e [Music] [Music] [Music] for the longest time I was I thought oh you know anybody could pretty much uh who play guitar could pick it up it's after I worked with people who shred in standard or or can play Circles and site readed and all that then I started to get into hey wait a minute you cannot place like me so that was great to to to understand that it's a special skill you know and and that's why I passed on the music that I was taught yeah [Music] C7 for me it's more than teaching I'm here to inspire people to get involved in arts get involved in culture get involved in Hawaiian language and if me being here inspires just one person to pursue art or to get involved then that's very fulfilling for me F F [Music] minor slow down good [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] fore for [Music] [Music] Danny [Music] cavalo I see I see [Music] all right go that [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] in fore [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] I my it's fun because you know it's a constant M Musical Extravaganza for us as musicians after the show we sat and and played music backstage for until the we hours of the morning and it's it's for those moments uh that uh that I really love you just want to have a pece of Everybody by playing with them that's how you get your passion or your satisfaction oh I got to play with sir or I got to play with Uncle Richard or I got to play with Mariel you know I got to play with this guy I got to play with Jeff I got to play with Nathan AV you [Music] know in the spring of 2001 I was the artistic director ctor of a tour of Hawaiian musicians that went around the islands and one of our stops was WEA at the kahilu theater it was a very satisfying event and at the end Janet curn the director of the theater at kahilu met me in the lobby said Gee wouldn't it be great to have another event like this and maybe even a little longer with a few more musicians so instead of just one concert instead of one school program let's try to have a few more concerts let's try to have some more school programs let's maybe even offer some workshops next thing you know the first ukulele and slacky guitar Institute was held at the kahilu theater in why may its core purpose is education and exchanging of information between artists and Artisan students [Music] G yeah see and you so you're playing playing with an [Music] accord right oh yeah it's a great opportunity for Slack Key guitarists and ukulele players and Hawaiian musicians from around the state to get together and share their aloha and mon with the different uh students and the community here Ina really simple and sweet that is suddenly is solo is a whole new thing it's not just randomly picking notes creating Melodies it's great atmosphere of sharing that we don't get to do in Honolulu Jeff and I was just saying it's great to you know it's great to see you we can talk and VOA a little bit when I'm on a waho there lots of other musicians around but everyone's usually work working so much we never get a chance to see each other and so sitting down here and being together for a good 5 days all staying at the Cella Inn you know sometimes concerts break out in the rooms or in the parking [Music] lot atmosphere up here is just so exciting invigorating to be with all these great musicians and great singers before we get a sound check we're all in the back plane I'll take out my ukul go in the corner or Jeff will bring out his guitar Jeff Peterson and Uncle Richard is in pi out the ukul sings then he goes and performs then we come back to the hotel comes upstairs and you know we have some poo poos and he takes out say everybody Cal's playing everybody arst playing everybody so and to get to know these people it's been wonderful I just I hope this never ends I just hope hope it never [Music] ends oo [Music] [Applause] [Music] May Al [Music] [Applause] [Music] can we get a little more sassy now [Music] BBY you just got to put your H in [Music] [Music] [Music] ladies and gentlemen Pap EO joee [Music] Chino ladies and gentlemen chinoo mono there are musicians of different Generations so you have older musicians you have middle musicians and then you have the young musicians and this ability to interact is so enriching for the individual and for the cultural [Music] tradition I spent some time with um talking to Benny Chong that was great you know and it's great to hear his viewpoint on why a young player should understand Theory and the way he explains it is it's it's it's great it's it's not hard schooling anywhere once you start learning the different positions you're going to learn where all the notes are on your ukulele you know so that helps you embellish what you want to do I like to teach workshops where you don't feel like you're just there uh as you know part of a whole bunch of people and you get lost in the crowd I like to try to connect with each student and if there's any one particular thing that I can find whether it's maybe a technical issue or someone needs help with um playing chords or developing tone or sound or really knowing you know the meaning behind a song I try to single out people and walk around the room and I'll give people something to work on and then let them be for a little bit well that's right cuz it's it's open [Music] now I've had uh students in my classes over the years during The Institute that are music teachers and they are they're very knowledgeable in music but the ukulele the form so simple yet it's so complicated so so it's that's what I love about my class is very comfortable very open people are free to make mistakes people are free to ask questions to participate and that's what I love just to have a group of people that want to learn and want to share that's that's important and that's what I try to get a lot participation in my class CL and ask questions make mistakes it's okay now what I'm doing is playing the F and then we add the third fret so we get this sound listen Okay helping the people it doesn't matter what age