remember that. So yeah, I have my one
Speaker 1: tuning and I can play a number of other tunings.
Speaker 1: So um yeah, all these little tips and tricks from
Speaker 1: all of these people, you know, helped to groom me.
Speaker 1: Is it a C six tuning or uh, it didn't matter,
Speaker 1: he says, learned one tuning was using to C six.
Speaker 1: Actually that night when he he told me that I
Speaker 1: was playing the still guitar, and I thought, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: try different tuning. Of course, you know, I'm still learning
Speaker 1: how to play you and these were yeah, old timers
Speaker 1: and then use so many old songs. And so they
Speaker 1: told me to take an instrumento you know, in between
Speaker 1: the verses, and I was screwing up because I didn't
Speaker 1: know the tuning so well. Um. And that's when he
Speaker 1: took me to the size of learning when tuning well,
Speaker 1: because he was still guitarist himself. Um and and uh
Speaker 1: he played a totally different tuneing you so um. So
Speaker 1: you know he had learned that tune in really well
Speaker 1: because he would talk to me about the tuning and
Speaker 1: I went, wow, yeah, this is really different, um and
Speaker 1: so on. So um. I took that too heart. But
Speaker 1: then you know, I didn't let it stop me from
Speaker 1: learning other tunings. So I I could do a show,
Speaker 1: and I could do three or four different tunings in
Speaker 1: the show. So which which would mean, since I'm using
Speaker 1: a single next still guitar, I would be retuning my
Speaker 1: still guitar. In a few seconds, i'd be in a
Speaker 1: different tuning. Um, you know that's my thing. Yeah, because
Speaker 1: you know, Um, I find that there are certain songs
Speaker 1: where a certain tuning would sound great. I'll give you
Speaker 1: an example. Here's a song called hannah Le Moon and UM,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna play it on the C six tuning. Then
Speaker 1: I'm going to try it in the ninth tuning and
Speaker 1: see if you can hear a difference. I'm okay. On
Speaker 1: the late Moon written by Robert Nelson, Robert Bob Nelson. Okay,
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna change it. Okay, good night. So so
Speaker 1: there's a knife card right there at that spot. That's
Speaker 1: a big difference here to see six. You know, when
Speaker 1: I write tabs out, I'll write it and see six,
Speaker 1: and then along the way I'll go, wait a minute,
Speaker 1: mm hmm. What if I what if I change it
Speaker 1: to this tuning? It normally works out. I said, Wow,
Speaker 1: I could do it in this tuning instead. Pedals still
Speaker 1: guitar stud all the time, right they step on pedals.
Speaker 1: They can change the tuning for a wine stone guitar.
Speaker 1: We normally stick to one tuning, play the whole song
Speaker 1: in their tuning. So that's a big difference from that
Speaker 1: genre and our genre, I should say for still guitar.
Speaker 1: A big difference with Hawainian music too, is you know
Speaker 1: those glissandos Yeah um again yeah, you know, and and
Speaker 1: you know, people come up to me at my gigs
Speaker 1: or at the festivals and they say, or even at
Speaker 1: an emails or or tests. You know, I just saw
Speaker 1: one where where somebody says, you know, I was so bummed.
Speaker 1: You know, I was in Hawaii and I found only
Speaker 1: one still guitars and he wasn't so good, you know.
Speaker 1: And then they reply from another person was well he
Speaker 1: had mentioned me. He says, yeah, you know, I'm developing
Speaker 1: the next generation. Uh and so on. But you know,
Speaker 1: there's there's a lot of really find still guitars in Hawaii.
Speaker 1: Many Bobby and Ghano, Greg Sardina, Casey Osen, Jeff Alhoi.
Speaker 1: He's a young one that's been playing about two years,
Speaker 1: and and he's incredible for somebody who's been playing for
Speaker 1: two years. Uh Capono Lopes. In fact, I take them
Speaker 1: to my festivals because not only can he play the
Speaker 1: still guitar quite well, but he has an angelic voice.
Speaker 1: It's like wow. And then I have my kids, Mallya Lineman,
Speaker 1: Ethan Gore, he Joey Beside need this, Pao Fernandez, I
Speaker 1: have whole Ilana Mahuka. She's an elementary school. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: have some elementary school students too, but all of my
Speaker 1: next gender are all in school because of I guess,
Speaker 1: you know, the moment that you were born and sort
Speaker 1: of like the musical tradition that you were born into.
Speaker 1: You were kind of in this special place to be
Speaker 1: a link from the past of still guitar, through the
Speaker 1: Renaissance and to the present. When you're teaching these kids,
Speaker 1: I mean, do you sort of feel like like you're
Speaker 1: really linking them into this amazing past. Absolutely, absolutely, not
Speaker 1: only the kids, but also any adult students. I I
Speaker 1: do mention the past a lot, or I'll bring out
Speaker 1: stories you know about people I knew, or stories I
Speaker 1: heard of people you know of past musicians. You know.
Speaker 1: I think it's important, especially for the young ones to
Speaker 1: understand and you know what the young ones are teaching them.
