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..::Mele Hawai‘i::...::Wala‘au::...::Nu Hou::...::E Pili Ana::.. |
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About
 This website is dedicated to all musicians. For any first-timers here, this website is the exclusive site for learning Hawaiian musicians to perfect their skills by learning a number of songs from the song sheets provided. Additionally, I have now provided forums for discussing Hawaiian music and other topics. Also, musicians can now use the Song Post utility to post their own songs to be viewed by all others who visit here. Remember, many may be disappointed by my lack of updates to the sheet music page, yet, my intention from the beginning was only to teach young musicians enough to be deadly at figuring out new songs by ear and I expect all those experienced musicians to help the rest by submitting their songs. I admittedly do not know the first thing about music theory, however, as most Hawaiian musicians know, learning by ear has provided me with so much more artistic ability than theory learning can provide because it requires more attention and allows for more flexibility. I have included the root history from the old site for all to reminisce about Kamehameha Schools performing arts and several historical milestones in Hawaiian music. Thank you so much for being my guest. Drop me a line at aaron@tropicalstormhawaii.com. I graduated in 1997 from The Kamehameha Schools. The summer after graduation I headed for Portland, Oregon, where I attended Lewis and Clark College. As far as music goes, I have been playing quite a while. Any Kamehameha graduate will recognize the name "Mrs. Rhinelander" from the eigth grade 'ukulele class in that tiny building on the 7-8 campus. For most students, that is where the love for performing Hawaiian music was born as was the case with the both of us. It was a slow beginning: picking "Lonely Bull" and strumming "Five Foot Two" while trying to learn the C,F and G scales. The time that I had this class was also the dawn of a new era in Hawaiian music: two guys by the names of Ernie Cruz Jr. and Troy Fernandez, otherwise known as the Ka'au Crater Boys. Everyone had to learn Troy's picking to "Surf" because the album had just come out and that is how I got started into the contemporary scene. Moving on through my freshman, sophomore, and junior years, I began playing small gigs at various places. These were mostly family parties or parties of people I knew, anything to get in front of an audience and be able to perform Hawaiian music. Senior Year I was part of the combo for the Hawaiian Ensemble at Kamehameha where I worked with Holoua Stender and Randie Fong on traditional Hawaiian mele to be played for the dancers of the ensemble. I picked up stand-up bass. I played in the ensemble with Chris Masagatani, Mikel Okouchi and Maka'ala Rawlins. Chris was lead guitar, Mike became the star 'ukulele player of the group and Maka'ala played rhythm guitar. Out of this arrangement, we started playing gigs together on the side at different events in Waikiki and other places. The name we carried was at first "Tuahine", the name of a type of rain commonly seen in Manoa valley. This name, however, was too commonly confused with "Two Wahine" and we quickly opted for a name change to Tropical Storm. Through the summer after graduation there were steady gigs lined up until August when we went separate ways to continue our educations, Chris and I at Lewis & Clark, Mike at Pacific University, and Maka'ala at University of Hawai'i at Manoa. |
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