learn music and applying it to the instrument of their choice is what I want to do I love doing that it doesn't matter what age you are and it doesn't matter if if you all want to just play one chord and learn how to strum one chord and that's their accomplishment I'm happy I've done my job but if they want to get to the next cord I'm going to teach them a little bit more that's why I have fun last you you should have seen I was dancing around I was standing up okay now let's play uh Court progression turnarounds and I was doing turnarounds and I said no no come get the feeli get the feeli you know I mean it's not just it's not like you know I got and then they started jumping up and down with the whole class go go like this and then he started playing and I was laughing and they were laughing and he said oh man this was fun this was fun I said it's not only playing the chords it's how you play it in the field you know so so you know you know everything is added on you know just add it on so once that's why before you can add on anything I think you should learn what the major and wonder cords are and what you do with the third and fifth that determines the whole Contex of the C so when it becomes to figuring out hey take it man you know what to do I mean I know it sounds impossible but it is the c chord is a c chord so when you go in there and somebody's singing a pretty Hawaiian song and you and they're playing it in C and you play your c chord and you try to emulate what the the beat is the feel is and so if somebody's playing uh a different like uh we played together Muriel and Jeff and I played the Blue Monk a little Blues you know so I'm listening to her and I didn't know the song but then all of a sudden I start to get get into it I you just try you know we just have this feeling of just doing it just go for it you know [Music] we play all different types of music you know it's just like eating you got to eat all kind of different yeah you [Music] know music was meant to break barriers down a lot of people is putting their barriers back up now and it's not that's not right you know and M like Benny said music is music every year I come here I learn something new from from other musicians it's a sharing of cultures and I've been happy to share some of my techniques that I've come up with with some of the players here and I'm bringing back with me uh some new techniques and some new sounds in my ears as well it's just a wonderful opportunity for people who know each other but maybe have never sat down and played together really to get to know each other and I always go home Having learned a lot and feeling huge inspiration and also feeling good about uh reaching students and you know it's great that they can be a part of it and we even one night we invite students to join the kapila they come up on stage [Music] you you know I don't think enough people realize that yes music is an art it is a craft but it's also a very important Bridge it's a bridge to a past it's a bridge to people in between individuals cultures communities and if you lose that touch to your Trad traditional music you lose a [Music] lot to me the only way you can understand a culture without even learning the languages listen to the music and then you're going to find out we're the same we're all the same the universal language of the world is music you can be anywhere in the world play a play an instrument Stranger in a Str Strange Land you start playing music friends you're going to make friends right away you know it's just that barrier just goes right away you can tell how a how a person feels how a culture feels a concept of music from different areas that you visit and they know exactly how you feel where you're from you know especially that sweet Hawaiian music whether it's a steel or slacky when you play and they start crying they don't even know the language they don't know the music you know that they feel the same way it all comes from the heart you know little bit Hawaiian holdown it's called aiss Ka which means kiss me [Music] bab all right Danny [Music] w for [Music] now for [Music] [Music] baby any [Music] for [Music] [Applause] thank [Applause] you you know doing this Workshop you know have all these artists even from Leber kapana uh Dennis kamakai Azie you know Jeff Peterson and we all and also uh Chino you know but we all play in different TS and we play how we feel but the main the main thing we have that that howai [Applause] [Music] feeling just wanting to play It's the passion of wanting to play uh I'm a contemporary player but basically as as you know but when I hear Hawaiian music which I haven't played much in my life except for more on the modern side uh you know Progressive side when I hear C play or o Otani play or uh Richard H singing like that I want to have a piece of that action I want to want to have a little I want to go in there and and strum a few chords to see if I can emulate that feeling of the type of music that they play if you love music okay first of all if you love music you're going to be kind of interested what this guy doing and to have all these artists and we looking at we talk we we Old Times we're friends you know I mean there's no nothing that oh I don't want you to play no do you we do whatever we can do you know and when we we pick a song we share all the souls and what this does help help us to what we can give to our a new generation [Music] today my biggest goal is um know continue my dad's Legacy to me is uh uh he opened the doors for me and uh I like to say you know I could be like my dad but there's only one Gabby you know [Music] [Music] and my master was Daddy a Isaac's Sunny Chim work my was like 8 n years old and wherever my my dad performed my mother you should tell me daddy take the boy with you and you know from then on I watch I listen you know and that was my school eyes and ears you know the old school they say and today this is new for me doing Workshop teaching you [Music] know nice yeah see that's but get the feel get the feeling of