Guitar MX Blog

Slack-key guitar is finger picking style of guitar playing that was developed in Hawaii. The legend is that Mexican cowboys first brought the guitar to the Hawaiian Islands, and taught the natives basic guitar playing. The Hawaiians then developed their own unique style of playing the guitar called ‘Slack-key’. The term Slack-key refers to how the strings are tuned. Usually, at least one string is tuned down, or ‘slacked’, so the open strings form a chord. The most common Slack-key tuning is DGDGBD, and is called ‘taropatch’ tuning. When the open strings are strummed, it makes a G chord.

Slack-key guitar also uses techniques to give the song a relaxing feeling called ‘nahenahe’ in Hawaiian. Some examples include using the thumb on the top strings to play alternating bass patterns while simultaneously playing melody and lead on the high strings. Slack-key style makes frequent use of harmonics, muting and hammer-on’s and pull-off’s.

Here is a video of Slack-key legend Ledward Kaapana using Slack-key techniques.

You may also want to check out this video of Ledward playing Slack-key with an accompanying Walkingbass player.

AcousticGuitar.com just posted a fantastic lesson on Slack-key which covers the tuning and provides audio examples of Hawaiian turnarounds, expressions and ends with teaching a beautiful Slack-key song.

You can check out the Slack-key lesson on AcousticGuitar.com here.