We have an official taro tab made by ug professional guitarists. He would occasionally pick up a ukulele or a guitar and sing his favorite hawaiian song, sweet leileihua. Those who are familiar with ukulele chords will find that the same chord shapes will fit these tunings, but that the chords will be transposed and inverted. I also had the thought to play in taro patch on my guitar and capo up 2 frets to a, but it just didnt sound as good, so heres a i v7 song in g instead. Let me introduce you to some slackkey guitar ideas.
This is the ukulele version of the taro patch tuning, the most popular of the many open tunings used by slackkey guitarists. Martin tiple and taro patch examples the unofficial. Mark nelson teaches an original song called taropatch blues. Ive taught workshops internationally, made herb ohta jr. An early ukulele cousin is the taropatch, an instrument with eight strings set in four courses of two strings each, tuned to the standard mydoghasfleas. Ive been fooling around with playing in different keys while using open g tuning and came up with a post that focuses on the playing side of things. G wahine, for example, starts with taro patch and lowers the third string from g to f. Sheet music is available here for over 175 slack key songs and over 40 songs for ukulele and all playing levels.
The idea of the extra strings is to give a more plaintive, slightly chorus like tone. In this tuning, you can use all your familiar chord shapes, but youll obviously need to adjust the firststring fingerings. Fyi mandolin nut width is typically 30mm, and i know that this is problematic for those who prefer a wider nut. Loosening the keys an introduction to slackkeystyle ukulele. Hawaiian vamp taro patch or open g tuning ki hoalu duration. Im not sure when the taropatch term began to be applied to the same notes used on the original ukuleles, but since slack key guitar, even slack key ukulele. Click a chord name to view the corresponding chord chart. The taro patch tuning or g tuning is a favorite of many slack key artists as its. They normally use the same tuning as a standard ukulele. When playing with a guitar in standard tuning, you can read the guitar chords and play the standard ukulele chord patterns. A sixthgrader discovers his familys history with the ukulele. Ki hoalu hawaiian slack key guitar, is a fingerstyle guitar artform created by. I also have a concert, which i like better for some songs.
The taropatch was actually the ancestor of the ukulele in hawaii. Hawaiian slack key guitarist jeff peterson has spent over a decade transcrbing music in standard notation and tablature for slack key guitar and ukulele. Hiilawe taro patch from the artistry of jeff peterson recording. By 1886 the instrument came to be known as the taro patch fiddle and was popular even with the royalty. The taropatch, the name comes from taropatch fiddle and early hawaiian slightly derogatory name for all ukuleles as it was used by the landed anglo settlers to describe the instruments played by the portuguese indentured labour as they worked the taro fields, with its 8 strings in 4 courses, is a very traditional string configuration dating back to the birth of the ukulele itself.
Also can be played solo effectively in the keys of c and d. But since the strings come in pairs known as courses, theres room to get creative. G papa works as a stevedore, mama makes da leis d7 sistah goes with da haole boy g a7d7g she come home any old time. The taro patch tuning or g tuning is a favorite of many slack key artists as its timbre and flexibility are remarkable. If you do not want to learn the ukulele patterns, transpose the guitar chords up a. I thought some folks might be interested in some unusual ukes like the taro patch 8 strings and the tiple 10 strings. Awesome swng to kanikapila with my ohana here in minneapolis. Kalanis hawaiian slackkey taro patch tuning chord chart.
Both of these ukes are martins and made in the mid20s the tiple can be dated to 1925 because it has a serial number. He also explains how improvisation is used in the slack key genre. Sometimes called spanish tuning in mainland america. This opens up the range of the instrument, adding a lower g at the bottom. Jack pitman g e7 little hula flirts in hula skirts a7 winking at the boys in aloha shirts d7 thats the way they do g the aloha week hula g e7 around the island mile by mile a7 take a detour thats hawaiian style d7 thats the way they do g the aloha week hula hui. Open g tuning is my home and has been for the last ten years or more. Also a typical mandolin is not builtbraced for the lower 23 lbs of string tension or even 46 lbs if double courses in uninsons of a soprano uke which would be the closest in scale length to a mandolin, which mandolins are typically built for more like at. The most traditional tuning has the g and c courses tuned in octaves, rather than the exact same note. In terms of the slack key tuning, i like how taro patch sounds so nice, but also shares the tuning of 3 strings next to each other d g b with standard tuning. Start with the basics of taropatch tuning and quickly move up to some fairly complicated slack key songs.