Speaker 1: A lot of the more traditional or some of the
Speaker 1: older songs, Uh, not so much the newer songs, although
Speaker 1: they're learning that too, but I think it's it's it's
Speaker 1: important too to keep these other songs alive because they're beautiful,
Speaker 1: the messages, the poetry, the melodic line, the use of
Speaker 1: the chords, the beautiful. Um My student Joey who also
Speaker 1: has a lovely voice, but I always asked her to
Speaker 1: do a certain song called Nunny. Nanny means beautiful, and
Speaker 1: it was written by this teacher who had these young students,
Speaker 1: and she worked for the parts in the recreations, so
Speaker 1: I guess it was a summer program. But you know,
Speaker 1: she fell in love with her young students and so on,
Speaker 1: so she wrote this song, you know, beautiful Nunny. And
Speaker 1: the way Joey sings it is like, oh gosh, we
Speaker 1: say over here, you know, chicken skin. Chicken skin is
Speaker 1: like goose pimples. Yeah, chickens. We said chicken whenever I
Speaker 1: hear her singing. And you know, she's only in the
Speaker 1: ninth grade, you know, I mean, she just made the
Speaker 1: ninth grade, you know, And when Malas sing some of
Speaker 1: her songs, and I you know, I'm teaching her some
Speaker 1: of the songs her great grandmother sang, you know, and
Speaker 1: and she has the same range. And then I have
Speaker 1: another girl in elementary school and I'm teaching her songs.
Speaker 1: That's her great great grandfather, wrote Alvin Isaacs, who played
Speaker 1: with the Royal Hawaiian Serenaders, and he wrote a lot
Speaker 1: of classic tunes a lot. So I'm sharing these songs
Speaker 1: with her. And I said, okay, this, these are all
Speaker 1: your family songs. We're going to learn them. So she is.
Speaker 1: She's learning them, you know, to keep up the family tradition. Yeah,
Speaker 1: she's the only one in the family playing still guitar.
Speaker 1: And yet her her grand or great granduncle was on
Speaker 1: what you calls was a famous still guitarist, Bartney Isaacs.
Speaker 1: I said, you gotta keep this going no matter what.
Speaker 1: You are the link to the past. Yeah, you're keeping
Speaker 1: your rich family heritage. You know all that music, I
Speaker 1: mean a lot of music that's amazing. I read, you know,
Speaker 1: I read about I think there was a movement in
Speaker 1: Hawaii to make the ukulele the national instrument, the state instrument,
Speaker 1: state instrument, Like we have a state fish right right. Uh?
Speaker 1: I know that Hawaiians state not a nation and uh,
Speaker 1: and then someone's feel that it should be a nation. Well, yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: so there's that way into that. I'll stay out of
Speaker 1: that one. But I read about that you that you know,
Speaker 1: you came forward and and you know, suggested that the
Speaker 1: steel guitar maybe was a better reflector of Hawaiian traditions
Speaker 1: or maybe you know, shouldn't be seconded by the ukulele. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was a few years ago, a handful of years
Speaker 1: of When I found out about that, I ran down
Speaker 1: to the state Capitol where they were having the meeting
Speaker 1: at that time. Members of uklelea company. We're just walking
Speaker 1: out the door, go to the elevator, and you know,
Speaker 1: I know them and so on their friends, and they said,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, they just gave the testimony. And I went, damn,
Speaker 1: I better run in there. And and I got there
Speaker 1: just a little late, because you know, I got wind
Speaker 1: of the meeting so late. I got in there and
Speaker 1: they were still willing to listen to me, and you know, um,
Speaker 1: nobody said, okay, you know, we're going to vote on
Speaker 1: this now. And I said, wait, may I say something? Said?
Speaker 1: You know, the still guitar is only string instrument modern
Speaker 1: day string instrument invented here in Hawaii. The ukalele was
Speaker 1: adopted and adapted in Hawaii from a Portuguese instrument. Um.
Speaker 1: Although the kalala is well known more than the still
Speaker 1: guitar today, but it was a still guitar that actually
Speaker 1: lured a lot of people to the islands, and in
Speaker 1: some cases it still does. And not only that, a
Speaker 1: lot of still guitars, most of them here in Hawaii
Speaker 1: play Hawaiian music. The ukulele, a lot of you see
Speaker 1: it at festivals, you see it in videos. A lot
Speaker 1: of the locals play non Hawaiian music. So um, the
Speaker 1: motion was, maybe we'll ask the students in the schools.
Speaker 1: I said, wait a minute, they only know the ukulele.
Speaker 1: They probably don't know the still guitar. And so um
Speaker 1: the chairman says, you know what, Okay, we're gonna table it,
Speaker 1: and uh, let's let's you know, um do a little
Speaker 1: more research. A lot of people rolled in in favor
Speaker 1: of the still guitar and so on. Well, the next
Speaker 1: year came about. I didn't you know, I hadn't kept
Speaker 1: up on the schedule at the legislature. But they had
Speaker 1: another meeting and they did they made ukulele the state instrument.
