Slack-key guitar or kī hōʻalu (Hawaiian), is a solo guitar style from Hawaii, a subregion of Oceania and state within the United States. Like blues and ragtime, slack-key began as a regional style during the late nineteenth century. Unlike blues and ragtime, ki hōʻalu incubated in relative isolation until the mid-twentieth century. Kī hōʻalu popularity surged outside Hawaii during the late twentieth century, with accomplished players around the world performing slack-key.
The Hawaiian name for this guitar style, kī hōʻalu, means to slack or loosen the tuning keys. Thus, kī hōʻalu entails altering the standard E A D G B E guitar tuning by lowering one or more strings. Typically, the open strings are tuned to sound a G major chord, e.g., D G D G B D. Most guitarists call this tuning open G tuning but in Hawaii it’s poetically referred as Taro Patch tuning.
Although there are dozens of kī hōʻalu tunings, some unique to individual players and pieces, only a handful are in widespread use. After Taro Patch tuning, the Wahine family of open tunings are most commonly used: G Wahine (D G D F♯ B D) and D Wahine (D A D F♯ A C♯). The G Kilauea tuning (D G C G B E), popularized by Daniel Ho, is used for modern pieces and vocal accompaniment due to the harmonic versatility: upper string chord and scale positions are the same as standard guitar tuning but supported with "slack" bass.
Hawaiian Islands | Hawaii is the northernmost island group in Polynesia and the only U.S state located outside North America. | Wikimedia Commons
Finger-Style Guitar
Kī hōʻalu may be described as finger-style guitar. Finger-style technique uses the right hand fingers to simultaneously play both melody and accompaniment, similar to the technique of classical, Delta blues and flamenco guitar. Use of the right-hand thumb to play an alternating-bass pattern against melody and chords plucked with the fingers is characteristic of kī hōʻalu. In contrast, most popular styles of guitar playing use a plectrum to pick individual notes and strum chords.
Like other guitar styles, kī hōʻalu players use techniques such as harmonics, hammer-ons and pull-offs (slurs), slides and strums. Ledward Kaapana makes use of the alternating-bass pattern against melody and most of the above mentioned techniques in the traditional stylings of his Radio Hula/Yellow Ginger Lei piece:
Radio Hula/Yellow Ginger Lei | Ledward Kaapana (4:20)
Slack-key technique is similar to other finger-style guitar styles, but the melody, texture and harmony give kī hōʻalu its unique stylistic hallmarks. During the formation of slack-key’s style in the late nineteenth century, Hawaii was isolated and recorded music didn't exist. Thus, kī hōʻalu’s style flowed from the musical environment of Hawaii: popular Western song and indigenous Hawaiian music, especially hula kuʻi and hīmeni (Hawaiian hymns). Thus, slack-key was steeped in native folkloric and traditional music but also the sounds of Western music.
Popular accounts of kī hōʻalu's origin credit Mexican cowboys, paniolo, with introducing guitars and guitar playing to the Kingdom of Hawaii during the nineteenth century. Paniolo guitar classes didn't exist, so Hawaiian musicians figured out how to play on their own, leading to the creation of an original style and technique. Of course, it wasn’t really that simple and slack-key undoubtedly continued to develop from a wide gamut of musical influences beyond Hawaii, including American and European marches, Christian hymns, solo piano music and popular music from Hawaii’s international population.
Kī hōʻalu was originally played at home for the enjoyment of players, friends and family. It flew under the radar until the second half of the twentieth century and began to transition from a regional to an international style with the first known recording of slack-key by Gabby Pahinui in the late 1940s. Finally, this unique solo guitar style could be heard outside Hawaii.
Interest in kī hōʻalu kicked into high gear during the 1970s, often referred to as the Hawaiian Cultural Renaissance. Traditional slack-key guitarists such Leonard Kwan, Sonny Chillingworth, Gabby Pahinui and Raymond Kāne lead the way for the evolving slack-key styles of the next generation of players such as Keola Beamer, Peter Moon, and Haunani Apoliona.
Jeff Peterson | Grammy award winning kī hōʻalu artist
George Winston’s Dancing Cat Records boosted dissemination of slack-key, igniting careers of solo slack-key guitarists such as Ledward Kaapana, George Kahumoku, Jr, Dennis Kamakahi and Owana Salazar. Tours and articles in magazines such as Acoustic Guitar and Guitar Player bought kī hōʻalu to the attention of the world. The surge in slack-key awareness resulted in teaching of slack-key in studios, workshops, college campuses and music festivals.
Today the distinctive sound of kī hōʻalu is commercialized and appears in movie soundtracks, advertisements, shopping malls, airports, and TV programs. Hawaii’s popularity as an international destination helped perpetuate kī hōʻalu. Slack-key festivals on the continental USA such as the Southern California Slack Key Festival attest to kī hōʻalu popularity beyond our shores. Finally, the awarding of a Grammy in 2005 for the album, “Slack-Key Guitar, Volume 2,” a collection of pieces by Charles Brotman, Ken Emerson, Jeff Peterson and Sonny Linn, marks the official arrival of kī hōʻalu to the musical mainstream of America.
Although the genesis of kī hōʻalu is traditional, it is not frozen in its folkloric origins but, instead, is a living and evolving style with artistic validity for the current day. The younger generation of slack-key players have intermingled the legacy of slack-key with influences of jazz, classical and popular styles, creating music that embodies the spirit and essence of modern Hawaii.
Listen to Grammy Award winning slack-key guitarist Jeff Peterson as he blends slack-key, jazz and classical guitar technique in his composition, Tantalus.
Tantalus | Jeff Peterson (3:16)
Grammy Award winning composer-guitarist Daniel Ho playing an original slack key composition on a Romero Creations Tiny Tenor 6 Guilele:
Maui Dawn | Daniel Ho playing in Kilauea tuning (4:12)
Finally, I would be remiss not to include the slack-key stylings of Leeward CC's own Honybal Sosa:
Maui On My Mind | Jeff Peterson, composer | Honybal Sosa, guitarist | Hawaiian Air used Maui On My Mind as boarding music for many years (4:05).
Final Musings
Kī hōʻalu has an established fan base and roster of players beyond the shores of the islands. With slack-key's recent commercialization in popular media, both economic and artistic motivations are evident, and I expect continued growth of kī hōʻalu for decades to come.
Kī hōʻalu Technique and Style
History of Kī hōʻalu
Hawaiian Cultural Renaissance
Modern Kī hōʻalu
Final Musings 
