Hawaiian Music: Mele, Slack Key Guitar, and Ukulele

Music is at the heart of Hawaiian culture. Before Western contact, mele (chant) was the primary medium through which Hawaiians recorded their history, honored their gods, and passed knowledge to the next generation. Every important event, every great chief, and every significant place had its mele. After contact, Hawaii developed a distinctive musical tradition that absorbed outside influences and transformed them into something unmistakably Hawaiian.

Traditional Hawaiian music

Traditional Hawaiian music was primarily vocal. The mele was a composed text, often of great complexity and length, intended to be chanted with precision. The meaning of the words mattered above all else, because the words carried the history, the genealogy, or the spiritual content that the chant preserved. Changing a word changed the meaning and was not permitted.

Percussion instruments accompanied the chant. The pahu was a large sharkskin drum used in sacred settings, including heiau and major ceremonies. The ipu was a gourd drum used in hula performances. The ʻiliʻili were water-smoothed stones clicked rhythmically in the hands. The puʻili were bamboo rattles. None of these instruments carried melody; their role was rhythm and tone, supporting the voice.

Mele and hula were inseparable. In traditional Hawaiian culture, hula was the physical expression of the mele: the body became the instrument through which the words were made visible. A skilled hula practitioner was also a chanter.

Slack key guitar and ukulele

The guitar arrived in Hawaii in the 1830s, brought by Mexican and Spanish vaqueros (cowboys) who came to manage cattle on the ranches of the Big Island. Hawaiian cowboys, called paniolo, adopted the guitar and began developing new tunings by slackening the strings to open chords. The resulting style, ki hōʻalu (slack key), became distinctively Hawaiian over the following century.

Slack key guitar is fingerpicked, with the thumb providing a bass line while the fingers carry the melody. The open tunings give it a warm, resonant quality unlike standard guitar. Different family lineages developed their own tunings and styles, which were passed down privately. Gabby Pahinui, Sonny Chillingworth, and Keola Beamer are among the figures who brought slack key to wider audiences in the twentieth century. The Grammy Awards created a Best Hawaiian Music Album category in 2005, which slack key artists have won repeatedly.

The ukulele arrived with Portuguese immigrants from Madeira in 1879. Hawaiians immediately embraced it and made it their own. King Kalākaua played ukulele and championed it along with other Hawaiian arts. The instrument spread from Hawaii to the mainland and then the world.

Hawaiian falsetto singing

Hawaiian falsetto (leo kiʻekiʻe) is a distinctive vocal style in which the singer flips rapidly between chest voice and head voice (falsetto), creating a soaring, emotive sound. It developed in the nineteenth century under the influence of Mexican vaquero singing and became a signature element of Hawaiian music. The technique requires considerable skill and was developed and refined by generations of Hawaiian singers.

Falsetto singing was featured prominently in the hapa haole era (Hawaiian songs with English lyrics) of the early twentieth century and has continued through to contemporary artists. It is one of the most recognizable features of Hawaiian popular music.

Modern Hawaiian music

Contemporary Hawaiian music ranges from the acoustic traditions of slack key and falsetto to Hawaiian reggae (known locally as Jawaiian), hip-hop, and pop. Artists like Israel Kamakawiwoʻole (Iz), whose recording of "Over the Rainbow" reached global audiences, and Jack Johnson, who grew up on the North Shore of Oʻahu, show the range of what Hawaiian music has become.

The Merrie Monarch Festival, held each April in Hilo (the town whose name gives this site its brand), is the premier showcase for traditional hula and the mele that goes with it. It is also a living demonstration of Hawaiian music in its most rigorous and respected form. Live Hawaiian music can be heard nightly at venues across the islands, from beach bars to concert halls.