Speaker 1: And it's like mm hm, you know, um okay, well
Speaker 1: said said, but you know what that that got me thinking, okay,
Speaker 1: we're induce something still guitar festivals, still guitar vessels. So
Speaker 1: I was attending the Maui Still Guitar Festival. It was
Speaker 1: called the Henry Allen Still Guitar Festival at the time,
Speaker 1: and then at one point a few years later, the
Speaker 1: hotel approached me and asked me would you take over
Speaker 1: the festival, which I did, and so I renamed it
Speaker 1: the Maui Still Guitar Festival. That same year, I was
Speaker 1: approached by one of the senators. He says he could
Speaker 1: you do one in Waikiki, and so I started that one.
Speaker 1: So I had these two festivals, Maui and White Kiki
Speaker 1: Still Guitar Festival happening. So all of a sudden, I
Speaker 1: was running two still guitar festivals. And that's when I
Speaker 1: started my nonprofit Hide Malley, which is the Hawaiian instan
Speaker 1: too for music enrichment and learning experiences. So it's Himili
Speaker 1: that coordinates and operates all of these still guitar festivals. Today,
Speaker 1: in at least this year, we have eight scheduled still
Speaker 1: guitar festivals throughout the state. I just had my Hawaiian
Speaker 1: Island Still Guitar Festival. Three weeks later, we'll have the
Speaker 1: Kawaii Still Guitar Festival. Three weeks later, we'll have our
Speaker 1: Hawaiian Still Gutar Festival on the west side of Oahu.
Speaker 1: The following month I'll fly up and I'll attend my
Speaker 1: Friends Still Guitar Renaissance in Yokohama, Japan. And then a
Speaker 1: month after that then I have my mom Still Guitar Festival.
Speaker 1: In June, I have my um Hawaiian Still Guitar Festival
Speaker 1: on the windward side of this island. Then in July
Speaker 1: we have our Waikiki Still Guitar Week from Monday through Saturday,
Speaker 1: Still Guitar in the Heart of White Kiki at the
Speaker 1: Royal Hawaiian Center. Then in August we have All Children
Speaker 1: Still Guitar Festival. You have to be school aged two
Speaker 1: to be featured, so no doubts. And and then in
Speaker 1: December we'll do the Hawaii Island Still Guitar Festival again.
Speaker 1: This year also I'll be doing a couple of conventions,
Speaker 1: one in Indiana and one in New York City. And
Speaker 1: then I'll have my Still Guitar Symposium in the Bay
Speaker 1: Area come August, and maybe in October down in l A,
Speaker 1: Los Angeles. After the ukulelea became the state instrument, you know,
Speaker 1: it was like this fire was burning inside of me.
Speaker 1: I wanted to do whatever I could to bring this
Speaker 1: still tired back to prominence because you know, UM, at
Speaker 1: one time, throughout half of the twenty century, the still
Speaker 1: guitar was a prominent instrument in the Hawaiian band, and
Speaker 1: it was so popular that at one time Oahu Publishing
Speaker 1: in Cleveland, Ohio, actually gave certificates to two hundred thousand
Speaker 1: of the still guitar students, a certificate of completion. Two
Speaker 1: hundred thousand. That's incredible, and so little by little we're
Speaker 1: reaching out the still guitars more visible. We have people
Speaker 1: playing that home or going to you know, backyard parties
Speaker 1: and and playing there. And then we have all these
Speaker 1: youngsters we call them kakekke are youngsters in Hawaiian. We
Speaker 1: have all these cake who are playing still guitar and
Speaker 1: and seeing adults in the audience with their jaws dropped,
Speaker 1: if you can imagine. UM. On the last day at
Speaker 1: the Hawaiian Island Still Guitar Festival, we played at the
Speaker 1: Morning Branch, and um, the bar is right across the lawn,
Speaker 1: very close to the dining area, close enough, and so
Speaker 1: we're playing on these tall stools at the bar facing
Speaker 1: the restaurant, and the people are eating in this open
Speaker 1: area restaurant, and and and and they're just loving it.
Speaker 1: It's like, wow, Hawaiian music, you know, featuring kids and adults.
Speaker 1: And I mean it was it was just a jam.
Speaker 1: We call it Connie Kapila in Hawaiian Connie Capila strike
Speaker 1: the band. And so we're doing this jam session, switching musicians,
Speaker 1: switching the instruments and so on. Uh, and it was
Speaker 1: it was beautiful. I was just loving that. I mean
Speaker 1: I played the first half and then I sat down
Speaker 1: to eat and listening to the others plan it was like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is so nice. This is how I eat. To me,
Speaker 1: And that's what many people told me, many people over
Speaker 1: the years. Oh that's still guitar. I I I cut
Speaker 1: to the islands to hear the still guitar. After all
Speaker 1: the still guitars and signature sound of Hawaii of the
Speaker 1: Islands signature sound, and many people relate the still guitar
Speaker 1: to Hawaii as they should it originated here. I would
Speaker 1: love to get an idea of some of the older
Speaker 1: style of songs. You know what what kind of that
Speaker 1: sound was like? Are you talking about more of the
Speaker 1: twenties thirties, going into more of the forties, fifties and
Speaker 1: then today? Yeah? Well okay, well again, I'm doing this
Speaker 1: on an electric still guitar. So you know in the
Speaker 1: in the twenties and thirties, you were on on acoustics, right, Oh,
Speaker 1: I tell you what, No, okay, so I'll just play
Speaker 1: basically the style won't be the sound, um unless I
Speaker 1: have a bar that I can use under Okay, this
Speaker 1: is not a bar, but you know, okay, this emulates
Speaker 1: the sound more than my my my metal bar. This
Speaker 1: is actually a nut raisor this is what I was
Speaker 1: talking about. I'm not raising which which will raise the
Speaker 1: strings on a guitar. So you know you could buy
Speaker 1: this for a few pennies way back then. Raising strings
Speaker 1: on your guitar with a bar in hand, you could
Speaker 1: you know, play those you could play them Hawaiian tunes.