playing I mean once you know the ca perfect we can do just about any song and like I say you can set your own Temple like when I find myself time trouble Mother Mary comes to me speaking words of wisdom let it be and in the hour of Darkness she's standing right in front of me there will be a answer let it [Music] be let it be let it be let it when I study with sunny you I see with sunny in the um in his uh uh kitchen and I he sits on the table and I watch and listen that's all you use your eyes and your ears that's the old way and you copy and you copy and you can you do that again what you did right there what your fingers there and and he was patient enough to show me and so it's an AO tradition so it it lends itself to all sorts of styles and that's the beauty of it and on top of that you you put in the use of various tunings and these are historical tunings these are tunings that are passed on from two generations within a family you know that's what happened with leedward and um Uncle Fred punahoa and that whole Kalapana style of playing Uncle Fred us to call his song just press he's to call his song just press I I to ask him Uncle why you call this song just press cuz he never know what key they was so everything was just press so as I was playing with him I was pressing he looked at me he says press the right key I say oh he said press so you know me I press anything [Music] n [Music] he [Applause] [Music] all [Music] right Michaela letter kaana justess ledward kaana Mike K when I first started I had no access to teachers I had no access to knowledge the only knowledge I could um come up with was playing with my friends every day at SCH school on my 15th birthday uh dad did the slacky festival in Kawai and so he invited me on stage to play a song and which I didn't know he could play yeah at all I was totally blank you know I I looked at him I said you play you know and uh you know like a fool he doesn't say anything and I'm teaching him all these cours and yeah you do this and that and you know when music is really going you know just a Groove is going and you kind of lose track of who's on stage with you so I just turned to him and said take a solo and he going what and he said go ahead take a solo you know and uh you know he said okay so he start ripping on theele I was so shocked I stopped the song put my guitar down grabbed the mic I stood up and I turned to him and I said where did you learn that and the audience laugh and we couldn't get the audience back you know the attention back because it was so funny [Music] well brother Richard you know and and being with him and his Leo his father fettle style of singing has always um always have it's always been a wonderment for me you know especially when it was with his brother saw and and um being on stage with him and how gracious he is when he performs how how attuned to the importance of recognizing the spirit of what we do as as performers that's where always both um Richard and saw were proponents so but when and wherever they [Music] perform losing my brother three and a half years ago always when I was on stage I think about him because of the the medes we do and the the tune and and the spontaneous changes of chords and he just remind me of that he sings uh almost like my my brother Solomon and uh they say his sing almost like Richard hope he the dad so it is a great experience for me and I I'm very proud and happy that one of my childrens can follow that trait it's an honor to be next to my dad for he's he's a man of you know inspires me in music music first of all um I'm just very honored to have a dad besides and for me I think I I'm I'm still doing my homework in music but I think I'm proven to that that this is what I want to do and carry on this you know Legacy of of of the whole Brothers now that you you see now Father and Son which was my dad's dream I I I'm pretty sure now we we're he's living the dream and and I'm there to live it with him I'll see his face [Music] [Music] I have two sons kalai and kananu um back in Hilo and they already own their own ukes practicing uh yeah I do I do teach them I I do think of what I do is I think of when dad used to tell me you know this you want to learn or you know you want to play so I let them I like they pick up the UK and they want they ask me they they want to play music so that's that's that's good for me you know and I teach them what I know yeah and hopefully you know it will come out to turn out father and son in the future [Music] here we have this tradition here in Hawaii and if we don't act soon to to gather as much information and share that information with each other as musicians um these of course as we always say these these um aspects of our culture these Jews of our culture will be lost and so yes that that's what this this has afforded me at least and then hearing all the other stories from the other musicians as we share at night you know and and then we get on stage and have fun um yeah you just can't uh I mean you can't pay for this I think I don't know this next song tells about the kpuna of this place called wonderful Bia and Saul and I used to do this repertoire of song and it's called the way up rough writer in the h e style and we send this song out to the cow girl that's that's there and and the cowboy that's on the top over there and to all the rest of you to sit back relax and put on the bandan so the dust don't get in your eyes [Music] [Music] who [Music] ho ho [Music] [Applause] o [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] lady ho [Music] holy [Music] holy thank you I love you [Applause] Mahal Mahal Mahal Mahal thank you thank you very much you I want to thank [Music] you once again from the Big Island letter c [Music] [Music] all [Music] hold [Music] Kila for [Music] [Music] my [Music] [Applause] [Music] H [Music] Hal oh [Music] our Trade Winds Come Away [Music] oh h [Music] hee [Music] h for [Music] [Laughter] better oh yeah [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] he [Music] [Music] all right [Applause]