The
Slack Key

Kī hōʻalu — “loose key” in Hawaiian — is the name given to the family of open guitar tunings and fingerstyle techniques developed on the Hawaiian islands in the 19th century, after Spanish and Mexican vaqueros brought the first guitars to the archipelago in the 1830s. Hawaiian paniolo cowboys took the instrument, retuned its strings to open chords that resonated like the ʻukulele and ʻukēkē traditions they already knew, and invented a music that exists nowhere else.

The result is a style in which the thumb holds a steady bass line on the lowest strings while the fingers weave melody and harmony above — not unlike how a kora is played, oceans away. Slack key was, for most of its history, a family tradition: specific tunings and songs were passed within individual households and not shared outside them. Today it is widely played, but the intimacy remains — it is still a music for a porch, a breeze, and a long afternoon.

A new piece for this tradition is in preparation. Subscribe on YouTube to be notified when it releases.