Speaker 1: So anyway, okay, so uh, you know in those days
Speaker 1: he probably used a different tuning to okay, so I
Speaker 1: don't know I'm going to do this. Yeah they're okay,
Speaker 1: So okay. So so so here's an example of what
Speaker 1: it might have sounded sounded like before. So that was
Speaker 1: you know, more, you know, a lot more picking, right,
Speaker 1: you know, So that's that's way back then. Then then
Speaker 1: you had you know, um, mortal white calls, you know,
Speaker 1: forties and fifties. Okay, and then there we go, oh
Speaker 1: so in this tuning, Um, they don't even play this
Speaker 1: song today. I don't know. Today they might play a song.
Speaker 1: Well maybe, Okay, if I were to play the same song,
Speaker 1: I'll try to play it more. Today's so simpler, huh again,
Speaker 1: because probably the band is playing all these riffs and
Speaker 1: swing them on their kulas or guitars, you know, so
Speaker 1: kind of kind of different. What what songs were those?
Speaker 1: It was the same tune. It's called Maui Girl, Okay
Speaker 1: it was it was written I'm not exactly sure, but
Speaker 1: it was early nineteen hundreds, so the song is close
Speaker 1: to a hundred years old. Yeah, it works. All there was?
Speaker 1: That was that an example of that you were talking about,
Speaker 1: like Hawaii calls, like swing playing really spoke to you
Speaker 1: when playing, or just a lot more you know, cording. Yeah,
Speaker 1: fatter chords and so on versus single note or or
Speaker 1: you know, bouncing over you know, yeah, maybe you wanna
Speaker 1: hear it this way. Yeah, you know absolutely, I can
Speaker 1: totally hear the difference with with the nut. I hear
Speaker 1: that old sound. Yeah, I'm not really doing it total justice,
Speaker 1: but you know, you know there there are differences. You know,
Speaker 1: you you pull out on seventy eight and then you
Speaker 1: pull out you know, I'm a an MP three, you know.
Speaker 1: I mean you're gonna hear differences with the styles today
Speaker 1: versus way back, you know, a hundred years ago. But
Speaker 1: you know, whoever is playing still guitar should always uh
Speaker 1: fit and conform with the style of the music. It
Speaker 1: doesn't matter if it's you know, the old traditional or
Speaker 1: the new contemporary. Yeah, it should conform um or else
Speaker 1: or else you're not feeling it? Are there some like
Speaker 1: standards that you're sort of expected to know as a
Speaker 1: Hawaiian steel guitarist? Standards? Um, well, okay, I'll put it
Speaker 1: this way. There's a song that people would like to hear,
Speaker 1: so maybe they expect that you can play it and
Speaker 1: it starts like this, you know, Um, see if you
Speaker 1: recognize even this opening line. Yes, yeah, I mean sleepwalk.
Speaker 1: I mean, even my kiddies want to learn Sleepwalk. It's
Speaker 1: such a popular tune by Santan Johnny. Right. There's an
Speaker 1: interesting story behind that song. By the way, So Johnny, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, he shared the story with me. Yeah. So
Speaker 1: we sat down and we were chatting, and I asked him,
Speaker 1: how do you get the title sleepwalk? He says, well,
Speaker 1: you know, um, sometimes, you know, as teenagers, you know,
Speaker 1: we couldn't sleep at night, so we'd go downstairs and
Speaker 1: we'd we'd be jamming. Their father, you know, asked, hey,
Speaker 1: what are you guys doing. He says, oh, we're fooling around.
Speaker 1: So dad went out and bought a taper carter. He said,
Speaker 1: next time you fool around, switch us on. And so
Speaker 1: he did. And so they developed this tune, this tune
Speaker 1: little by little, and then they thought wow, instead of okay,
Speaker 1: it's you know, the standard progression was one six, two
Speaker 1: or four. Yeah, one six, let's say one six, four five. Well,
Speaker 1: what he did is he made for a minor mm hmm.
Speaker 1: That was that was different mhm. And until today the
Speaker 1: song is the most popular still guitars solo ever, the
Speaker 1: most popular Yeah, yeo. And and where the title comes from. Well,
Speaker 1: because at night when they couldn't sleep, they would go downstairs.
Speaker 1: Therefore they thought, oh sleep walk Yeah. Interesting, Sorry about yeah, Johnny. Yeah. See,
Speaker 1: I I got to meet all these people or even
Speaker 1: through stories, you know, some of these these legends icons
Speaker 1: that passed away before I even started playing the still guitar.
