LIC- Ukulele Kanikapila

On Tuesday, December 01, 2009, I enjoyed the beautiful sounds of my ukulele class’s last kanikapila. Our kanikapila consisted of all of my classmates, my teacher and his dad and uncle who were the guest musicians. We all gathered in a circle with our ukuleles and jammed to Hawaiian and Tahitian music. The hardest part was that we had no music to look at and just had to play by ear. Our teacher explained that back in the day and sometimes now, that’s the way people played and learned how to play music. They would sit in a circle and play their ukuleles by ear. I was very amazed because it was very difficult for me to even play one note by just listening and not having any music sheets in front of me.

We all played and sang Hawaiian and Tahitian songs. I noticed that the songs sung in Hawaiian were more slow and calming. The Tahitian songs that were sung were fast and had an upbeat pace. I liked the sound of the Tahitian language. The Tahitian language seemed like it was a mix of the New Zealand Maori and Hawaiian language. I also observed that most of my classmates were local. Just a few were from Japan or the mainland. All of the local people including majority of my classmates, my teacher and his dad and uncle all spoke Pidgin. I felt that my teacher’s dad and uncle who were on the older side spoke more of a heavier Pidgin compared to classmates around my age. This kanikapila was very fun and I enjoyed playing the ukulele and singing to the Hawaiian and Tahitian songs.