Slack key guitar gets its name from the way the strings of the guitar are loosened, or “slacked”, from the standard tuning. “Kî hô 'alu” is the Hawaiian word for slack key which literally means “loosen the strings”. The thumb plays the bass while the other fingers play the melody and improvisation.
Slack Key Guitar Tunings
Many different tunings are produced in slack key guitar, usually containing a major chord or a chord with a major 7th note. A 6th note is often included as well. The different tunings produce lingering sounds behind the melody with a characteristic resonance.
Slack key guitarists often accompany hula dancing and singing using a steady, rhythmic, finger picking style. The guitar is tuned up or down to match the vocal range of the singer. The songs are typically played at medium tempo to the theme of love and nostalgia.
Six Keys of Slack Key Tuning
Lacking capos which allow the same guitar fingerings in a higher key, Hawaiians developed tunings in six keys. The different tunings of the guitar were given names, such as “taro patch”, and “manua loa”. Taro patch is a popular G Major tuning that retunes the standard Spanish tuning (E-A-D-G-B-E) to D-G-D-G-B-D. Manua loa is where the top two pitches are tuned a wide fifth interval apart. Wahine tuning contains a major 7th note.
In all, the different tunings developed by the Hawaiians are divided into five basic categories: Major, Wahine, Mauna Loa, Ni’ihau/Old Mauna Loa, and miscellaneous.
In the past, slack key guitar players often guarded the secret tunings they had developed, handing them down to family or friends. Today it is not unusual for slack key guitarists to turn away from the audience while tuning so no one will be able to copy their style.
These individual slack key tunings produce melodic and harmonic patterns called “runs” or “vamps”, and become a starting point for improvisation and composition. “Kaholo” is the Hawaiian word both for the slack key vamp and the transitional phase of a hula.
Slack Key Guitar Techniques
There are several common playing techniques and ornaments important to the slack key guitar playing style. “Hammering-on” and “pulling-off” are used to mimic the yodels and falsettos found in Hawaiian singing.
Harmonics, or “chiming” (called Ho’opapa in Hawaiian), are where strings are lightly touched at specific vibration nodes without touching the fretboard. Slides are where one or two treble notes are cleffed and then slid (usually up) to sound another note. All these contribute to the unique slack key sound associated with the Hawaiian feeling of aloha.
Like the blues guitar, slack key guitar is extremely flexible and reflects the individualism of Hawaiian culture. It is common for a guitarist to play the same song differently each time using different tunings and tempos. Each slack key guitarist will play the instrument and their repertoire differently than another, adding to the diversity of the sound.
Types of Slack Key Guitar
There are four types of slack key guitar. The first is the simple style, most often seen in older playing styles, like that of the late Auntie Alice Namakalua.
The second is a sort of “slack key jazz”, noted for its use of improvisation by artists like Atta Isaacs, Cyril Pahinui, Ledwad Kaapana, Moses Kahumoku, George Kuo, and Ozzie Kotani.
The third type of slack key guitar uses ornaments discussed above, like hammering-on and pulling-off, techniques used by Sonny Chillingworth, Ray Kane, and George Kuo.
The fourth type is the performance-oriented slack key style featuring visual as well as sound techniques. These include playing with the forearm, with a bag over the fretting hand, and the “needle and thread technique” where the guitarist dangles a needle across the strings hung from a thread held between the teeth. This creates a sound something like a mandolin or a hammered dulcimer.
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