Speaker 1: But you know, I'm hearing it secondhand from or I
Speaker 1: should say from primary sources, the people who actually knew
Speaker 1: them and played with them. And I used to share
Speaker 1: a ride from kai Lua to Waikiki with another musician.
Speaker 1: You know, we played at one of the the shows
Speaker 1: in Waikiki, and he was Alfred Opaca's music director and
Speaker 1: also the ranger of music director for what he calls,
Speaker 1: and he was an incredible musician vocalist. For example, we'd
Speaker 1: be driving towards Waikiki and I would have the Hawaiian
Speaker 1: radio going down, or I would stick in a a cassette.
Speaker 1: Well sometimes um, when the song came up, he would
Speaker 1: start humming an obligato part, just making it up, and
Speaker 1: I go, oh my god. Well, and yet I hear
Speaker 1: that on Alfred the Paca albums and also what he
Speaker 1: calls these the single note obligado parts. You know that
Speaker 1: we'ves through the melody and the chord. I don't know
Speaker 1: what obligato means. Well, abligado is a line. Well, like
Speaker 1: I said, it weaves between the melody and so on,
Speaker 1: so it kind of harmonizes at some point. But it's
Speaker 1: also a sort of like a vocal riff. It would
Speaker 1: be like the cello line in the in in an orchestra,
Speaker 1: Hollywood orchestra playing this line down below, or the violence,
Speaker 1: you know, all of the violence playing this this one
Speaker 1: line behind the singer. That's an obligado. Also, you know,
Speaker 1: if somebody was singing or something, he would say, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, he would chuck. I said, you know that person,
Speaker 1: and these stories would come out. He said, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, let me tell you about you know, and
Speaker 1: then go WHOA. Some of these things I better not
Speaker 1: leak out that. You know, they're not good stories, not
Speaker 1: for the person that if a lot of people revere them.
Speaker 1: But but you know, it's like, oh yeah, Benny, you're
Speaker 1: sharing all these stories with me. You know, I love it.
Speaker 1: You know, um he and the Alfred Apaca group, you know,
Speaker 1: the Hawaiian village Serenaders under Henry J. Kaiser, they traveled
Speaker 1: a lot, and so they would meet a lot of people,
Speaker 1: you know, Andy Williams or sat More whatever. So Benny
Speaker 1: met him and you know, he had his opinions about
Speaker 1: each one of them and say, wow, this guy was
Speaker 1: he was the nicest guy, you know, and so on,
Speaker 1: and this guy was so down to earth it. You know,
Speaker 1: I was like, wow, I'm you know, I'm hearing it
Speaker 1: from him. The same thing with Jerry Bird. You know,
Speaker 1: he told me many stories like with them. You know,
Speaker 1: the father of bluegrass, Bill Monroe, and he was from
Speaker 1: what I understand, kind of honorary. You know, he was
Speaker 1: a task master and so on. But you know those
Speaker 1: guys in in country land, they used to put pranks
Speaker 1: on on each other. So one time Bill Monroe walked
Speaker 1: up to the mic. He was ready to you know,
Speaker 1: start his show. Jerry Bird put out the mike cable.
Speaker 1: So when we started talking there was nothing. And then
Speaker 1: and then he looked at the side he saw Jerry
Speaker 1: with the mike cable. Yeah, and he's a damn bird.
Speaker 1: You know. Things like that, or or they would go
Speaker 1: up and cut somebody's strings right on stage. They would
Speaker 1: do that on stage. Yeah, I've seen Jerry doo it.
Speaker 1: I've seen it. He did it to another still guitars
Speaker 1: in Hawaii. That's what they did in you know, country
Speaker 1: Land in Nashville, and song you know, and and so
Speaker 1: so you know all these stories, you know, I I
Speaker 1: remember and and or even um Jena Calvia Anti Jenna,
Speaker 1: she had many stories too. Of course I had my
Speaker 1: own experiences with different entertainers, gosh, so many. I was
Speaker 1: wondering if if maybe you could um play us through
Speaker 1: some of uh, maybe some some of your favorite players,
Speaker 1: some of your favorite songwriters or or people that were
Speaker 1: influential to you, anything that you could, you know, show
Speaker 1: us on the on the still guitar that would help
Speaker 1: us get a sense of maybe some of the influence
Speaker 1: you've had add or some of the history of the
Speaker 1: of the craft writing for that instrument. Well, let me
Speaker 1: let me switch still guitars. UM funny because this is
Speaker 1: a different tuning, so I won't have to change totally
Speaker 1: change the tuning on the one I had. Um, So,
Speaker 1: what tunings have we used today? You did some C six,
Speaker 1: some D nine, A A six, This is a B
Speaker 1: E leven. Now this canopus still guitars from Japan and
Speaker 1: it was given to me back in seven by the Um,
Speaker 1: the owner of the company. In fact, he gave me
Speaker 1: almost his whole line of still guitars, you know, just different,
Speaker 1: you know, from single neck to triple neck to acoustic
Speaker 1: and so you know I I used that I like
Speaker 1: to still guitars. Yeah, yeah, Well here's the song I
Speaker 1: remember hearing UM on an album called Evening in the
Speaker 1: Islands featuring two still guitarists, Barney Isaacs and Eddie Pang.
