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Tuning: C Old Mauna Loa/Ni’ihau (C-G-C-G-A-D)
Level: Advanced

Introduction

ʻUkulele virtuoso, researcher, and filmmaker Eddie Kamae, his wife Myrna, and Larry Kimura collaborated on this lovely mele hoʻoipoipo (love song) about a romance that remains as fresh as morning dew.

I perform this piece on a nylon string acoustic guitar beginning with an original introduction. The lightly diffused hoʻopāpā (harmonics) heard in the middle and at the end delicately evoke the first blush of morning light pushing through the leaves of trees.

I found the inspiration for this impressionistic arrangement in the misty uplands of Waimea on the Big Island, where I spent my youth. Our little house, Puʻunani (Beautiful Hill) was in a small clearing in the forest. In the very early mornings, only the soft hush of the wind would speak in the complete silence of the forest. I often think that one of the most precious things in the world is the space between things. The air that lives amid the strings, the space that sings between the notes.

After you have finished this piece, go on to ʻElepaio Slack Key.

Keola Beamer