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©2000 by Ely Music/Pub |
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Project Update... Moloka`i Lessons in Full Swing(reprinted from the Winter '99 HSGA quarterly) Every two weeks Alan Akaka, Isaac Akuna, and recently Wayne Shishido, fly from O`ahu to the "Friendly Isle", usually on a Saturday morning (the only "free" time from the week's day jobs) to give an intensive two-hour lesson. Says Isaac "we are greeted in a spirit of high enthusiasm, cooperation, hope and apprehension." All students have received donated guitars, picks, steel bars and instruction material (with many mahalos to Jerry Byrd for allowing use of his copyrighted instructional manual for this project.) "So far", says Isaac, "initial lessons have covered musical notation and tabulature, chord structure, basic tunings, left and right hand techniques, muting, vibrato, improvisation, and -- of course -- throughout, an ongoing commentary regarding the origins and history of the Hawaiian Steel Guitar." Grants from both McInerny Foundation and the Atherton Family Foundation are making this teaching project possible; donations of guitars from John Tipka and Elva West; of strings, picks and bars from John Pearse's "Breezy Ridge Instruments"; discounted air transportation from Aloha Island Air have brought the classes into reality, and Jeanette Kahalehoe of ALU LIKE in Moloka`i has guided and hosted HSGA's participation in this music project. On a recent return flight from Moloka`i to Honolulu, Alan told Isaac "the vision for the future of this project is clear: students will become teachers. The time will come when they will pass on to others what they have learned. By so doing, they will have, as we now have, achieved one of the prime directives for HSGA." Isaac's response: " I cannot think of a more suitable mission for HSGA to carry forward into the 21st Century." Classes for the Moloka`i Seniors will begin this Winter. HSGA * HAWAIIAN
STEEL GUITAR ASSOCIATION Homepage URL: www.hsga.org (hsga@lava.net) Last updated: 07/23/02 by Gerald Ross (gbross@umich.edu) |