Speaker 1: While one played the other one played driffs for fields.
Speaker 1: Out of all albums I heard that featured more than
Speaker 1: one still guitarist playing together, yeah, tour more, this is
Speaker 1: probably the finest for because of the blend both still
Speaker 1: guitars blen very well. Um. The tone of the instruments
Speaker 1: are very similar. And the churches songs. Oh I loved it.
Speaker 1: Here's one song. It's called Hannah you no oop So
Speaker 1: sorry that's it to me? Okay, yeah, that's more like it.
Speaker 1: Or so that's one song. Another song, UM. The first
Speaker 1: song was called Paradise Farm. This song is called Hula Heaven,
Speaker 1: which is a recording UM done by Joelsasi who was
Speaker 1: one of my great influences, Uh, I mean my influences
Speaker 1: were like again, Um, the early one was David Fete
Speaker 1: Rogers and his uncle Benny Rodgers. Then of course Jerry
Speaker 1: Bird and then um Julsa See from what he calls
Speaker 1: huge influence. And you know I got to play with
Speaker 1: two members of what you calls. You know, I played
Speaker 1: at the Helekulani for twenty three years, so um, it
Speaker 1: was my trio and these two guys played with me.
Speaker 1: They were much older than me. They knew a lot
Speaker 1: of songs. And then that style Joosa See style fit
Speaker 1: in with their style because why they all played together
Speaker 1: and what you calls and the Alfred the Packet show.
Speaker 1: So I could play to my heart stay like you
Speaker 1: know all you know, the Julsa See style. But then
Speaker 1: when I went anti Gennal, you know, on another night
Speaker 1: of the same week, I would change through the Benny
Speaker 1: Roger style like a chameleon changing colors. And why because
Speaker 1: it's a feel thing. I felt that playing that's a
Speaker 1: certain style with a certain group made a big difference,
Speaker 1: huge difference. So oh, here's another song. I guess, um,
Speaker 1: this is the one that people ask for and it
Speaker 1: goes something like this is called whispering lullaby. Ah, so
Speaker 1: it's it's all harmonics on the single string, which mean lullaby.
Speaker 1: And I'd like to play this one, um, something from
Speaker 1: the twenties. Yeah, and so on, go to Tall Street. Reg.
Speaker 1: I should ask you this earlier, but you want to
Speaker 1: just explain what Hawaii Calls was? How About Your Calls
Speaker 1: was a show that was broadcast for about forty years
Speaker 1: from pre war all the week to about nine. It
Speaker 1: was a showcase of the talent in the Islands. They
Speaker 1: had top musicians and every week, every broadcast, weekly broadcast,
Speaker 1: they would have a different show, different lineup of songs.
Speaker 1: At one point there were a lot of stations across
Speaker 1: the United States that would er what he calls. Of
Speaker 1: course it probably would be one week later. So they
Speaker 1: would have these large, large discs, you know transcriptions. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that would be sent out all over and even in Japan.
Speaker 1: I remember a friend saying, as a kid, I guess
Speaker 1: this was in the fifties, he would run home just
Speaker 1: in time to sit in front of the radio to
Speaker 1: listen to what he calls? How are he calls? Uh?
Speaker 1: Featured Alfred Opaca, I mean the great voices, Uh, how
Speaker 1: by Danny Kinni lau Benny Kalama. I mean, the list
Speaker 1: goes on and on. Oh I know one of the
Speaker 1: singers um was snatched up by Arthur Godfrey beautiful voice
Speaker 1: and he says, oh, would you like to go back
Speaker 1: to New York with me? So she sang on his
Speaker 1: his show. Yeah, many many fine fine players and artists
Speaker 1: the top and then they would come out with this
Speaker 1: these songs and sometimes even introduced songs. It became so
Speaker 1: popular that Hollywood or the international actors are artists would
Speaker 1: come to the show and so the m c Webley
Speaker 1: Edwards would introduce him and called him up to the
Speaker 1: stage and they would say a few words. So it
Speaker 1: was quite a popular show in this heyday. UM. And
Speaker 1: you know the government at that time, the territory government
Speaker 1: did support it. Why because it brought people to what
Speaker 1: and and then later on, you know what, the advent
Speaker 1: of TV, television and and so on. You know, the
Speaker 1: radio started to go down, yeah, downhill, and so you
Speaker 1: know what, you cause kind of lost its audience even
Speaker 1: though they tried to do a TV special, but yeah,
Speaker 1: they to keep up. So it finally closed. But but
Speaker 1: still the music, the recordings are. Oh, there's so many
Speaker 1: recordings out there, LPs and and their masterpieces, great singing,
Speaker 1: great music, arrangements by Benny Klama. Still guitar, Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: lots of still guitar. And they had the best Josassie Barney,
Speaker 1: Isaac's um. They had j K. Lee called, they had
Speaker 1: David Kitley who was the first still guitarist. They also
Speaker 1: had Eddie Pang for a little while, Danny Stewart UM,
Speaker 1: Joe Christino, Jerry Bird. Yeah, the top still guitarists. I
Speaker 1: want to ask you. We kind of covered this a
Speaker 1: little bit, but um, what is what's the mission of
