Jamming For Japan

Last Saturday Barbara and I and our friends Pat and Paula attended a ukulele jam session at a beach in Hilo. This event was created by Keoki Kahumoku. Keoki is a very well known musician not only in Hawaii but internationally. He plays, and teaches slack key guitar and ukulele. He organizes ukulele workshops for youth every year. He is very involved with community activities especially with the island youth. He is presenting a series of what he calls Ukulele Jam sessions. Raising money for Japan relief. How is works is like this; you show up with your uke and a chair. Keoki will then teach us a song. White boards on both side of the “stage” have the cords written and the cord diagrams drawn. Keoki starts us off showing the strum pattern and starts singing and playing and calling out the cord changes. We sing and play with him. It really works well, you catch on quick. It wasn’t just Keoki teaching, he had several well know players and teachers each taking a session. One of our favorite musicians on the Big Island is Brittni Paiva. We first saw her on the stage in theater in the park. She was 16 she is now 22 and married. Brittini and Keoki gave us a great session. We played the cords and Brittini did the picking. This is a scan of the first CD she made. I think she has 5 released now. Great fun for a great cause.

Brittini Paiva and Keoki Kahumoku

Jammers Jamming, Barbara, Paula and Pat

Having fun and raising money for Japan Relief

The Kilauea Six

Here are pictures of my latest ukulele. It is a six string tenor




The body; top, sides and back are AAA solid Koa all book matched. That means all the pieces were cut from the same log. The fretboard and peg head are Ebony

The neck is Spanish Cedar. Very light and very strong. There is a 1/4 inch diameter carbon fiber rod in the neck running the length of the fretboard. This adds stiffness to the neck without adding much weight.

The rosette is Paua Abalone shell. The bridge is Ebony


The tuning keys are Grover open gear 16:1 turning ratio. The strings are made by Worth. A six string ukulele is tuned just like a four string, G,C,E,A. But a six string has the A string doubled an octave apart and the C string also is doubled and is an octave apart