20TH ANNUAL HAWAIIAN SLACK KEY GUITAR FESTIVAL "MAUI STYLE"

Maui

Maui Arts & Cultural Center
One Cameron Way
Kahului, HI  
www.slackkeyfestival.com

Dates

June 26, 2011 1:00pm - 7:00pm

Description

Festival will be celebrating it's 20th Year on the island of Maui.  As in the past, festival will feature 15 plus artists that are known in the Slack Key Guitar Genre.  Also at the festival will be island products, island cuisine, community booths, and festival merchandise.  Also, attendees will have a chance to win free prizes and signup for a free guitar giveaway.   FestivaL is free to the general public.  For information call (808) 226-2697 or email:  kihoalufoundationinc@yahoo.com

Slack Key Guitar aka Ki-hoalu is a guitar art form that originated in Hawaii over 180 years ago on the island of Hawaii around 1830.  The guitar was brought to Hawaii by Mexican Vaqueros and before leaving Hawaii for their home they left their guitar (s) as gifts to the Hawaiians they befriended.  Since the Hawaiians were never given lessons to play or tune the guitar, they experimented and ultimately ended up tuning the guitar in a non-trational way.  Thus, instead of tuning the guitar in the traditionally western way (EADGBE), they "Slacked" the strings and ended up with a major chord and began their unique playing where the thumb played the bass and the other extremities picked the melody line.  Some of the more popular tunings was the Taro Patch Tuning DGDGBD.  Tunings have since grown to dozens of creative tunings.  In other parts of the world Ki-hoalu (Slack Key) is known as "Alternate Tunings".  The festival features artists who specialize in these alternate tunings or slack key tunings.  The tunings offer a bigger and fuller sound to the guitar.