Speaker 1: your school? And what what all do you teach? What
Speaker 1: other instruments do you teach, including still guitar. Kick Coola
Speaker 1: Millery was started because I could see that other ukulele schools,
Speaker 1: we're not really teaching Hawaiian. They were teaching everything else
Speaker 1: along with, you know, using the uk le as a
Speaker 1: primary instrument. Maybe they're they're learning, um, some rock and
Speaker 1: roll song, you know, some song on nukual ele that
Speaker 1: has four chords, rock and roll style chords, you know, one, six,
Speaker 1: four or five, and that's it. So I said, yeah,
Speaker 1: I want to bring back some of the old songs,
Speaker 1: some of the songs that talk about the islands, you know,
Speaker 1: like like being power points of the past. So so
Speaker 1: in my class, the way I have a design for
Speaker 1: my uk l A classes is that every six months
Speaker 1: I produced new songs, and then I teach them about
Speaker 1: the islands, about the lifestyle, about the culture through the songs,
Speaker 1: even history through the songs. Or I'll even take out
Speaker 1: a map and say, okay, do you know where such
Speaker 1: and such a place is, Especially for the young ones,
Speaker 1: you have no clue. Second show them and then I
Speaker 1: let them interact, you know, and they say, oh, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: my grandmother lives out there, you know, you know, things
Speaker 1: like that. So because very concrete for them, you know,
Speaker 1: I wanted to learn about the Hawaii they live in.
Speaker 1: And I don't care if they're they're from Hawaii or not,
Speaker 1: because you know, there there's a military base here, and
Speaker 1: I have students whose parents are military, so they can
Speaker 1: learn about the Hawaii they live in and wherever they
Speaker 1: moved to next perhaps they'll always remember that or they'll
Speaker 1: share it with somebody else. I have still guitar classes
Speaker 1: as well. I teach all the instruments, guitar upbrak Bass.
Speaker 1: I mean, I have a girl who was a third
Speaker 1: grader and when her sister plays still guitar, and when
Speaker 1: I took them to a still guitar festival, the Momi
Speaker 1: Still Guitar Festival years ago, people couldn't believe that. When
Speaker 1: we're in a john session, so you know, we're playing
Speaker 1: the song and then we change keys. The third grade
Speaker 1: of change keys too with and she was right on
Speaker 1: the beat. Amazing. Yeah, And and so she's become quite
Speaker 1: a legend, you know, amongst many of you know, many people,
Speaker 1: especially if somebody makes the mistakes, she looks at them,
Speaker 1: she glares so so you know, like they're afraid of her,
Speaker 1: you know. They so they said, oh you don't tell this,
Speaker 1: don't make a mistake, She'll look at you. Now she's
Speaker 1: in the sixth grade. So in anyway, Um, so, I
Speaker 1: I have a lot of vocalello students I have. I
Speaker 1: have a lot of still guitarist students around the world,
Speaker 1: true skype. And then I have classes. Um I have
Speaker 1: three classes beginning to intermediate and advance, and then many
Speaker 1: private students that come here to to learn the art
Speaker 1: of the still guitar. And then I have many different
Speaker 1: levels from you know, beginner all the way to a
Speaker 1: pretty done good not able to take the stage that good.
Speaker 1: It seems like, Uh, I think it's such incredible work.
Speaker 1: I mean, really just patching young people into a legacy
Speaker 1: and just letting beautiful music just flourish in the world
Speaker 1: instead of you know, fizzle out in the past. I mean,
Speaker 1: I really think that it's important. And I also think
Speaker 1: teaching music is like teaching magic. I mean, it's it's
Speaker 1: as close to real magic as there is. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: another thing too, is what music you can work on. Creativity,
Speaker 1: release your energenious you know that thing about you know,
Speaker 1: reading tabs and learning tabs, memorizing tabs. That's fine. But
Speaker 1: then again I tell him, close your book once you
Speaker 1: learn it, close your book and feel the song. Don't
Speaker 1: worry about all the notes on the music. Don't even
Speaker 1: worry about the rhythm. It's whatever you feel. And you know,
Speaker 1: I see people playing something and and and they're they're
Speaker 1: putting in their own touch or their own rhythmic pattern
Speaker 1: in there um and and I just smile or or
Speaker 1: or they'll go off on the tangent and come back.
Speaker 1: And and that's great because that's working on creativity the
Speaker 1: right brain. UM. I noticed some of those who are
Speaker 1: retired lawyers, engineers, um surgeons, they have a rough time.
Speaker 1: Their left brain is very well developed. The right brain, however,
Speaker 1: isn't and they struggle. But you know, little by little
Speaker 1: they they kind of get up there. But it's interesting
Speaker 1: to see the difference. And then you have children who
Speaker 1: just absorbed like sponges. It's a start of satisfaction for me,
Speaker 1: really is so you know, going out putting in volunteer
Speaker 1: work too, to coordinate and operate these still guitar festivals too,
Speaker 1: to make it available to the public, both young and old.