I saw you in my dreams, we were walking hand in hand. I did so partially to make a set of charts that fit my own requirements, but also as a trial run for the software id written to generate arbitrary chord diagrams. Tutu walking in the taro patch a7 a7 clap your hands, the music is grand. The first string a goes down a major second the equivalent of two frets to g, giving you an open c chord. I figured somebody must have done it by now, but all anyone says is look at slackkey guitar. Slackkey guitar is a fingerstyle genre of guitar music that originated in hawaii. With over 60 lessons now online, you can master hawaiian slack key guitar. A short video on what is and what isnt a taropatch ukulele. I tune mine dgcd which is open g, taro patch, et c. Free slack key ukulele chord charts and diagrams gceg. If you are just beginning with us and coming from another guitar style, you might want to begin by. A couple of weeks ago, i released my very own set of standard gcea and baritone dgbe ukulele chord sheets.
Continue reading a sixthgrader discovers his familys history with the ukulele. One week free thanks to, you can now take video lessons with mark online. Wondering what could be there with regard to ukulele. Selected ukulele methods and music, 18941920 177 28. Click on the tab to download the pdf, and watch the reference video to learn to play this piece. Chords for three old time hawaiian slack key guitar tricks. The sound isnt quite so ukuleley as a concert or tenor they dont have recombinant stringing, and they tend to be less plosive. First, to give some background, theres a brief history of the ukulele in hawaii titled the jumping flea, followed by the students project titled the taro patch fiddle.
Common slack key tunings notes used g major or taro patch d g d g b d g wahine d g d f. The most commonly used slackkey guitar tuning is open g taro patch. Those who are familiar with ukulele chords will find that the same chord shapes will fit these tunings, but that the chords will. This means it can reach notes as high as a concert. Start with the basics of taropatch tuning and quickly move up to some fairly. The basic tuning is the same as the 4 string ukulele, gcea.
On guitar, its d g d g b d, low to high, like the delta blues guitarists open g tuning. Strumming all the open strings with this tuning gives you a c major chord instead of the normal c6 of standard tuning. Grandpa works in da taro patch, grandma pound da poi. Slackkey ukulele chords browse slackkey chord charts by root note. G, c, d7, am, bm with some extensions from the open strings. Three old time hawaiian slack key guitar tricks open g or taro patch tuning ki hoalu duration. Hawaiian slack key guitar frequently asked questions. Playing the keys of c and d in open g tuning homebrewed.
Legend attributes it to the nickname of the englishman edward william purvis, one of king kalakauas officers, because of his small size, fidgety manner, and playing expertise. Taropatches evolved from the portuguese rajao, a 5string instrument that is a bit louder than regular soprano ukes due to its slightly larger body size, and offers a more sonorous sound, thanks to the doubled strings. Any steel string guitar that happened to be available was put into use, and. Dgdgbd often called taro patch tuning, open g tuning, mokihana tuning or low bass g tuning. After the hawaiian ukulele was invented, the hawaiians referred to a similar, eightstring instrument tuned gcea as a taropatch fiddle. I decided to play around with taro patch tuning on my logg ukulele. Kika ki hoalu basic chords keolas c tuning cgdgbe keola beamer has a very nice tablature for this song in his instructional dvd. Im an ukulele artist from honokaa, hawaii, where i run this site from a little plantation house in the jungle. Ukulele instruction manuals from former times were headed down memory lane at this point. Its name refers to its characteristic open tunings. Learn hawaiian slack key guitar from mark kailana nelson with an intermediate guitar lesson for taropatch blues.
When i lived in arlington, va and was an associate program director for marine chemistry at the national science foundation 19891991 i had time and access to the library of congress. In this episode of uke minutes, the longawaited slack key tuning drop g. Slackkey guitar is a fingerstyle genre of guitar music that originated in hawaii and uses open. Vintage ukulele instruction manuals ukuleles by kawika. Loosening the keys an introduction to slackkeystyle. Kaota puna of kanua ukuleles located in auckland, new zealand. In the april 1917 issue of cadenza, coleman was identified as a prominent teacher and solo ist of the pacific coast, has practically all of his life associated with native. King david kalakaua had accepted and was playing the taro patch fiddle. On guitar, its d g d g b d, low to high, like the delta blues guitarists openg tuning.
It is said to have been derived from a guitarlike instrument brought to the hawaiian islands by. To create this open c tuning, you tune the astring down one whole step to g. This one is for c major chords in the taro patch open g tuning. For each tuning in the manual, a set of 28 chord diagrams is included, ranging from the common major and seventh chords used in most hawaiian songs, to more complex chords often found in jazz arrangements and standards. An example of one of these diagrams is shown at the left. Israel kamakawiwoole white sandy beach of hawaii chords. It adds some lower notes to the range of a concert ukulele, with a range of g 3 d 6 e 6.
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