Folk Arts - Master Artist - Thomas Kamahaku

Thomas Kamahaku. Photo by Fritz Dent.

Thomas Kamahaku moved to the mainland in his late twenties and currently resides in Vancouver, Washington where he shares his mastery of the Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar with others. Kamahaku learned to play Ki Ho Alu, the Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar, from his mother when he was very young. Kamahaku comes from a family of full-blooded Hawaiians who consider the Slack Key Guitar a family tradition. Since moving to the mainland, Tom has since developed a unique singular 11-string tuning technique, allowing him a variety of sound ranges.

The Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar was created with the first guitars brought to Hawaii by European sailors near the beginning of the 19th Century. Ki Ho Alu (literally meaning “loosen the key”) is a fingerpicking style in which the strings are slacked to produce multiple tunings, each with its own sound and characteristic resonance. Due to the small number of original guitars and the distance between the islands, each developed its own style and technique. Ki Ho Alu is an incredibly diverse and flexible style, which easily absorbed the introduction of the steel-string guitar in the 1860’s by the Portuguese. Celebrated by reign of King David Kalakaua and his successor, his sister Queen Lili'uokalani, the last Monarch of Hawaii, art and culture in Hawaii flourished and have continued to gain in strength all across the US.

As a recipient of a 2003 Apprenticeship grant, Kamahaku taught Marcel DeBord to play the Slack Key Guitar. Kamahaku focused on teaching Marcel finger picking, slide, regular and special tuning, timing, and Hawaiian oral history. Marcel DeBord hopes to perform at Hawaiian cultural celebrations and someday teach Ki Ho Alu to others.