Speaker 1: You know, the starts of joy. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: I come back and I'm like ready to not for
Speaker 1: twelve hours. But we're making the still guitar more visible.
Speaker 1: We're exposing many people to it. And the great thing
Speaker 1: is it's free and open to the public. The workshops,
Speaker 1: the concerts, they're all free. The jam sessions now, so
Speaker 1: you know, a little by little we're bringing still guitar
Speaker 1: back to the island. So the man who wrote to
Speaker 1: me about still guitared that I had mentioned that one
Speaker 1: of my students was playing. He says, I'm interested in
Speaker 1: that one. So I sent him a link. It's here.
Speaker 1: Check it out. Um. There, it's a great sounding still
Speaker 1: guitar for an incredibly low price. I said, Yeah, I
Speaker 1: I recommend this to others too. You know, there's certain
Speaker 1: still guitars still guitar brands that I particularly like, And
Speaker 1: depending on someone's budget, I'll tell him which way to go,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean there are so many still guitar
Speaker 1: manufacturers out there. Really, there's a lot, and there's some
Speaker 1: that that I really like because of the tone that
Speaker 1: comes out of the instrument. Yeah, there's some others that
Speaker 1: maybe it would be better for maybe rock or or
Speaker 1: or some other music, but not for Hawaiian. And then
Speaker 1: same like with the amplifiers. You know, I recommend amplifiers too.
Speaker 1: If somebody is asking, so I say, you know, this
Speaker 1: one would be if you have six strings, this one
Speaker 1: is an excellent amplifier. It could fit in your suitcase,
Speaker 1: you could travel around with it, and so on. If
Speaker 1: you want something for an eight string, I would recommend
Speaker 1: this many amplifier. Uh. And and you know I have
Speaker 1: a lot of amplifiers to you know, um in my garage,
Speaker 1: I have in my room and in my garage. So
Speaker 1: you know, I I've tried a number of them. Yeah,
Speaker 1: even at the festivals, I or I should say at conventions.
Speaker 1: I tried a number of different amplifiers, and so you know,
Speaker 1: I kind of know what I like and what I
Speaker 1: don't like. For Hawaiian music, it seems like you've lived
Speaker 1: in an incredible and are living an incredible life. Uh.
Speaker 1: And uh that it's for like good thing that the
Speaker 1: still guitar and you found each other. Yeah. I think
Speaker 1: it was meant to me because you know, even when
Speaker 1: I was in the ninth grade, I had decided that
Speaker 1: I wanted to become a music teacher. You know, my
Speaker 1: band Instructor was an influence on me too, and so
Speaker 1: I did become you know, I got my degree, you
Speaker 1: know UM in music AD and then administration UM. But
Speaker 1: I taught music all those years and was still teaching music.
Speaker 1: It's started like my contribution to society, especially for Hawaiian society,
Speaker 1: to teach music. I mean there's a lot of teachers,
Speaker 1: you know, teaching language, teaching UM protocol you know for Hawaii,
Speaker 1: teaching hula or even teaching slacky or teaching you know,
Speaker 1: singing and so on. But for me, it's it's more
Speaker 1: like ensemble solo working ensemble with the steal guitar, with
Speaker 1: songs that I grew up with are played with these
Speaker 1: old timers, these legends, bringing out those songs because if
Speaker 1: if I don't, you know, it might die, it might
Speaker 1: fade away. I mean, we lost so many songs already.
Speaker 1: I'm sure you know. So these are songs that that
Speaker 1: tell the story. Yeah, they tell a storry and and
Speaker 1: I think it's good to know you who knows. Maybe
Speaker 1: you know one of my sermons might say that's my family,
Speaker 1: that's my family's place, or really, you know, that's amazing.
Speaker 1: We've had everything on my list. I mean, I was
Speaker 1: just curious if if you would, you know, play a
Speaker 1: song on the way out. Okay, ready, so here's a
Speaker 1: song called I want to go back to my little
Speaker 1: grass shack to take him to talk to the food,
Speaker 1: get time to take eating. It's lovely. Okay anyway, Okay,
Speaker 1: my next student is yere No. Thank you so much
Speaker 1: for your time. Thank you for everything that you're doing.
Speaker 1: Most of the serio, I think that the work that
Speaker 1: you do is super important and great. I really appreciate
Speaker 1: all the time that you gave us today. Thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you, my pleasure. Take care of them. As we
Speaker 1: say in Hawaii, Aloha Aloha mahallo m our. Deepest thanks
Speaker 1: to Alan Acaca and to steel guitar historian John Troutman
Speaker 1: for making the introduction. Learn about upcoming stew guitar festivals
Speaker 1: at high La dot org and lessons via Scarpe at
Speaker 1: Kola La dot org. Links to all this and more
Speaker 1: at our website, Ephemeral dot Show. For more podcasts from
Speaker 1: my Heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. How about
Speaker 1: out That? Oh? How Pretty? Get it Yet? Thank you
Speaker 1: ladies and gentles. Thank you guys. Love, Elena kaka h