Ki Ho’alu is basically a Hawaiian folk style of playing the guitar that the Hawaiians developed when they first got the guitar in the early 1800’s. An alternating bass using the thumb while other fingers play the melody characterizes the style. This style is meant to be what we call “nahenahe” or soothing and relaxing.

The story of Ki Ho’alu begins in the late 1700’s, when the British captain George Vancouver sailed to the Big Island of Hawaii and gave two bulls and ten cows as a gift to King Kamehameha. The King is said to have placed a “Kapu”, a restriction punishable by death, on the cattle. So the cattle roamed free and naturally 40 or so years later you had several thousand wild head of cattle roaming around on the Big Island. Since the Hawaiians didn’t know much about ranching, King Kamehameha III decided to bring over some vaqueros, or Spanish cowboys from California and Mexico to teach the Hawaiian people how to ranch.

It is said that these vaqueros brought the guitar with them to Hawaii. When they left several years later, it is believed they left some of their guitars behind with the Hawaiians who probably weren’t familiar enough with the standard tuning to effectively utilize it to accompany their singing and hulas. Furthermore, since there probably weren’t many guitars around at the time, it was logical to figure out a way to produce a big, full sound by a single player on a single guitar. So they began to “ho’alu” or loosen the keys (thus, “Ki Ho’alu”) until they achieved a rich, full sound that the Hawaiians could then utilize in hula and vocal accompaniment.

There are quite a number of different tunings, and each island, as well as districts within each island had their own sets of tunings. People tended to look upon the Ki Ho’alu artist with almost a mystical reverence and the ability to play it was regarded as a special gift. Thus, its keepers closely guarded these tunings and methods; you needed to belong to one of these musical families to learn to play Ki Ho’alu. I read a story about a famous Ki Hoa’lu player that said when he was a boy, he saw an old man playing sweet Ki Hoa’lu under a mango tree but when he went to have a closer look, the man turned away so the boy could not see the old man’s hands and learn what he was doing

Written by Kalani Smythe. February 1, 2004