Customer Reviews

Mel Bay Learn to Play Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar

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4 star:		(2)
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If you are looking to get into Hawaiian Slack Key this is a great start. I would have liked to have a DVD instead of just an audio cd. Keola gives alot of background info on Hawaiian culture, music, and the feelings associated with musical expression in Hawaii. I would say though that I would have liked the book to dig in a little deeper with some of the tunings, offer a few more songs, that way it would really be a onestop book. However, as it is there are many songs to learn and one will need explore further to really build a good song base. Easy to follow book. If you want to get started get this book and get going!

Slack-Key Guitar music, unique to Hawaii, is beautiful. It's not only something I love listening to, but something I'm wanting to learn to play. In Hawaii, slack-key guitar playing is passed down through the generations. There is a lot of listening, watching and mentoring in the process. I don't live in Hawaii, and I can't learn to play that way, so a book and cd put together by those who are mastering the style is invaluable.

The book shares a good and systematic way of learning Slack Key Techniques. However it would have been good that the recordings in CD are properly numbered based on the sections/examples in the book. Also a video demonstartion CD/DVD could have been much more effective and quick learning than the audio CD provided.